Cakes and Desserts

Baked Fresh Figs with Honey and Clotted Cream;Kaymakli Incir Tatlisi

By Ozlem Warren on September 12, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts 11

Fresh, luscious fresh figs, they are a treat

I love figs; my grandmother used to have a huge fig tree in her garden and we grandchildren used to love “helping” picking them up. Turkey produces some of the finest figs; they are sweet, juicy and darker than the average fig, especially the Bursa variety.

Figs are packed with fiber; they are not only delicious but very healthy too. It is so wonderful to eat just plain; what a treat to have them by the salad for lunch or for a special treat. But if you’d like to turn them into an easy, healthy, delicious dessert, here is the recipe, an adaptation from Ghillie Basan’s version:

Serves 2-4
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes Baking time: 5-8 minutes

4 ripe (preferably) Turkish figs
15ml-30ml/1-2 tablespoons clear honey
30ml-45ml/2-3 tablespoons clotted cream (or kaymak, Turkish clotted cream or crème fraiche or plain yoghurt)
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180F/350C

Using a sharp knife, cut a deep cross from the top of each fig to the bottom, keeping the skin at the bottom intact. Place the figs upright in a baking dish.

Drizzle the honey and the lemon juice over the figs and bake in the oven for about 5-8 minutes. Take out the baking tray from the oven. Spoon a dollop of clotted cream or yoghurt into the middle of each fig, or serve them in bowls and let everyone help themselves with yoghurt or cream.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Baklava Uncovered, Gulluoglu – Istanbul

By Ozlem Warren on July 28, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorised 6

This whole post deserves to be dedicated to our Baklava Masterclass with the baklava experts at Gulluoglu. We have been looking forward to our baklava class for months to reveal how the genuine article is made – and here it is!

Gulluoglu Baklava is a family owned store and they have been making “hand made” baklava for 6 generations – the daily production ranges from 2-5 tons, all hand made!
They use organic butter, pure cane sugar – no honey!-, and it is a result of their mastership for 150 years, very impressive.

Here is the baklava making master class 🙂

The dough is being pushed thru a special machine (similar for making pasta) to stretch. This is the only step that involves machinery.

Once the pastry is paper thin (2mm width), we start layering on a buttered tray.

The hand rolled pastry is so thin that you can see through my logo,

as well as the flags behind it!

Our baklava master layered 20 sheets of pastry ( and sprinkled melted butter on every 4 sheets) than generously spread finely crushed pistachios (or at some cases walnuts)on the 20th layer.

He cut the sheets first horizontally and poured melted butter over them – cutting helps the butter to penetrate every level. Then he cut vertically and splashed another dose of butter all around. The baklava is now ready to be baked in the oven at 165 C.

In the meantime, the syrup is prepared, consisting of pure cane sugar, lemon juice and water – no honey in it!

Once cooked, hot syrup is poured over the hot baklava, and then let it rested at the cool area.

And here is the real thing; wonderful, melt in the mouth delicious baklava. It is so light that you feel like eating the whole tray! I hope you get a chance to try the real baklava in Turkey:)

Orange Crisps

By Ozlem Warren on July 18, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorised 2

It is the end of school year coming up in England and we thought to bake some biscuits to say thank you to our teachers with the children. Baking for school requires a nut free recipe, and I found this lovely Orange Crisps recipe at the National Trust Tea Time Baking Book by Jane Pettigrew. They are very easy to make and the children really enjoy preparing and cutting out different shapes.

The citrus tang of the juice and zest makes these biscuits irresistible; a lovely treat for yourself or someone you’d like to share with. Apparently, they are also excellent made with lemon juice and rind, instead of orange. We are already looking forward to that one too!

Makes approximately 20-24 biscuits
Preparation time: 20 minutes Baking time: 10 minutes

100gr/5oz butter, softened
150gr/5oz caster or granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
225gr/8oz plain flour, sifted
10ml/2 teaspoons baking powder
Grated rind and juice of half an orange
1 egg white, beaten
100gr/4oz caster sugar for dredging

Preheat the oven to 190 C/375F/Gas Mark 5

Grease two or three baking trays. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk, flour, baking powder, orange rind and juice. Mix thoroughly to a stiff paste and knead until smooth. On a lightly floured board, roll out to a thickness of 0.5cm (1/4in) and cut into rounds using a 6cm (2 1/2in) cutter.

Place on the prepared trays, leaving room for the biscuits to spread. Brush the top of each with beaten egg white, dredge with caster sugar.

Bake for 10 minutes, until pale golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes on the trays before lifting on to a wire rack to cool completely.