Gaziantep Original · Pistachio Pastry

Baklava

Photo: Sakaman / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Making proper baklava dough by hand takes years to master — pastry chefs traditionally train for a decade before being trusted to stretch the phyllo themselves.

Dozens of hand-stretched phyllo sheets are layered with butter and a thick bed of ground Antep pistachios, cut into diamonds before baking, then soaked in hot sugar syrup the moment it comes out of the oven. Gaziantep's baklava houses ship trays nationwide, but the freshest comes straight off the tray at the source.

Why it's made this way: Gaziantep's surrounding orchards grow the specific short, deep-green Antep pistachio prized for baklava, and the city's Ottoman-era pastry guilds refined the layered, syrup-soaked technique into the version now recognized worldwide, with UNESCO-recognized craftsmanship.