Baklava is one of the trickiest sweets to make. The dough has to be rolled and stretched so thin you can almost read a book through it. The cook then lays one sheet down, brushes it with melted butter, lays another sheet on top, and keeps going - sometimes for forty layers - sprinkling chopped pistachios or walnuts in the middle. After baking, hot sugar syrup is poured all over it.
The city of Gaziantep, in southern Turkey, is famous for being the best baklava city in the world. Bakers there grow up learning the craft from their parents, the way some children learn to bake bread. The local pistachios are bright green and the baklava is cut into tiny diamond-shaped pieces.
Turkish delight is called 'lokum' (say: low-koom) in Turkish. It is made by very slowly boiling sugar and water with starch until it sets into a soft, jelly-like block. Then it is cut into cubes, dusted with icing sugar, and flavoured with all kinds of things: rose petals, lemon peel, mint, or chopped pistachios in the middle.
Both sweets are usually eaten in small amounts, with hot black tea or with thick coffee. In Turkey, it is normal for a guest to be welcomed into someone's home with a cup of tea and a single piece of baklava or lokum on a little plate.