When the last military coup happened in Turkey (in 1980) I was nine years old. One of the generals who took control of the government decided to involve himself in the details of daily life. He thought some baklava houses were overcharging, so he ordered all baklava houses to standardise their price.

One of the artisan baklava houses in Istanbul, Güllüoğlu, was not prepared to sacrifice quality for the sake of meeting cost regulations, so they decided to create a new type of baklava, with cheaper ingredients. They used hazelnuts instead of pistachios (which are three times the price). To make it a little creamier and lighter, they used milk syrup instead of sugar syrup.

The price controls were lifted many years ago but the revolutionary pastry can still be found as an option in the Güllüoğlu branch at Karaköy, the port across the water from Istanbul’s spice market.