La Zette

Cold baklava is among the fastest-spreading Turkish desserts of recent years and shares only the pastry with the classic version. Chilled milk replaces sugar syrup; the pastry absorbs that milk and t…

Sarı burma stands out in the baklava family for its shaping technique. Pastry scattered with filling is wound round a thin rod, then pushed inward from both ends so that it gathers and folds over its…

Semolina is used in şekerpare dough, and that governs how the dessert behaves against syrup. Semolina is coarse-grained; it forms an open structure in the dough, and after baking those pores draw the…

Making a syrup dessert requires two separate skills: baking correctly and preparing the syrup correctly. In the syrup, the sugar-to-water ratio, the boiling time and the temperature difference all ch…

Most syrup desserts look alike on the plate: brown, glossy and round. What sets a product apart is often a single mark placed on top, and badempare carries that mark in its name. The whole almond set…

Grade in baklava is not a vague quality claim but the outcome of three measurable variables. The first is the thinness of the pastry; the thinner it is, the more layers fit within the same height. Th…

Baklava sales are not evenly distributed across the year. In holiday weeks demand rises far above the usual level and compresses into a few days; running out then means losing not only sales but cust…

Most of the cost in baklava comes from the filling; pastry and syrup are relatively cheap. That is why the pastry is not the only thing that changes as the grade rises — the proportion of filling wit…

Making up a mixed baklava box is a matter of composition. It is not enough for the box to be full; the ratio of forms to one another, the distribution of colour and how many pieces of each variety go…

The difficulty of offering baklava on a restaurant dessert menu is defining the portion. A single cut piece is too small on its own and two or three are placed side by side; that both scatters the pr…

A buffet dessert section holds two kinds of product: single-portion items taken by the piece, and large items served cut from a tray. The second group is strong on satisfaction, because it lets guest…

At a banquet for five hundred, dessert is the kitchen's hardest line. A main course can be cooked ahead and held hot; dessert must either be made at the last moment or be robust enough to wait. Syrup…