Food review: Turkish Baklava

I was an early tester for Turkish baklava.  The seller was testing a unique approach to selling it, where the purchases finishes making it himself to improve freshness.  The baklava arrives baked but not infused with sugar syrup. I as asked to try two methods of completing the preparation and provide feedback on which one worked best.

The first method:
-  Warm up the 2/3 baklava tray for 8 - 10 minutes at 460F before pouring the hot sugar syrup on the it. Syrup preparation is included below.

The second method:
Pour the hot sugar syrup of the 1/3 tray baklava pieces left without warming.


For both methods I needed to wait 45 minutes for the syrup to fully absorb


Sugar syrup preparation:

250ml of water (250 ml = 8.5 fl oz or 0.25 liter)
400gr sugar  (400 gram = 14 Oz
1 table spoon of fresh Lemon Juice

Turkish baklava is different from Greek baklava because it  uses sugar syrup instead of honey.  The benefit of doing the syrup yourself is that you decide how sweet and how lemon the syrup should have.


Results:


Method 1: After 45 minute wait the baklava was still warm and moist. The negative was that the top layer of filo dough curled and did not look attractive.  It was not as crispy as a typical Greek baklava.


Method 2:  The baklava was moist and looked better than the baklava in method 1, but the tast was not as good as using method 1.   The filo was not crispy in this preparation either.


I took baklava tray with me to visit friends and the overall feedback was that the baklava was not bad, but not great.   They would have liked it to be more crisp and several said they liked the flavor of baklava with honey more.


Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆