Baklava field trip

I have found a new and fascinating way to explore the city 

by being a chaperone on my son's school field trips!

Last week we visited Güllüoğlu Baklava Factory, and sorry for being corny, but it was a sweet experience.

Güllüoğlu is a 140 year old family run business, and they make the most delicious baklava, turkish delight, cakes, sweets etc.

Baklava:

Baklava is a traditional pastry dessert that you can find in most Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, and they all claim to be the origin of the the treat, and to make it and pronounce it the "right" way.  It is believed that baklava was made as far back as in the 8th century B.C. by the Assyrians, and after tasting the freshly made delicacy, I can really understand why it has survived for so long and why so many people wants to be famous for it.

Baklava is a decadent desert made of incredibly thin layers of phyllo dough, butter, nuts, sugar and honey.

The phyllo dough at the Güllüoğlu factory is rolled by hand and should be so thin that you can read through it, and there are 50-60 layers of dough in their baklava.

Cakes:

These probably doesn't need further introduction, but I just want to add that Turkish cakes tastes almost better that they look.

Lokum:

Turkish Delight or Lokum dates back to the Ottoman Empire and I have heard that it was created by the palace's confectioner after he was scolded by a grumpy Sultan who said he was sick of hard candy.  It is basically made of about 70 % sugar, and the rest of the ingredients are starch and lots of nuts.  Some Lokum are flavored with Rose Water or different fruits.  After it has been cooked for about one hour, it is poured into a mold, covered in confectionary sugar and cut into small cubes.  The Turkish word Lokum actually means "morsel", and  the consistency of Lokum I think is somewhere between a marshmallow and a jelly bean.  

Pomegranate and pistachio.

Chocolate and truffles:

Yes, I had one, and I can't describe how gooood it was!

Yufka:

Yufka is a thin, unleavened bread that is baked on a heated iron plate and then packed in sealed plastic bags.  The Yufka has long shelf life and can be used in many different was, e.a. to make börek and other stuffed pastries.

That's a serious cookie cutter to the right.

Vacuum sealing bags.

Sigara borek

Kadayıf:

Kadayif is sometimes translated to "shredded pastry", but it is made in the most fascinating way.  At the factory they had a hot copper plate which spun around, and from a container above the plate a "pancake batter" was slowly running down in several thin streams.  When one batch had baked for about a minute, the guy operating the machine, whisked the "wire" off the hot plate with his bare hands...!  

As you can see from it cooling on a side table it looks a lot like spaghetti (angel hair), and like fresh spaghetti, it didn't have much taste to it.  We didn't see the rest of the process, but again the end result has all kinds of different shapes and flavors, and of course it is all soaked in honey and often filled with nuts.