Azerbaijani Baklava - the secrets of cooking

In Azerbaijan they know how to eat delicious. The cuisine of this people is unusually tasty and very satisfying. Some dishes have become universally loved and are successfully prepared by many housewives. Among the dishes with which the Azerbaijani cuisine is famous , baklava - sweet pie with nut filling - occupies a special place. Today we will talk about the nuances of its preparation.

Rules of cooking baklava

The general rules of preparation, the composition of the filling and the appearance are, as a rule, unchanged and traditional.

1. The metal form in which the baklava of Azerbaijan will be baked, whether it is a frying pan, a pan or a special form, should be low and always densely filled with the test.

2. Immediately before baking, the baklava, shaped as an integral pie, must be cut on a baking sheet.

3. During baking, it is also necessary to pause to add oil.

4. Finished baklava Azeri must be watered with a special syrup, which completely changes the appearance and taste of the product.

How to cook stuffing for baklava?

The filling gives the baklava a distinctive taste and is considered the most constant element of this dish. In contrast to the type of dough, which can be both yeast and bezdozhzhevym, as well as puff, etc. There are two methods of preparing the filling: complex and simple.

With a simple method, mix the powdered sugar evenly with the crushed nuts. Here lies a certain danger of apparent simplicity. To not do wrong, you should never use powdered sugar instead of powder. This leads to a breakdown in the taste and consistency of the filling, and, as a consequence, a deterioration in the taste of the whole product.

In addition, it is very important to properly prepare nuts, because baklava Azerbaijani has its secrets. Hazelnut and almonds are first scalded with boiling water, released from the skin (which often is bitter), dried, and only then must the nuts be crushed. The exception is walnuts, which do not require preparation - they can be crushed immediately. The result will be a smooth smooth mass or mixture, the grains of nuts in which do not exceed the size of sugar grains. If the weight of nuts exceeds the weight of sugar in the filling, then the mass of taste and consistency will resemble marzipans.

The composition of the filling is often added two famous spices: cardamom and cinnamon. They are added in powdered form to the powdered sugar before introducing into the stuffing of nuts. In different types of baklava, the ratio of spices varies. Dry filling through a sieve is poured directly on the baklava smooth layer.

The complicated way is as follows: raw egg and confectionery crumb (ground to the size of breadcrumbs biscuits) are additionally introduced into the composition of the sugar-nut mass. In this raw egg is pretreated in the following way: the yolk is pulverized with a small amount of powdered sugar, and the protein is whipped into a foam. Everything is joined together and injected into a mixture of powder and nuts. Such an elastic filling is rolled into thin pancakes (0.5 cm maximum) on a thick glass or marble board.

The choice of the technology for preparing the filling mainly depends on the syrup that the baklava of Azerbaijan will be watered: if there is much honey, then the simple method is suitable, if sugar syrup is better for using a complex way for filling.

The recipe of the Azerbaijan baklava necessarily stipulates the composition of the pouring.

There are several options:

• Honey pouring - honey and water in a ratio of 5: 1 are welded to the consistency of a thin thread.

• Honey-sugar filling - first sugar syrup is cooked, then honey is introduced and boiled until it is stretched with a thin thread (1.5 parts sugar, 2 parts honey, 1 part water).

• Sugar filling - sugar syrup with the addition of spices (ginger) and fruit acid (broth of lemon or orange peel). Ready syrup after boiling should stretch a thin thread.

It is difficult to find two identical baklava. Each baklava Azeri will differ in the ratio of the filling and dough, the way they are alternated and arranged, the proportions of the ingredients of the filling and the type of syrup for watering.

Try and you create your own unique baklava.