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Thin crepes rather than pastry, folded over ground walnuts and then soaked.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

the crepes

• 250 g plain flour
• 500 ml whole milk
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon salt
• butter, for the pan

the filling

• 250 g walnuts, ground
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

the syrup

• 550 g caster sugar
• 500 ml water
• juice of ½ lemon

to finish

• 3 tablespoons pistachios, chopped
• 2 tablespoons grape molasses (optional)

Method

1. THEY ARE THIN CREPES RATHER THAN PASTRY, which puts this dessert in a category of its own among the syrup sweets. A plain batter of flour, milk and egg, cooked thin in a buttered pan like any pancake -- there is no dough, no layering, no filo and nothing is baked or fried in deep fat. The crepes are then spread with ground walnuts, folded, and soaked in syrup. The result is soft all through, with no crispness anywhere, which is unusual and is what it is meant to be: closer to a soaked pancake than to a pastry.
2. THE CREPES ARE COOKED ON ONE SIDE ONLY. Poured, cooked until the top has just set and the base is barely coloured, and lifted out without turning. The uncooked face is the one the walnuts go on -- it is slightly tacky and holds them -- and it is folded inward. A crepe browned on both sides is drier and refuses the syrup.
3. THE WALNUTS GO ON THE DAMP FACE AND THE CREPE IS FOLDED IN THREE. Not rolled up. Spread, then folded like a letter into a flat rectangle, so each piece is three layers deep with walnuts between. Rolled into a tube, the centre never takes up syrup.
4. THE WALNUTS ARE GROUND, NOT CHOPPED. Fine, almost to a meal. Chopped walnuts make the fold lumpy and it will not lie flat under its neighbours in the dish, so the syrup distributes unevenly.
5. HOT SYRUP, COLD CREPES, AND POURED OVER IN THE DISH. The reverse of the baked pastries here. The folded crepes are packed into a shallow dish and hot syrup is poured over them, because there is no crispness to protect and hot syrup penetrates a soft pancake far better.
6. THEY ARE TURNED AFTER AN HOUR AND LEFT THREE MORE. In the syrup, each piece turned over, then left. All the syrup is absorbed.
7. The syrup ingredients boiled 12 MINUTES and kept HOT.
8. The flour, milk, eggs and salt whisked to a thin batter and rested 20 MINUTES.
9. A pan lightly buttered and thin crepes cooked ON ONE SIDE ONLY -- until the top just sets and the base is barely coloured. Lifted out WITHOUT TURNING.
10. The walnuts ground FINE and mixed with the cinnamon.
11. Each crepe laid UNCOOKED-SIDE UP and spread with the walnut mixture.
12. FOLDED IN THREE like a letter, into a flat rectangle. Not rolled.
13. Packed side by side in a shallow dish.
14. The HOT syrup poured over.
15. After 1 HOUR each piece TURNED OVER, then left 3 HOURS.
16. TESTED: each should be soft right through with no dry centre, and the three layers still distinguishable.
17. Scattered with pistachios, and the grape molasses drizzled over if using.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes