Ingredients

An identical ingredient as in “Baklava” or “Milky Baklava (Sutlu Nuriye)” recipes given under “Deserts”; and 300-400 g of crashed carobs*; 1.5 cup of milk.

Preparation and Cooking

• This baklava type simply adds crashed carob or carob powder to the nut-fillings of the baklava products. Note that, due to the hardness of the carob, it requires softening crashed carobs. To achive this crashed carob should be soaked in hot water over night and until a paste texture is achieved. The carob paste is now ready to use.

Hints and Comments

• Carob grows on trees and is a member of the legume family. Although carob is native to the Mediterranean region it also grows in other parts of the world with similar climates, such as in Australia. Carob comes from the pods of the carob tree. When the pods are ripe, the sweet pulp is removed, roasted and ground into a different grade powder. This desert uses finely crashed carob to substitute the nuts used in “baklava”.
• *Processing carob to produce crashed carob or powder carob can be highly laborious. This process involves: Cleaning carob pods and boiling and soaking them to soften; Spliting the carob pods and removing the seeds; Drying the split pods either under sun or in the wood fired oven (in the slow cooking mode at around 120^oC); Grinding the dried carob pods to achieve carob particles: a very fine powder and a slightly larger granule.
• The fine carob powder can also be mixed with the crashed wallnuts or pistachio and used as fillings in baklava.
• Note that the slightly sweet flavour of carob blends well with the creaminess of the milk and yields a tasty texture. However, when adding carob to warm dairy milk, stir steadly until it is fully dissolved. Therefore, the heat used in preparation should be moderate to avoid scalding or curdling the milk.