Dessert
Baklava
Origin: Gaziantep, Southeastern Anatolia
Gaziantep pastry of paper-thin dough layers with Antep pistachios, baked with clarified butter and soaked in hot syrup.
Gaziantep baklava is made from dough rolled out paper-thin. The dough is wheat flour, egg and salt. Under the geographical indication, 15 to 20 sheets go below the filling and 15 to 20 above it. The filling is dark green Antep pistachio from the early harvest in the first week of August. The wet version also has kaymak, here milk cooked with semolina. The sheets are brushed with clarified butter made from goat's milk. The tray bakes for 30 to 40 minutes, and hot syrup is poured over when it comes out.
Antep baklava was registered as a Turkish geographical indication in 2008. In 2013 the European Union registered it as a protected geographical indication, the first Turkish product with that status. Go Türkiye describes a good piece as golden, not too syrupy, and smelling of pistachio and butter.
Dietary notes: contains wheat (gluten), egg, butterfat and pistachio. The kaymak version also contains milk. It is high in sugar.