Baklava from the Egyptian Kitchen is unique! It’s unlike any you ever had. Our recipe has been in our family for generations. Ours is the Egyptian version with a deliciously different quality that has made us popular with all cultures who claim baklava as their own!
Baklava is one of those desserts that all cultures want to stake a claim to! As with the origins of most dishes that came from the ‘Old Countries”, the exact starting point of baklava is hard to define.
That being said, most people tend to agree that that the Assyrians were the first people who attempted to combine layers of dough with nuts and honey and bake it in ovens way back around 8th century B.C.
The Greeks, while traveling to Mesopotamia, soon discovered the delights of Baklava and it mesmerized their taste buds! They added a major contribution to the development of this pastry by creating a dough technique that made it possible to roll it as thin as a leaf, compared to the thicker, bread-like texture of the Assyrian dough. In fact, the name "Phyllo" was coined by Greeks and means "leaf".
Historically, baklava was considered only a food for the rich . In time, in every kitchen of wealthy households in the region, trays of baklava were being baked for all kinds of special occasions from the 3rd Century B.C. onward.
As time passed and travel ensued, the Armenians, whose kingdom was located on ancient spice and silk routes, integrated cinnamon and cloves into their recipes for baklava. The Arabs added rose-water and cardamom. The taste changed with different types of nuts and other subtle nuances as the recipe started crossing borders. To the north, baklava was being baked and served in the palaces of the ancient Persian Kingdom. To the west, it was baked in the kitchens of the wealthy Roman mansions, and then in the kitchens of the Byzantine Empire until its fall around 1453 A.D.
Eventually, all the bakers, cooks and pastry chefs who were recruited from various ethnic groups to work in the palaces, mansions and royal residences - put their own personal touches on baklava. Armenian, Greek, Persian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Serbian, Hungarian and even French chefs were brought to be employed at the kitchens of the wealthy. They contributed enormously to the refinement of the art of pastry-making in this vast region including the Balkans, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Persia, Armenia, Iraq and entire Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa and the Mediterranean and Aegean islands.
Towards the end of 19th Century, small pastry-shops started to appear in Constantinople and in major capitals to cater the middle class, but the Ottoman Palace remained the top culinary "academy" of the Empire until its end in 1923. From then on, there was nothing much to add to baklava's already perfected taste and texture. There were, however, individual touches and some cosmetic modifications in shaping and in the presentation of baklava. Now that you know how this beautiful story began, we hope you will give us a try!
With our own spin, we’ve proudly baked our baklava and shipped with care to every state in the United States of America!