Antep Baklavası

Appearance & taste

Antep Baklavası is a light golden yellow on top and dark green in the lower part because of the Antep pistachios. The layers of dough make the top of the pastry slightly crisp, while the bottom is syrupy. Its aroma comes from the Antep pistachios and the pure butter; according to the specification, the smell of butter above all dominates before it is eaten, and a well-made baklava melts in the mouth at once.

The pieces are cut before baking and can have different shapes: short rectangles, diamonds, triangles, squares or long triangular, cake-like pieces from a round tray. It is sold by weight or in portions in boxes or cartons; cardboard cartons must be lined with aluminium foil or a similarly waterproof material. The dry variety bears the word “kuru” (dry) on the packaging.

Production

The dough is made from durum wheat flour, three eggs and 10 g of rock salt per kilogram of flour. Antep pistachios are compulsory; they are chopped coarsely or finely. The butter is pure, unsalted butter without additives. For the semolina cream of the fresh variety, milk is boiled at 105 to 108 °C, semolina is added (100 g to 1 kg of milk), and the mixture is heated until it sets and is then chilled. The syrup consists of sugar or sweetener; honey may not be used.

The fresh baklava consists of about 25 % dough, 10 to 11 % pistachios, 12 to 13 % semolina cream, 15 to 20 % butter and 35 to 36 % syrup. The dry one contains no semolina cream, but instead about 30 % dough and 20 to 25 % butter. The dough is rolled out into thin sheets with starch sprinkled between them; the sheets are laid on the tray, the cream and pistachios are spread on them, and the baklava is cut into pieces of equal size, brushed with butter, baked and covered with syrup. Dough, filling and baking must take place in the area, by bakers who learned these skills in the Gaziantep region.

Origin & history

The area covers the whole province of Gaziantep in south-eastern Anatolia, which borders Syria to the south. It is the centre of Turkish pistachio growing; in Turkey pistachios are called “antep fıstığı”, because the Turkish word for pistachio is derived from the name of the city. The Antep pistachio native to the area is a registered agricultural product in Turkey, dark green and with a very intense aroma that is also retained in the finished pastry.

According to the specification, baklava from Gaziantep was already prized in the 19th century, and some families have been making it over many generations since the 1870s. The folklorist Cemil Cahit Güzelbey, a native of Gaziantep, writes in his 1959 book “Gaziantep Folklorundan Notlar” that baklava makers use pistachios, and tells of a health minister who, after a meal of pistachio soup, pistachio rice, pistachio baklava and pistachio ice cream, jokingly asked for a glass of water without pistachios. Travel guides, cookbooks and brochures of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism also describe the pastry.