Gaziantep Baklava Guide: Why It Is Different, Where to Eat It and How to Buy

In 2013, Antep Baklavası / Gaziantep Baklavası became the very first Turkish agricultural or food product ever granted official Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status by the European Union. Even if you think you have tasted baklava in Istanbul, Europe or the Middle East, eating a warm slice straight from a wood-fired oven in Gaziantep, using your fingers to turn the slice upside down so the buttery bottom layers touch your palate first and listening for the unmistakable crisp "hışırtı" (rustling crunch) as your teeth bite through 40 paper-thin sheets of dough, is a revelation.

Why You Cannot Replicate Gaziantep Baklava Anywhere Else (The 3 Secrets)

1. Early-Harvest Emerald "Boz İç" Pistachios: while regular pistachios are harvested in September when fully ripe, Gaziantep baklava masters use boz fıstık (firik), pistachios picked a month early in the first week of August when the kernel inside the shell is at its peak aromatic oil content and brightest, deepest emerald-jade green.
2. Pure Clarified Sheep's-Milk Butter (Sade Yağ) from the Harran/Şanlıurfa Plain: never made with vegetable oil or margarine; pure 99.5% milk-fat clarified butter churned from the milk of sheep grazing on spring wild herbs gives the pastry its fragrance.
3. 40 Layers of Hand-Rolled Hard-Wheat Dough & Goat/Sheep Kaymak: rolled with pear-wood pins until you can read a newspaper through a single sheet, layered with a rich cream paste of boiled semolina and fresh milk (kaymak) and baked over dry oak wood before being ladled with hot sugar syrup (never honey or corn syrup).

Five Legendary Baklava Masters & What Shapes to Order

• Where to go: compare a small mixed plate (karışık tabak) at the city's historic heavyweights: İmam Çağdaş (founded 1887 right beside the Copper Bazaar, famous for its classic square kare baklava and triangle havuç dilimi), Koçak Baklava (in Şehitkamil, widely considered by locals to make the finest özel kare and green pistachio rolls), Elmacı Pazarı Güllüoğlu (operating since 1871 as the oldest baklava dynasty in the world), Çelebioğulları and Zeki İnal (famous exclusively for triangular creamy şöbiyet, arrive before noon before Zeki İnal's daily batch sells out).
• Shapes to try: Kare (classic square), Havuç Dilimi, Şöbiyet (flaky triangular pockets stuffed with extra clotted cream), Dolama / Fıstık Sarma (bright green rolls of almost pure pistachio paste wrapped in two layers of phyllo) and Bülbül Yuvası.
• Flying home with baklava: always ask the counter for Kuru Baklava ("Dry Baklava") packed in a rectangular 1 kg or 2 kg metal tin (teneke kutu), which contains slightly less cream so it stays crisp at room temperature for up to 5 to 7 days, and have them vacuum-wrap the tin for your hand luggage.