Güllaç

Güllaç is a Turkish sweet made by soaking thin, dried sheets of starch-based pastry in sweetened milk and layering them. Walnuts or pistachios may be placed between the layers, the sweet may be scented with rose water, and pomegranate seeds are sometimes scattered over the top. The sheets, which break easily when dry, absorb the milk and become soft enough to cut with a spoon.

Soaking Thin, Dried Sheets in Warm Milk

The thin sheets themselves are also called güllaç. Starch and flour are mixed with water, poured onto a heated iron plate, baked into thin rounds, and dried. Before eating, each sheet is moistened one at a time with warm milk in which sugar has been dissolved, and the sheets are layered. If the milk is too hot, the sheets tend to fall apart; if it is too cold, they tend not to soften enough. The temperature of the milk therefore affects the result.

The Isparta Style, with Each Sheet Wrapped Individually

In one example from Isparta, the thin sheets are cut into triangles and softened in milk, then wrapped around sweetened kesmik and rolled into thin rolls. A mixture of milk and sugar is poured over them, and they are heated briefly, then cooled before serving. Besides the form in which the sheets are layered and cut into squares, there is also a form in which each sheet is wrapped individually.

A 19th-Century Cookbook and the Market

According to an article on Gurmestan, a website devoted to food culture research, the cookbook by Turabi Efendi published in London in 1864 contains three recipes that use güllaç. In one, thin sheets made from egg white and wheat starch are layered, milk and rose water are sprinkled between the layers, kaymak is placed in the center, and sugar syrup is poured over. In the method of the time, the thin sheets were baked on the back of a slightly domed iron plate set over charcoal, with ash spread on it to keep it from getting too hot. In this recipe, the liquid used to moisten the sheets plays a different role from that in the form commonly seen today, in which the sheets are soaked in plenty of sweetened milk.

The same book also introduces a version in which almonds are wrapped in the sheets and fried, and another in which the sheets are crumbled and bound with syrup. In Istanbul at the time, these thin sheets were also sold ready-made.

It is recorded that in Istanbul, as Ramadan approached, bundles of the sheets were carried to market in large baskets, and the sight signaled the arrival of the season. Some explanations link the name to “rose dish,” but there are other explanations of its etymology as well, and the origin of the name cannot be determined solely from the use of rose water.

Glossary