A lighter variation on the classic baklava, sütlü nuriye is made with a hazelnut filling and doused in a milk-based syrup. The origins of this baklava are somewhat vague—while the word sütlü translates to milky, Nuriye is a Turkish female name—so the only known thing is that the dessert had been created during the 1980s.

Back then, due to a major supply shortage, Turkish baklava makers thought of using milk to make a lighter syrup with half the amount of sugar, and the expensive pistachios used in classic baklava were replaced by hazelnuts.