Some flavours take years to perfect. Others just take years of pestering.
This one? Both.
Annie's children have been asking for a yoghurt gelato for as long as anyone can remember — and this April, it's finally happening. Meet our latest Annie's Special: a smooth, tangy homemade yoghurt gelato, studded with chunks of walnut baklava from Baklavaty, a family-run Libyan bakery based in Somerset.
Yoghurt for breakfast is practically a virtue. Baklava has been eaten at celebratory feasts for centuries. We're just saying: this might be the breakfast gelato you've been waiting for an excuse for.
A little history
Baklava has been bringing people joy for a very long time. Its exact origins are disputed — food historians trace early versions of layered pastry and nuts back to ancient Assyria, Persia, and the Byzantine Empire — but it was in the imperial kitchens of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul that baklava took the form we know and love today. The Ottoman Sultan would famously gift trays of it to his elite soldiers, the Janissaries, during Ramadan, in a grand ceremonial procession known as the Baklava Alayı.
As the Ottoman Empire expanded, so did baklava — carrying with it the spirit of celebration and hospitality that has always defined it. It became the pastry made for weddings, for Eid, for guests you wanted to honour. Every region developed its own version — walnuts here, pistachios there, honey or syrup depending on where you stood — and that diversity is part of what makes it so beloved.
The Libyan tradition — which Baklavaty carry forward — has its own distinct character: fragrant, not-too-sweet, and made with real care for the quality of every ingredient.
Back to Somerset
Baklavaty bring that traditional family recipe to the UK, using the best local ingredients to make pastries that are genuinely special. Their walnut baklava — flaky, honey-sweet, deeply nutty — is the perfect foil to the cool tang of the gelato. The contrast is everything: crisp layers of pastry against silky gelato, rich and delicate in the same mouthful.
(They also make pistachio, traditional Libyan almond, and even peanut baklava — well worth a visit at baklavaty.co.uk.)
This one is limited. A single small batch, available in 500ml tubs from Tuesday 21st April at 10am. When it's gone, it's gone — and given whose children have been waiting for this, we suspect it won't hang around long.
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