Baklava is a rich sweet from the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East: many paper-thin sheets of pastry stacked with chopped nuts, baked, then soaked in sugar syrup or honey so it is sticky and shiny. You cut it into diamonds or squares. It is not a soft sponge cake; it is crisp, layered, and very sweet. You buy it in bakeries and at celebrations. Greek, Turkish, Lebanese and many other kitchens all have a home version, and they do not always agree whose dish it is. In English we treat it as one sweet with small local changes. Though actually the word came into English through Turkish, from Ottoman Turkish, and some scholars think an older Inner Asian word for a bundle or package may sit behind that — that last step is only a possibility, not a settled fact.