Baklava and Turkish delight workshop

The workshop takes place in a professional pastry kitchen. A baklava master trained in the Gaziantep tradition opens by rolling a sheet of dough with a long thin rod until you can read through it, then lets each team try. Most get close; the master finishes the rest.

Teams brush butter between forty layers, spread pistachios or walnuts, cut the tray into diamonds and send it to the oven. While it bakes, a confectioner demonstrates how lokum is cooked slowly with sugar and starch, and the group shapes, flavours and coats ready-set lokum with rose, mastic, pistachio and coconut.

When the trays come out, the master pours the cold syrup over the hot baklava, which is the moment everyone listens for. Each guest leaves with a box of their own baklava and lokum, and the recipes in Turkish and English.