The surprisingly long, contested history of baklava

The dish

Baklava, origin unknown

The origins of baklava are murky.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Plate up

Everything about baklava is deceptively complex. To begin with, its origin: is it Ancient Greek? Turkish? Arabic? Assyrian? Central Asian? We’ll get to that soon. The dish itself, too, has parallels with its history: layer upon layer, in this case, of gossamer-thin filo dough. These pastry sheets are coated in butter and painstakingly layered in a pan, with chopped nuts – walnuts, pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts – in between or on top. The whole tray is baked and then drenched in a sweet syrup flavoured with honey, rosewater or orange flower, it’s allowed to cool, and then cut into geometric shapes such as squares, rectangles or parallelograms. You will find variations of these sweets served with tea or coffee everywhere from Armenia to Algeria, Iran to Iraq, Turkey to Turkmenistan.

First serve

Well, this should be easy. Baklava comes from ancient Mesopotamia, almost 5000 years ago. Or was it during the Assyrian Empire, about 3000 years ago? Or maybe it was Ancient Greece or the Roman Empire, somewhere about 2000 years ago? Or, was it adapted from a recipe popular in Persia 1000 years ago? Or, was it developed to the form we know and love today in the Ottoman Empire, 500 or so years ago? Um… yes? The truth is that any and perhaps all of these theories are true. Baklava undoubtedly has a long and complex history, with multiple empires and civilisations having developed similar treats. The real winner is you.

Order there

Don’t take this as any sort of comment on this sweet’s origin, we just know there is incredibly tasty baklava for sale, in a variety of flavours and shapes, at Al Samadi Sweets in Deira, Dubai (alsamadisweets.ae).

Order here

In Sydney, pick up all your nutty treats from Ibrahim Pastry in Rockdale (instagram.com/ibrahimpastry). In Melbourne, head to Brunswick to check out Zaytoune Lebanese Sweets (no website). And in Brisbane, try Kabul Sweets Bakery in Acacia Ridge (no website).

One more thing

One of the theories of baklava’s origin is that it evolved from the Ancient Greek “placenta cake”. This, however, is not what you’re thinking: placenta comes from the Greek word for “flat cake” – it was a treat made with thin breads sweetened with walnuts and honey, and was mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey.