7 minute read
THE CAKE ALCHEMIST
Leader of the Paklava
BY SCOTT BRADSHAW
Want more fun flavors? Be on the lookout for additional recipes in an upcoming blog post!
Scott Bradshaw
is the owner of SevenRavensBakeHouse.com, an entertaining blog which strives to get people to look at food and recipes in a twisted way…as twisted as an old phone cord. Scott grew up in Texas, and has lived in Arizona, Nevada, and Missouri. He makes Plainville, MA, his home these days with his saintly husband and a bossy little Pomeranian.
sevenravensbakehouse.com tiktok.com/@goosecaboose70 IRENE OF THE NORTH “I had spread the rumor for weeks that I’d hired a stripper for Joe’s birthday party, so when the stripper music started, all eyes turned to the stairs where I made my entrance wearing a bikini…over a full gorilla suit.” Meet my friend Irene, who grew up the daughter of Armenian immigrants in the mob-run Federal Hill area of Providence, RI. Nobody tells better stories than Irene, who belts out laughter for emphasis and weaves in Armenian words as punctuation. In my opinion, Irene is the salt of the earth and would give anyone the shirt off her back if they needed it.
She is world-famous for her food, especially her paklava, which she learned to make from her grandmother, “Nicki” Yeranik. Her family immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s during the Armenian genocide of World War I, settling in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. I jumped at the chance to learn how to make paklava when Irene offered. Irene’s grandmother made the paklava “lasagna” style, while her mother started making it “cigar style” by rolling it up. Irene started the tradition of putting it into cupcake liners to help contain the sticky syrup when serving.
Irene still remembers Yeranik’s rules for paklava: Bring it out of the oven when it just begins to blush and use cooled syrup on cooled paklava or else it turns to mush. I broke both rules, much to what would have been Yeranik’s disapproval. I put cooled syrup on straight-from-the-oven paklava because I liked hearing it sizzle and I browned mine quite a bit. I also added apples and Fireball whisky. I wonder if Yeranik would approve. I know Irene does!
P VERSUS B The first time I heard my friend Irene mention her paklava, I assumed I heard it wrong. For ten years, I heard her say baklava and never questioned it, but there is a difference! Baklava is drenched in syrup loaded with honey. Paklava uses a sugar-based simple syrup. It’s a small difference that makes a huge impact on flavor. Armenian paklava is lighter and more nutforward in flavor. The simple syrup is traditionally flavored with just a touch of rose water or orange blossom water, which is my absolute favorite.
DEEZ NUTS Pistachios are probably what springs to mind when baklava is mentioned, but in reality, any nut can be used. One of the oldest known recipes for a sort of baklava is found in a Chinese cookbook written in 1330 under the Yuan dynasty under the name güllaç. Güllaç, which is found in Turkish cuisine, consisted of layers of phyllo dough that are put one by one in warmed-up milk with sugar. It is served with walnut and fresh pomegranate and is generally eaten during Ramadan. An ancient recipe from the Greek island of Crete for Gastrin is quite similar to modern baklava. Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and pepper are only some of the unusual ingredients in this ancient recipe. Petimezi, a sweetener made from grapes used long before sugar arrived in Greece, adds to its unique taste. Petimezi is available to purchase online, and I briefly entertained the idea of re-creating this. Petimezi & Corn Nut Baklava might be delightful. The earliest written record of Persian baklava appears in a 13th-century cookbook that was based on 9th-century Persian recipes and included a recipe for a dessert of almond paste wrapped in incredibly thin pastry and drenched in honey. Sound familiar? For my recipes, I decided to do equal amounts of walnuts, almonds, and pistachios. No pepper. No poppy seeds. No Corn Nuts. (Someday, Corn Nuts, I’ll figure out a recipe for you to shine in.)
DOUGH DOUGH “You don’t have to make everything from scratch. Nobody wants to make puff pastry!” states Ina Garten. I mean, you can make phyllo, and roll and roll and roll and roll to make it thin enough. I tried it. I never could get it thin enough. If you have access to freshly made dough, use it. If you have access to frozen, it’s just as good as fresh or homemade. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and then take it out of the refrigerator a couple of hours before you use it so it can come to room temperature. You will find it to be a lot easier to work with. Honestly, the worst part of making paklava is brushing the phyllo with butter. It tends to tear and fall apart. Did you know you can buy a butter sprayer? Game changer. Simply pour in your clarified butter and spray it on like a can of spray paint. Use it all over your house to justify the expense. Butter all the things!
Many traditional baklava and paklava recipes are made with dried fruits and even coconut. In my version, I decided to use fresh apple. The tart Granny Smith apple helps cut through the sweetness of the syrup. Cinnamon is, of course, a natural pairing for apple, and the whisky undertones play nicely in the background with the nut mixture. The phyllo is crispy, sticky, and satisfying all at the same time. If anyone accuses you of being extra for adding apples and Fireball whisky to your paklava, look them up and down and say, “Am I being extra, or are you just being basic?” Catch the spirit of Irene and Yeranik. You won’t be sorry.
JUST TO CLARIFY THINGS
If you can melt butter, you can clarify butter, or make ghee. To melt the butter, slowly cook it for a while over low heat to remove the water. Let it sit a bit so all the floaty bits can settle to the bottom of the pan. Gently skim off the foam on top and gently pour the yellow liquid off, without disturbing the bits on the bottom. To make ghee, cook the butter a bit longer until it is almost to the brown butter stage. It’s just a bit nuttier than regular clarified butter. If you are feeling a bit naughty, go ahead and make really dark nutty brown butter for your paklava. Go wild! There are no rules here.
Tip: TAKE YOUR THAWED PHYLLO DOUGH OUT OF THE REFRIGERATOR AND ALLOW IT TO COME TO ROOM TEMPERATURE. IT IS MUCH EASIER TO WORK WITH.
LEVEL:
FIREBALL APPLE PAKLAVA
Ingredients
4 cups mixed nuts 1 pound unsalted butter 1 cup Fireball Cinnamon Whisky 1¼ cups granulated sugar, divided 2 lemons, juiced and zested 2 teaspoons cinnamon 3 cups diced Granny Smith apples 1 pound phyllo dough, thawed
Instructions
CHOP THE NUTS
In a food processor, pulse the nuts until you get the size of chunk you want. Some people like them finely ground, and some people like chunkier.
CLARIFY THE BUTTER
Slowly melt 1 pound unsalted butter in a saucepan. When completely melted, let it cook until the sizzling and popping subsides, then turn off heat. Let it cool slightly, gently skim off white foam, and, without disturbing the separated butter solids on the bottom of the pan, pour off the yellow clarified butter.
MAKE FIREBALL SIMPLE SYRUP
Add the Fireball whisky and ½ cup sugar to a saucepan and cook until sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is slightly thickened. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Tip: APPLY BUTTER USING A BUTTER SPRAYER. IT MAKES PAKLAVA ASSEMBLY QUICK AND EASY.
ASSEMBLE THE PAKLAVA
1. To make the filling, place the lemon juice and zest, cinnamon, apples, chopped nuts, and remaining ¾ cup sugar into a large sauté pan and gently heat for 3 minutes.
Set aside to cool.
2. Butter phyllo using the clarified butter in a sprayer. 3. Spread 2 to 3 tablespoons of the filling mixture onto the buttered phyllo along the short edge in a line. 4. Using 2 pieces of phyllo, 1 buttered and another 1 unbuttered, roll them into a cigar shape, tucking the sides in as you roll so the filling is held in.
5. Butter the next level of phyllo, and again using 2 pieces, 1 buttered and 1 unbuttered, roll the cigar shape again. Place it in a buttered pan. 6. Repeat process until the mixture and phyllo are finished. When done, cut the phyllo rolls into 2 pieces on a sharp angle or into however many pieces you want. Brush with 1 last coat of clarified butter and bake in a preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 350°F. Remove from the oven and it let cool.
7. Once cooled, generously pour the Fireball simple syrup over the paklava. Cover it and let it sit overnight unrefrigerated before serving. ACD
