Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Baklava
Layers of butter-brushed phyllo packed with pistachios and soaked in syrup, the crown jewel of Gaziantep pastry.
Turkish · advanced · serves 16
prep 45 min · cook 45 min
~616 cal · 11g protein · 73g carbs · 34g fat · 5g fiber · 47g sugars · 10g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Baklava is the most celebrated pastry of Turkey and the wider region, and the southeastern city of Gaziantep is its acknowledged capital, its pistachio baklava holding protected geographical status. Making it well is considered a true craft, the phyllo stretched until you can read through it.
Dozens of paper-thin phyllo sheets are layered with melted butter and a thick bed of ground pistachios (or walnuts), then cut into diamonds and baked until deep gold and shatteringly crisp. While still hot, it is doused in a light sugar syrup that seeps into every layer. The result is crisp, buttery, nutty, and sweet, cut small because a little is plenty.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 16
1 lb phyllo pastry
3 cups pistachios (or walnuts), ground
1 cup butter (sadeyag) or , melted
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water (for the syrup)
1/2 lemon, juiced
Instructions
1
Layer half the phyllo sheets in a buttered tray, brushing each with melted butter.
2
Spread over the ground nuts, then layer and butter the remaining phyllo on top.
✎ Chef’s note
Brush every single sheet with butter and keep the stack you are not using covered, so the phyllo stays supple and bakes into distinct crisp layers.
3
Cut into diamonds before baking, then bake at 325F (160C) until deep golden, about 45 minutes.
4
Make the syrup first so it can cool: simmer the sugar with the water for 15 minutes, add a squeeze of lemon, and let it go cold. Pour the cold syrup over the hot baklava and leave it for a few hours to drink it in.
✎ Chef’s note
Turkish serbet is sugar, water and a little lemon, never honey: honey syrup is the Greek style, and the lemon here is there to stop the syrup crystallising, not to be tasted. Use clarified butter rather than plain melted butter, since the milk solids in ordinary butter scorch into dark marks on the pastry.
Gaziantep pastry tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Gaziantep. The city cooks what the land around it grows. Pistachios come off the surrounding hills, red peppers are dried and flaked, sour pomegranate molasses does the work lemon does elsewhere, and the wheat becomes bulgur for kisir and for the very many kinds of kofte made here.
🗺️
Turkey. Turkish cuisine sits where Ottoman palace kitchens met Anatolian village fires, spanning mezes, slow-cooked kebabs, stuffed vegetables (dolma), and an unrivaled tradition of sweets like baklava. Bread, yogurt, and tea accompany nearly every meal.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Baklava?
Layers of butter-brushed phyllo packed with pistachios and soaked in syrup, the crown jewel of Gaziantep pastry.
Where does Baklava come from?
Baklava is a Turkish dish from Gaziantep, Turkey.
Can Baklava be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Baklava recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Baklava safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Baklava take to make?
About 90 minutes total (45 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 16.
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