Skip to main content
Dessert

Paklava II

Paklava II is a layered pastry with walnut filling, baked and finished with sugar syrup.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 76,993 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven425°F

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • Dough
  • Filling

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Grease hands with a little shortening and knead dough. Make 10 small balls and let stand in a bowl for one hour covered with a damp cloth.

  2. Take five balls and roll each to a diameter of 5 inches. Lightly cover the top of each with cornstarch and stack them. Roll the stack until paper thin, at least 36 inches in diameter, sprinkling cornstarch between layers to prevent sticking.

  3. Carefully fold each layer and set aside covered with a dry cloth to prevent drying. Repeat with the remaining five balls. The five pieces of 36‑inch rolled dough will form the bottom half, and the remaining five pieces will form the top half. The walnut stuffing will be placed in the center.

Layer and bake

  1. Take two pieces of rolled dough from the first set of five, evenly place them over a pan, and cut to the exact size of the pan (8×12 inches). Set aside. These will be used for the final layers before placing the walnut mixture. Repeat with the second set of five and set aside tray‑sized pieces for the top finishing layers.

  2. Grease the bottom of the pan with some of the melted shortening.

  3. Carefully tear the remaining pieces of the first set into approximately 4×6‑inch pieces and arrange them in a tray. There will be a little overlap, but arrange evenly. For every two layers, sprinkle melted shortening. When all pieces are used from the first set, arrange the two previously cut tray‑sized pieces. Cover with the walnut mixture.

  4. Repeat the same procedure with the second set of rolled dough for the top half, ending with the two tray‑sized pieces. Finish the remaining melted shortening by generously sprinkling the top layer with shortening.

  5. Cut into diamond pieces or squares. Bake in a 425°F oven until golden pink. Drain the shortening. Cut through the layers again to separate the squares. Gently add sugar syrup while warm.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Flour + milktop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together76,993 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together104,138 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together88,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk share little aroma chemistry, yet 76,993 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten structure that gives the dough its stretch and thin, sheetlike layers.
Shortening
Coats the layers so they separate and crisp, adding richness and fat for browning.
Walnuts
Form the filling, adding texture and a nutty flavor at the center of the layers.
Cornstarch
Dusted between sheets of dough to keep them from sticking as they are rolled and stacked.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough paper thin. Thin dough layers separate and crisp when baked, while thick layers turn dense and doughy. Dusting with cornstarch between sheets keeps them from fusing so the layers stay distinct.

Flavor stand-ins for the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg, sugar):

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Milletbetter flavor fit
  3. Chestnutabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Illustration of White CakeIllustrationWhite Cake431 recipesIllustration of Pound CakeIllustrationPound Cake373 recipesIllustration of Orange Bundt CakeIllustrationOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesIllustration of Spice CakeIllustrationSpice Cake344 recipes