Cold Baklava

Baklava's history stretches back to the kitchens of the Ottoman palace. The earliest written record of a layered pastry resembling baklava appears in a 15th-century Turkish source, and the Topkapı Palace kitchen records show baklava being prepared in elaborate quantities for palace celebrations. The technique of layering paper-thin dough with nuts and butter, then soaking in syrup, likely evolved from earlier traditions across Central Asia, the Middle East and the Arab world, each contributing elements to the dish we recognise today.

The cold baklava — a relatively modern variation that has become popular in Turkish cafés and patisseries — takes the classic recipe and changes the syrup temperature. Traditional baklava is poured with hot syrup immediately after baking, which the pastry absorbs while still warm, resulting in a moist, soft-crumble texture. Cold baklava uses a chilled syrup, which sets differently in the pastry layers, creating a firmer, crispier texture and a cooler, more refreshing bite. The cold version often contains slightly less syrup to preserve the crunch.

Our Cold Baklava features thin layers of filo pastry with pistachios and butter, soaked in cold sweet syrup — a more restrained sweetness than the traditional warm version, emphasising the flakiness of the pastry and the clean flavour of the pistachio rather than letting the syrup dominate.