Borma/Bourma?

[Annoula]

Any of you lovely folk out there in the Middle East know how one can make a decent bourma at home? I can get the kataifi, I can get the pistachios, I can get orange blossom water, etc., etc., but the technique confounds me.

Bake first? Fry first? How does one get it to hold in a tight roll?

[nolafoodie]

I had once heard that bourma was fried, but then I heard that it's just baked in copious amounts of fat (clarified butter/ghee) that is drained after baking, prior to application of syrup.

From what I can see, it would be quite difficult to achieve professional-looking results (that nice, tight roll with parallel strands of dough) using store-bought dough, which is typically tangled and messy. In the professional/commercial bakeries, they make their own dough, so the strands can be handled with a bit more care to remain straight. You can still try with the store-bought dough, but your rolls will probably have a bit of a looser, more "frizzy" look to them.

As for the rolling, I know it's a sort of diagonal rolling technique around the filling. The best example I've found is here:

.

Good luck!

ETA: Oh, wow. I've been watching some of the linked videos. It appears the shorter ones made more loosely are fried and then topped with syrup. The tight rolls formed into logs, though, are baked -- using a scary amount of grease. Watch some of these videos. They're really fascinating!

Edited June 25, 2012 by nolafoodie (log)

[sazji]

In Turkey, just as with baklava, these are baked more or less swimming in clarified butter; the excess is poured off after the baking, and then the syrup is added. Just make prior reservations at the cardiac ward when you start. Or make it when you know you'll have lots of people to eat it up so you won't be left with a pile of it calling out to you to take just one more little bite...

[Annoula]

I never got notified of the lovely posts made in answer to my original question. I'm sorry I never responded but thank you very much.

 

I have only recently managed to finally find out about that diagonal rolling technique -- also in a video, of a Turkish baklava shop if I remember. And in a couple of other videos, the actually frying is shown clearly enough that I should be able to figure out how to manage it at home. I haven't yet tried making bourma again, but I have renewed hope.

 

I do love this stuff and cannot buy it here (in Greece) but I hear you, Sazji, and it's a good idea to make planning for a crowd to gobble it all up!