Our Story

Koçak Baklava began with two brothers and a craft they learned by hand. This is our story, from an apprenticeship in Gaziantep in 1981 to the tin of baklava on your table today.

Two brothers, one craft

In 1981, brothers Coşkun and İbrahim Koçak started as apprentices in a Gaziantep baklava kitchen, the kind of place where the craft passes from master to apprentice. For twelve years they worked through every stage of baklava making under their masters' eyes.

In 1993 they opened Koçak Baklava. The idea was simple: make Gaziantep baklava exactly the way tradition makes it, and bring the same care to every tray, every day.

How a master is made

A Koçak master rolling out phyllo by hand in Gaziantep
Phyllo rolled out by hand, the way our masters learned it.

Our masters still learn the way the founders did. They start young as apprentices and work their way up, year by year, until the craft is in their hands. Every tray is handmade in Gaziantep, and our baklava is traditionally 40 layers of phyllo.

From phyllo to tin, by hand in our Gaziantep kitchen.

What goes in, and what doesn't

Antep pistachios
  • Early-harvest Antep pistachio, chosen in its season.
  • Clarified butter between the layers.
  • Baked in stone ovens and finished with a natural sugar syrup.
  • No preservatives, no additives.

In our classic baklava the pistachio sits inside, between the layers. You see it as a green line at the cut edge, under a crisp, golden top.

Quality we can show

Today a team of around 130 people makes our baklava in our own facility in Gaziantep, with a food engineer on staff overseeing quality. Koçak Baklava is certified to TS EN ISO 9001 for quality management and TS EN ISO 22000 for food safety, and our products are halal certified. If you'd like to see a certificate, write to us at customerservice@kocakbaklava.com.

Still a Gaziantep bakery

At home in Gaziantep, Koçak Baklava has two shops where local families buy their baklava. The baklava we send you comes from the same kitchen and the same masters.

Why Gaziantep

Gaziantep has been the heart of Turkish baklava for generations. In 2013, Antep Baklava became the first Turkish product to receive the European Union's Protected Geographical Indication. In 2015, UNESCO named Gaziantep a Creative City of Gastronomy.

From our kitchen to your door

Your baklava ships from Gaziantep on the day it's made, packed in a sturdy tin cushioned with protective paper. See how it gets to you.

In our customers' words

Hundreds of customers around the world have reviewed our baklava, in their own words and their own languages. Read their reviews.

Shop our baklava