Baklava, the most traditional dessert in Turkey.
If you have traveled to istanbul you will have been lucky enough to try one of its typical sweets, if not the most: the baklava . A delicious buttered puff pastry made of perfectly overlapping thin layers and filled with ground walnuts or pistachios, which once baked and cut into triangles, are covered in honey, rose water or syrup. Delicious, right?
This dessert of origin between Greece and Turkey (they do not agree) was already consumed during the Roman Empire as a delicacy only available to the most powerful. It was in this period that it spread throughout the world with the conquests and the mixture of cultures. There is already evidence of this dessert in the notebooks of the Topkapı Palace in Turkey in 1473.
In its beginnings it was only reserved for royalty , but as a milestone in culinary history it became in the hands of all those who wanted to taste and cook it, especially in 2005 when it was registered as a Turkish dessert with a patent.
Now, even though you can do it at home, the original recipe can take years to perfect . A traditional Turkish baklava is made with 40 layers of thin dough made by hand ; they are so extremely thin that you could read through them. Or so the experts say.
A dessert of the Ottoman Empire.
From this 2020 whoever travels to the luxury hotel Shangri-La Bosphorus, will not only enjoy the original recipe baked in Gaziantep , known as the birthplace of baklava and the pistachio capital of Turkey, but also he will have a butler who will serve it as many times as he wants.
While other types of baklava use rosewater and cinnamon to enhance the flavor, Gaziantep bakers do not use additional fillings in the traditional treat Instead, they use a simple mix of honey, puff pastry, butter, and crushed pistachio.
The tasting is served with maras ice cream , a traditional Turkish ice cream made from cream that is prepared and cut from a vertical skewer (yes, we are talking about an ice cream kebab).** Maraş Turkish ice cream can be served either as a side dish or inside the baklava as a sandwich. **
The baklava will be available in the hotel's Lobby Lounge and in the restaurant IS TOO , where you do not need to be a hotel guest to enter. And if you want to take a portion back home you can also because the hotel offers it for about 30 euros per box.
Accompanied by traditional cream ice cream.