Greek baklava traditionally has 33 layers of filo, one for each year of Jesus's life
Nobody can say for certain who invented baklava. Candidates range from an Ancient Greek honey cake to Byzantine koptoplakous, a medieval Arabic almond confection and Central Asian layered breads. What is documented is an Ottoman ritual: every mid-Ramadan, the sultan paraded trays of it out to his Janissaries.
The pastry itself is simple in principle: sheets of filo brushed with melted butter, chopped walnuts or pistachios scattered between them, the tray scored into lozenges or diamonds before baking, then soaked in syrup that may carry honey, rosewater or orange blossom. The name reached English in 1650 from Ottoman Turkish, and the oldest known mention appears in verse written by Kaygusuz Abdal, a mystic of the 1400s. Linguists disagree on the root; proposals include a Mongolian verb meaning to wrap or pile up and a Proto-Turkic word for feed.
The origin fight is livelier than the etymology. Food historian Patrick Faas traces it to a layered, honey-covered dough dessert known from a 2nd-century BC recipe for placenta cake, a name derived from the Greek plakous, meaning flat and broad. Speros Vryonis called the Byzantine koptoplakous effectively the same as Turkish baklava, and on Lesbos a syrup-soaked nut pastry still goes by plakous. Others point to lauzinaj, almond paste wrapped in pastry described as thin as grasshopper wings, though the food writer Charles Perry judged it not much like baklava. The refined Turkish form probably took shape in the kitchens of Topkapı Palace.
Numbers carry meaning in some versions. Armenian bakers may use 40 sheets for the days Jesus fasted in the desert, while the Gavar style uses 25 and appears on Armenia's intangible heritage list. Iranian baklava is less crisp and less syrupy, perfumed with saffron, cardamom or jasmine.
Gaziantep in south-central Turkey owes its famous pistachio baklava to Çelebi Güllü, who brought a recipe from a Damascus chef in 1871. In 2013 the European Commission granted it protected geographical status, the first Turkish product to earn that designation.
Source: Baklava
