Original Baklava, the authentic and a few hundred years old Middle Eastern pastry is the most popular type among all Mediterranean pastries. It belongs to the family of assorted Baklava which consists of a large number of pastries made of dough and nuts.
Among all types of assorted Baklava, the original type, also referred to as the classic type, has reached widespread acceptance and worldwide popularity in the last few years. It consists of pistachios, walnuts, pine nuts, or cashews sandwiched between fine layers of phyllo dough, and cut into rectangular or diamond shapes. This type of Mediterranean pastry, in its original form, is often also referred to as simply “Baklava”.
On the other hand, in the Middle East, this term refers to a large variety of sweets, all made from nuts filled dough. This variety includes: Borma, Ballorieh, Basma, Basima, Kol Weshkor (roses), Bird’s Nest, and Fingers. In the Middle East, all these types of sweets are mostly referred to as “Arabic sweets”.
Interestingly, in the Middle East, traditional baklava is not the most favored among the different types of Arabic sweets available. While Borma is one of the most favored types, each type finds a large number of fans. Ballorieh, Basma, Borma, Asabi, and Kol Weshkor are among the most favored.
It is also interesting to note that while in the Western world Mediterranean pastry is known to have a walnuts filling by default, this version is rarely found in the Middle East. Middle Eastern pastry is usually filled with either pistachios or a mix of pine nuts and cashews, as is the case for all the other types of Arabic sweets.
Even though there exists a large number of Mediterranean manufacturers today in the U.S., the quality of their products does not even remotely approach the high quality of that available in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon and Syria. Thus, the best Mediterranean sweets available today in the United States is still that imported directly from Lebanon and Syria.
A high degree of skills and craftsmanship goes into manufacturing of high quality Mediterranean pastry. High quality pastry is abundant in nuts and contains moderate amounts of sugar syrup. Soaking it in sugar syrup is a sign of decreasing quality, and is usually done to reduce cost. Moreover, the highest quality Baklava is made from special, handmade dough, in contrary to the phyllo dough readily available in supermarkets.
Source by Rami Bohsali
