Let's Make Bülbül Yuvası

Bülbül Yuvası translates to 'canary nest' and these adorable little nests are a relatively basic Turkish dessert made with yufka dough, a lemon simple syrup, clarified butter, and your preferred nut of choice: today we are using walnuts. I use an oklava, a thin Turkish rolling pin, to roll the pastry and scrunch it up into a little nest. Yufka is the base pastry dough used to make Turkish baklava and börek - it is so versatile! I have included the recipe below with a video to walk you through the process!

Simple Syrup

Zest of 1 Lemon

Juice of 1 Lemon

1 cup water

1.5 cup sugar

Bring the lemon, water, and sugar to boil and then let simmer for ten minutes. Set aside to cool.

Dough

I purchased my yufka dough from the pastry shop in town but phyllo dough from your local grocery store will work just as well. Be sure to thaw the dough in the refrigerator the night before and take the dough out of the refrigerator a couple of minutes before use.

Nut Filling

1 cup crushed walnuts (or pistachios if you prefer)

4 oz/140 grams of clarified butter (ghee)

Assembly

Layout the yufka dough on a clean work surface, brush with butter and sprinkle the nuts. If your yufka dough is a circle, cut into 4 equal pieces and use the wooden dowel (oklava) to start at the tip of the quartered section to roll. If your dough is a rectangle, use the wooden dowel (oklava) to roll the long side of the sheet of dough. Once the dough is completely rolled, squish the dough towards the side, slide it off the dowel and form a circle with the dough. Place the nest in a buttered baking dish and repeat until the dough is gone.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350F/175C until golden and then remove from oven. Pour the lemon simple syrup evenly over the pastries. Let cool and serve at room temperature. Afiyet olsun!