Azerbaijani sweets recipes with photos. Sweet dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine
We can say with confidence: everything that is prepared in Azerbaijan is incredibly tasty and satisfying. But I would especially like to note the national sweets.
Azerbaijani sweets on the festive table
These are far from all the desserts that Azerbaijani cuisine can boast of. Sweets, the recipes of which are presented below, are basic. In this country, they are a must-have dish on every festive table.
Sweet pie shekerbura
To prepare yeast dough, dissolve yeast (10 g) in a glass of milk, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar. Beat 10 eggs with a fork, add 750 g of sour cream, melt 700 g of butter, cool and pour all the ingredients together with milk into flour (700-800 g). Knead the dough that works best in a warm place for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling. To do this, grind 1 kg of nuts (preferably hazelnuts, previously peeled) in a blend. Then combine it with sugar and ground cardamom (5 grains). Form a round cake from the dough, with a diameter of 10 cm. Put the filling inside it, shape the edges in a figure and cut out the patterns. Bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees.
Azerbaijani sweets shakerbura are ready. You can pour tea and serve delicious pies to the table.
Shor gogal
The filling for this round pie can be salty. At the same time, such Azerbaijani delicacies are always served with sweet tea.
Preparation of yeast dough begins with dough. To do this, dissolve 30 g of live yeast in 500 ml of milk, and add a little flour. After 30 minutes, add 100 g of butter, 6 eggs and a pinch of salt to the dough that has come up. Knead the dough and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Prepare the filling from melted butter (50 g), flour and spicy spices (a teaspoon each). Cumin, anise, cinnamon, turmeric are traditionally used.
Divide the dough into 10-12 pieces. Roll each of them thinly, lay out alternately. Lubricate the layers generously with butter (you will need about 1 kg in total). The resulting puff layer is cut into strips of 6 cm, and then into squares. Put the filling in the center, twist it into a spiral, pinch the edges and form a round bun. Top with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds.
Azerbaijani sweets shor gogal are baked for 40 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees. Enjoy your meal!
Azerbaijani sweets: baklava recipes
There are several interesting recipes for self-made baklava at home. But its base is puff pastry, nuts and honey. In traditional baklava, all layers are prepared by hand. But when cooking at home, ready-made puff pastry is sometimes used.
According to the traditional recipe, Azerbaijani sweets (baklava) are made from flour, milk, eggs, and sour cream, dry yeast, sugar and spices. Such ingredients will be needed for the test. For the filling, it is necessary to prepare 500 g of walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds and candied fruits, 1 kg of sugar and spices (cardamom, coriander). Soak baklava with ghee and syrup from water with honey (the same amount of honey per 400 ml of water).
First, the dough is kneaded from 800 g of flour with the addition of 250 g of butter, 2 eggs and 300 ml of milk, yeast (1 tablespoon), cardamom (5 ground grains), sour cream and sugar (3 tablespoons each). It should be soft, elastic, not sticky to your hands. Set the dough aside to let it rise for 1.5 hours.
Prepare nuts. Almonds and hazelnuts are dried in the oven at a temperature of 100 degrees and peeled. Grind all nuts and candied fruits in a blender until fine crumbs. Combine with sugar and cardamom.
Divide the dough in half. Then the first one is often divided into another 17 "koloboks", and the second - into 2 large balls. Cover the dough with foil so that it does not dry out. Now alternately form layers of baklava. Large balls are rolled out for the bottom and top of the dessert, and inside there will be thin 17 layers, shifted with a nut-sugar filling.
Bake baklava at 180 degrees for about an hour. After the first 15 minutes, cut the dried dough into diamonds and pour the dessert with melted butter (250 g). After 25 minutes, repeat the procedure. At the very end of cooking, pour baklava with honey syrup. Enjoy your meal!
Azerbaijani cuisine is considered one of the most ancient in the world. The cuisine of Azerbaijan, which has quite a lot of traditions common to all Caucasian peoples, at the same time combines some features that give it a unique flavor.
Features of Azerbaijani cuisine
- With all the abundance of various types of meat available, Azerbaijanis prefer to use lamb for cooking main dishes (for example, pilaf).
- The favorable sunny climate of Azerbaijan has also affected the cuisine of local peoples: vegetables, fruits and berries (pears, plums, cherry plums, eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, quince, citrus fruits) are widely used in cooking.
- The originality of Azerbaijani cuisine is in the types of dishes used by local peoples: pits, cauldrons, saj frying pans, cash cups and others.
- Azerbaijani dishes have a spicy, spicy taste, and their delicacies are truly sweet.
- Among the traditional recipes of Azerbaijani cuisine, you will not find dishes with pork or recipes for alcoholic beverages, since Islam has largely influenced the cuisine of this country.
Popular Azerbaijani dishes
It is impossible to talk about the cuisine of Azerbaijan without mentioning its famous plov. It is believed that it is the Azerbaijanis who cook pilaf in the Caucasus best of all. They usually use lamb, but variations with beef and even fish are possible. Azerbaijani pilaf is flavored with a mixture of spices from saffron, cloves, cinnamon, cilantro and ground peppers. According to ancient Azerbaijani traditions, the rice part of pilaf is served separately from the meat filling and spicy herbs.
The second most popular Azerbaijani dish is considered to be kebab- minced meat cutlets strung on thin wooden skewers and cooked over an open fire. Also, Azerbaijanis cannot imagine a summer feast without barbecue - they are real masters in the preparation of various marinades.
While in Azerbaijan, it is worth trying another traditional dish - dolma. This is a kind of analogue of Russian cabbage rolls, only smaller. The filling can be either meat or fish or vegetable, and grape or quince leaves are used instead of cabbage leaves.
A significant part of Azerbaijani national dishes are sweets and desserts, which can be divided into three groups depending on the method of preparation: dough products, caramel treats and sweets. To enrich the taste of desserts, Azerbaijani chefs use sesame seeds, cardamom, ginger, various varieties of nuts, and poppy seeds. The most popular Azerbaijani sweet is baklava, which is made from dough, honey, sugar, caramel and nuts.
Many Asian and Caucasian cuisines have in their arsenal such a delicacy as sherbet. In Azerbaijan, this is not the name of sweetness, but a soft drink based on berries and fruits with the addition of sugar, which is usually served with pilaf and other main dishes. Another popular national drink of Azerbaijan is doshab, which is similar to sweet fruit puree.
The main drink in Azerbaijan is black tea. It is strongly brewed and then drunk from special small pear-shaped jugs called “ormud”.
People in Azerbaijan are very fond of and know how to cook, and therefore, to receive guests. Azerbaijanis love long feasts, during which you can taste many traditional dishes. If you are lucky enough to visit Azerbaijan, do not look for a cafe where you can have a bite - it is better to visit the locals: only after tasting homemade dishes, you will be able to appreciate the culinary traditions of this country.
Going through old postcards the other day, I came across sets of postcards that my mother used to buy. These postcards contain recipes for various dishes, because then there was no Internet and recipes were passed from mouth to mouth, or books with recipes were bought, but as I remember there were not many. I would like to begin to acquaint you with the contents of these postcards. There are not many of them, but there are interesting ones.
Today we will look at recipes for sweet dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine 1984 release, price 51 kopecks. (Photos scanned by me from postcards)
1. ALMOND TUBES.
For 1 kg of products.
Premium flour - 400 g.
sour cream - 200 g.
butter - 120 g.
almonds - 200 g.
granulated sugar - 1 tbsp.
powdered sugar - 1 tbsp. a spoon
cognac - 1 teaspoon
cardamom - 1 teaspoon
salt to taste
Mash the butter and mix with sour cream. Add flour to the prepared mass and knead the dough.
Grind almonds in a meat grinder, mix with sugar, cardamom and cognac.
Divide the finished dough into small pieces, which are rolled into a ribbon so that one end is slightly wider than the other.
Put some filling on the wide end of the dough and roll up. Top with egg yolk and bake in an oven at a temperature of 160-170 degrees, 20-30 minutes.
Sprinkle the top of the tube with powdered sugar.
2. ORDUBAD ROLL.
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour - 400 gr
Sour cream - 150 gr
Butter - 100g
Walnuts - 200g
Sugar - 1 cup
Honey - 1 tbsp. a spoon
One egg yolk
Cinnamon ½ teaspoon, salt to taste.
Cream butter for 15 minutes. Then add sour cream and mix. Add flour and knead the dough. Put it on the table and knead for another 5-7 minutes.
Lightly fry the peeled nuts in a pan, then chop in a meat grinder and mix with sugar, honey and cinnamon.
Divide the dough into portions of 300 g each and roll out into a circle 5 mm thick. Put the filling in an even layer in the middle and roll up the dough in the form of a roll. Grease with egg yolk on top and bake on a baking sheet at a temperature of 190-200 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
3. Badam Puri
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour - 400 gr
Sour cream - 200 gr
Almonds - 200g
Powdered sugar - 1 tbsp. a spoon
Butter - 60 gr
Sugar - 1 cup
Crushed cardamom - 1/3 teaspoon
salt to taste.
Let's prepare the filling first. Grind the peeled almonds in a meat grinder and mix with sugar.
Crush the cardamom seeds in a mortar, add to the filling and mix well.
Knead the dough from flour and sour cream. Put it on the table and divide into pieces weighing 300 gr. Shape each into a kolobok, roll into a circle 2 mm thick, brush with butter and roll up into a tube, which is cut into small pieces. Again make a bun and roll out to a thickness of 5-6 mm. Then put the filling in the center of the circle, bend in the middle and connect the edges of the dough.
Bake on a baking sheet at a temperature of 170-180 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
4. CUBE OF TYKHMASY.
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour - 650 gr
Ghee - 60g
Cream margarine - 200 gr
Milk - 1 glass
Eggs - 2 pcs.
Sugar - 1 cup
Saffron - 1/10 teaspoon
Pressed yeast - 1 teaspoon
Spices (nutmeg), salt to taste.
Pour milk diluted with half water into a saucepan. Add yeast diluted in warm milk, eggs, softened creamy margarine, salt. Mix everything thoroughly. Then, while stirring constantly, gradually pour in the flour. Put the dough in a warm place for 40 minutes.
Prepare the filling separately. To do this, mix flour, sugar, spices, ghee (from the total amount provided for in the recipe) until a homogeneous and crumbly mass is formed.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1.5 - 2 mm, roll into a roll and cut into pieces. Put the filling in the middle of each and make buns (tykhmasy). Put tykhmasy on a greased sheet, brush with egg and saffron infusion on top and put in a warm place for 20-25 minutes.
Bake at a temperature of 160-180 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
5. Baklava BAKU.
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour -250g
Ghee - 130g
Sour cream - 1 tbsp. a spoon
Egg - 1 pc.
Sugar sand - 300 gr
Yeast - 10 gr
Hazelnuts or peeled almonds - 250 gr
Cardamom - ½ teaspoon
Saffron - 0.5 gr.
Dilute yeast with warm water, add flour, sour cream, egg, butter, salt. Knead the dough, roll it into a layer 0.5 mm thick.
Spread the dough on an oiled baking sheet. Top with a filling of nuts mixed with sugar, and close with a second layer of dough. So make up a few layers.
After that, cut the baklava into rhombuses 10 * 4 cm in size. Lubricate the top layer with yolk mixed with saffron infusion. Place a walnut half in the middle of each diamond.
Bake at a temperature of 80-200 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
Then smear the baklava on top with syrup or honey and put it back in the oven for 5 minutes.
6. PAKHLAVA WITH NUTS.
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour -400g
Ghee - 150g
Egg yolk - 1/2 pc.
Sugar - 1 cup
Yeast - 1 teaspoon
Almonds - 150 gr
Cardamom - 1/3 teaspoon
Honey - 2 tbsp. spoons
Salt to taste.
Pour water into a saucepan, dilute the yeast in it and mix.
Then, continuing to stir, pour in the flour and knead the dough. Put it on the table and leave for 30 minutes to fit.
Pass the peeled almonds through a meat grinder. Then put in a saucepan and mix with sugar and cardamom.
Roll out the dough into a layer 2 mm thick, put on a baking sheet, pre-oiled. Top with melted butter, cover with another layer of dough, which is also greased with butter. Alternate a layer of filling every two layers of dough.
Brush baklava on top with egg yolk and cut into pieces in the form of rhombuses weighing 80-100 grams.
Bake in an oven at a temperature of 170-180 degrees, 30-35 minutes.
Top the finished baklava with oil and then with honey.
7. NAN AZERBAIJAN.
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour - 300 gr
Butter - 150 gr
Powdered sugar - 100g
Raisins - 80 gr
Candied fruits - 50 gr
Eggs - 3 pcs
Hazelnuts - 50 gr
Sugar - 1 cup
Molasses - 1 tbsp. a spoon
Saffron - 0.1 gr
Ammonium - 1 hour. Spoon (can be replaced with baking soda)
Grind the butter in a saucepan, add powdered sugar and grind again until smooth. In another saucepan, beat the pre-chilled proteins until a fluffy and stable foam forms.
Clear nuts. Crush the kernels into small pieces 2-3 mm in size.
Put butter mixed with sugar, whipped proteins, yolks, saffron, raisins, candied fruits cut into small pieces, crushed nuts and soda into a saucepan. Mix everything thoroughly. Then add flour in small portions and stir again.
Dissolve sugar in a separate saucepan and put on fire. After the syrup boils, add to the flow. The mixture is gradually boiled to a temperature of 115-120 degrees. Then cool the mass a little, add food coloring and knock down until fondant is formed.
Divide the finished dough into portions. Shape each into a loaf with a diameter of 30-35 mm and lay on sheets covered with parchment.
Bake at a temperature of 180-200 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Grease the finished nan with fondant.
8. SHOR-KOGAL.
For 1 kg. products:
Flour of the highest grade -700g
Ghee - 300g
Egg - 1 pc.
Pressed yeast - 10 gr
Pepper - 1/3 teaspoon
Saffron - 0.1g
Poppy, nutmeg, cinnamon - 1/2 teaspoon each
Salt to taste.
Sift the flour and reserve 1/10 for the filling. Add water, yeast, salt to the rest of the flour and knead a stiff dough, into which pour the saffron infusion. Mix the flour left for the filling with melted butter, pepper, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Cut the dough into pieces, roll into circles, brush with oil. Then wrap in the form of a roll, which is twisted with a tourniquet and crushed into a cake.
Put the stuffing in the middle of the cake, grease the top with beaten egg with the addition of saffron, sprinkle with poppy seeds.
Bake in an oven at a temperature of 230-240 degrees, 25-30 minutes.
9. FYASALI.
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour – 800gr
Ghee - 100g
Sugar - 50 gr
Yeast - 20 gr
Salt to taste.
Sift the flour, and adding yeast, water and salt, knead a stiff dough. Put it in a warm place for 1.5 - 2 hours to come up. Then knead, divide into pieces of 100 g and roll out 0.5 mm thick.
Grease the dough on top, fold in 5-6 layers, cut into rectangles, roll into a roll and press them vertically with the palm of your hand so that a round cake (fasali) is formed with a diameter of 10-12 cm, a thickness of 1.5-2 cm.
Fry the cake on both sides in a pan in oil.
Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar.
10. KURABIE BAKU.
For 1 kg. products:
Flour of the highest grade -600g
butter - 350g
Sugar - 30 gr
The white of one egg.
Apple or apricot puree
Salt to taste.
Cream butter thoroughly with sugar, gradually adding egg white and sifted flour. Mix all this.
Then put the dough into a pastry bag with a toothed tube and squeeze it onto a dry baking sheet in the form of a camomile, in the center of which put the preheated puree.
Kurabye is baked at a temperature of 250 degrees for 10 minutes.
11. CAKE "GYZ GALASY".
For 1 kg. products:
Flour of the highest grade -300g
butter - 200g
Sugar - 300 gr
Yolk of one egg.
Sour cream - 125 gr
Egg white - 2 pcs
Nuts - 70 gr
Vanilla powder - 1/3 teaspoon
Condensed milk - 80 gr
Cocoa - 1 tbsp. a spoon
Drinking soda - 1/3 teaspoon
Salt to taste.
Mix butter, sugar, soda and salt until smooth, then add flour and mix again. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 6-8 mm and cut out a round cake. Grease the edges of the cake with an egg, and make a border around it from the same dough.
Bake in an oven on a baking sheet at a temperature of 250 degrees for 10-13 minutes.
Then lay the “Gyz Galasy” turret, previously prepared from fudge, on the cakes, decorate the surface with whipped cream (meringue).
Prepare the protein cream like this: beat the proteins until the volume increases by 4-5 times. When the mass becomes lush, add vanilla powder and sugar.
12. MARAL GEL CAKE.
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour -150g
Potato starch - 1 tbsp. a spoon
Sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 5 pcs.
Vanilla essence - ½ teaspoon
Biscuit crumb - 20 gr
Salt to taste.
For cream:
Powdered sugar - 100 gr
Condensed milk - 80 g
For chocolate buttercream:
Sugar - 20 gr
Butter - 20 gr
Cognac -0.2 g,
Vanilla powder - ¼ teaspoon
Cocoa - ½ teaspoon
Condensed milk - 10 gr
Prepare biscuit dough, for which sugar is mixed with an egg and heated to 45-50 degrees. Knock down the mixture for 25-30 minutes. Then add flour and starch and knead the dough. Put the dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake in the oven at a temperature of 200-220 degrees for 60 minutes.
Cut the finished biscuit into layers, grease with butter cream and soak in syrup.
Decorate the surface with cream and pre-prepared forms of protein cream (meringue) and chocolate figures.
Prepare the syrup like this: mix 100g of sugar ½ teaspoon of essence and 1st. a spoonful of cognac
For cream: Heat eggs, sugar and condensed milk to 40 degrees and beat down. Then cool the mass.
In butter, melted to the consistency of thick sour cream, add beaten eggs, sugar and condensed milk and beat again until a fluffy mass is formed.
For chocolate cream: beat sugar with condensed milk and butter. Add cocoa, vanilla and cognac to the whipped cream.
13. SHAMAKHI MUTAKHI.
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour -500g
Sugar - 100 GR
Eggs - 2 pcs.
Butter - 100 gr.
Milk - 1 glass
Powdered sugar - 100 gr
Apricot jam - 150 gr
Yeast - 10 gr
Vanillin - 1/3 teaspoon
Salt to taste.
Yeast, diluted in a small amount of warm milk, mix with flour and salt. Knead the dough and leave it in a warm place for 1-1.5 hours to rise.
Boil apricot jam with sugar to a dense consistency and cool.
Roll out the dough into a layer 4-5 mm thick, brush with melted butter and cut into triangles. Put the filling on each and wrap it with a tube.
Bake in an oven at a temperature of 190-200 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
Sprinkle finished products with powdered sugar.
14. LENKARAN KULCHA.
For 1 kg. products:
Premium flour -650g
Yeast - 10 gr
Sugar - 60 gr
Eggs - 1 pc.
Melted butter - 150 gr.
Powdered sugar - 100 gr
Sour cream - 30 gr
Saffron - 0.1 gr
Poppy - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste. Combine the sifted flour with yeast diluted in warm water and put the dough for 2.5 - 3 hours.
Then add oil, egg, saffron infusion, salt to the dough. Mix everything thoroughly.
Divide the dough into pieces weighing 100 g and give them a round shape. Top with egg, sprinkle with poppy seeds and put in a warm place so that the dough comes up.
Bake kulcha in an oven at a temperature of 170-180 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
15. SHAKER CHUREK.
For 1 kg. products:
Flour of the highest grade -600g
Vanilla essence - ¼ teaspoon
Eggs - 1 pc.
Melted butter - 250 gr.
Powdered sugar - 300 gr
Salt to taste.
Sift the flour, make a funnel in the middle and put melted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla essence, salt into it. Mix everything thoroughly until a stiff dough is formed. Give it an egg shape.
Lubricate the churek shaker with egg yolk and bake in an oven at t 180-200 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
P.S. That pack ran out of postcards. I didn't change anything in the recipe, don't forget that this is a 1984 edition. Maybe someone uses such recipes, maybe someone will take note and try to cook it, I will be glad. Then share how you did.
Enjoy your meal!!!
The Novruz holiday is approaching, which is loved in Azerbaijan from young to old. Housewives greet spring with the most delicious national sweets, and preparations for the holiday begin a few weeks in advance.
"Moscow-Baku" decided to compile a list of the most popular recipes for flour products, which will certainly be on every holiday table. In fact, cooking them is not so difficult, the main thing is to believe in your culinary abilities.
Shakerbura
This delicious delicacy is made from yeast dough stuffed with hazelnuts and sugar. The name comes from the Turkic "Sheker-borek", which means "sweet pie". The shape of the shakerbura resembles the moon, it is decorated with a pattern in the form of wheat ears using a special “maggash” tool.
Recipe:
1 kg of hazelnuts and granulated sugar, 2 kg of flour, 10 eggs, 800 g of sour cream, 750 g of butter, 1 glass of milk, 10 g of yeast, 8-10 pieces of cardamom.
Soak yeast in 1/3 cup milk, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of granulated sugar, pour into the flour, then add the remaining milk and softened butter. Knead the dough and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. Grind nuts and cardamom, mix with granulated sugar. From the dough, make round cakes the size of a tea saucer, put the filling in them, make a curly seam, decorate the top with patterns, bake at a temperature of 180 ° C for 30-40 minutes.
Baklava
The name of baklava is associated with its appearance - rhombuses, symbols of fire, which are called “pakhla” in Azerbaijani carpet ornaments. Baklava is prepared in each region of Azerbaijan according to its own recipe and therefore there are various variants of it: Baku, Nakhchivan, Ganja, Sheki, Guba, etc. In addition, baklava has different fillings - walnut, almond, hazelnut and peanut.
Recipe:
1.5 kg of nuts and granulated sugar, 500 g butter, 2 eggs, 800 g flour,
2 g saffron, 600 g water.
Knead the dough from flour, eggs and butter, divide into 10 parts. Grind the nuts and mix with granulated sugar, divide the filling into 7 parts. Roll out one part of the dough in a thin layer, spread it on the entire bottom of the baking sheet, brush with oil, pour a layer of nuts and repeat. Cut the rammed baklava into diamonds. Lubricate the entire surface with saffron infusion with a brush, press half a nut into the middle of each. Bake in the oven at 180°C for an hour. Prepare a syrup from granulated sugar and water, boil and immediately pour it over the finished baklava.
Shor gogal
Shor gogal is a round, bright yellow bun that resembles the sun. Gogal is baked with a savory filling consisting of various oriental spices. This salty crumbly pastry is traditionally eaten with sweet tea.
Recipe:
Dough - 1.5 kg of flour, 30 g of yeast, 500 g of milk, 100 g of butter, 6 eggs, salt to taste. Filling - 500 g of flour, 1 teaspoon of anise, cumin, cinnamon, black pepper, turmeric and salt, 3 tablespoons of melted butter. Separately - 1 kg of oil, 1 egg and 100 g of poppy or cumin.
Make a dough (dissolve yeast in warm milk and add flour), put in a warm place. As soon as the dough has increased in size, add the butter and the remaining flour. Mix well until a homogeneous mass is obtained and put in a warm place for another hour. For the filling, crush the spices, add oil. Divide the risen dough into 10 parts, roll each part thinly, generously lubricating with melted butter, and lay on top of each other. Cut the multi-layered dough into strips 6-7 cm wide, then divide into pieces 10 cm each. Twist each part in a spiral, flatten on both sides, make a funnel in the center, put 1 teaspoon of the filling, seal the funnel, flatten again into a cake the size of a palm , brush with beaten egg and bake at 180°C for 30-40 minutes.
Mutaki
These cookies are shaped like ordinary bagels, but have a very special taste. And it's all about the combination of unique crumbly dough with oriental filling. By the way, in Baku these tubes are cooked with nut filling, and in Shamakhi with apricot jam.
Recipe:
Dough - 500 g flour, 100 g butter, 2 eggs, 200 g milk, 10 g yeast. Filling - 200 g ground walnuts and 1 glass of sugar or apricot jam.
Dissolve the yeast in warm milk, beat in the egg, add salt, sugar, melted butter and mix. Add the sifted flour to the mixture and knead the dough. Cover the dough and put in heat for 1-1.5 hours. Prepare the filling: mix crushed nuts, sugar and cardamom, or take apricot jam. Divide the risen dough into 4 parts, roll out, cut into squares, put the filling, wrap in the form of a roll. Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes.
Kurabye Baku
"Kurabie Baku" was a popular cookie in the USSR, and since then its recipe has not changed much. The main thing when baking cookies is not to overexpose them in the oven, they will be dry. The correct kurabye is golden yellow in color.
Recipe:
2 cups flour, 200 g butter, 1 protein, powdered sugar, apricot jam.
Beat softened butter with powdered sugar and vanilla sugar until fluffy. Add protein, mix, add flour and knead a homogeneous dough. Put the dough into a jigging bag and squeeze the biscuits onto a baking sheet through a notched tube. Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes at 200°C. When the cookies have cooled, put some jam in the middle.
Badambura
Badambura resembles a pie with nuts, but of a very beautiful puff shape, sprinkled with powdered sugar. This is a very tender, soft pastry, with a nutty taste and an unforgettable note of cardamom.
Recipe:
Dough - 150 g butter, 1 cup milk, half a tablespoon of yeast, 4 cups flour. Filling - 300 g chopped almonds, 250 g sugar.
Beat the yolks with a pinch of salt, add butter, yeast diluted in warm milk, flour and knead the dough. Send to a warm place for 30 minutes. While the dough is rising, prepare the filling: grind the almonds with sugar and stir. Divide the dough into 10-12 equal parts, roll them into a thin layer, grease each of which with softened butter and fold on top of each other. Roll into a roll and cut into pieces 3 cm thick. Press each piece with your fingers - you get something like a bowl. Place the filling in the cavity and close the edges well. Bake in the oven at 170°C for 25 minutes. Sprinkle cooled badambur with powdered sugar.
Kyata Baku
Azerbaijani cuisine has several types of kata, among them the most popular are Baku, Karabakh and Nakhichevan. They differ in their recipe, shapes and soft filling, which literally melts in your mouth.
Recipe:
Dough - 3 cups flour, 1 egg, 1 cup sour cream, 150 g butter, 1 tsp. yeast. Filling - 1 cup of sugar, 0.5 cups of flour and 100 g of butter.
Knead the dough, cover it with cling film and leave for half an hour in the refrigerator. During this time, prepare the filling. Grate the butter from the freezer, add flour and sugar here. Grind the mass into crumbs. We divide the dough into 3 parts, roll each into a layer, on which we spread the filling. Carefully roll up and cut into slices. We put everything on a baking sheet, grease the top of the kyata with yolk. It is prepared in an oven preheated to 180 ° C for 30 minutes.
Sheker cherek
Sheker churek biscuits occupies one of the places of honor in Azerbaijani cuisine. Easy to prepare, very tasty and tender cookies just can not help but like it. Despite the fact that sheker churek in Azerbaijani means "sweet bread" - this is not bread at all, but very tasty, crumbly, with the aroma of melted butter and very easy to prepare cookies.
Recipe:
1 cup butter and sugar, 2 eggs, 4 cups flour.
Mix granulated sugar with lukewarm melted butter, add eggs, gradually add flour. We roll small balls from the dough, put them on a baking sheet, press down a little on top. Make a small hole in the center of each cookie and brush with egg yolk. Sheker churek is baked in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 20 minutes.
Cookies "Fruits of Azerbaijan"
This is probably the brightest cookie baked by Azerbaijani housewives. They are prepared in the form of apples, pears, peaches, coloring each "fruit" with natural dyes in yellow-red colors.
Recipe:
5 cups flour, 2 cups granulated sugar, 4 eggs, 200 g sour cream and butter, 1 tsp. soda. For decoration - cloves, saffron, beets and granulated sugar.
Eggs are beaten with sugar and butter is added, while soda is mixed with sour cream and added to the whipped mass. Then flour is added in small portions and the whole mass is mixed. Round and egg-shaped balls of various sizes are made from the dough and baked at a temperature of 190-210 ° C for 10 minutes. Hot biscuits are glued together in pairs with beaten egg whites, and topped with saffron infusion (peaches and apricots), beetroot juice (plums and peaches) and breaded in granulated sugar. To form pear sepals, stick one clove into the dough before baking. Pears are dyed on one side with saffron infusion, and on the other side with beetroot juice and breaded in granulated sugar.
Kyoke Nakhchivan
Kyoke is a delicious pie that is prepared for Novruz Bayram in Nakhchivan. It is not sweet at all, the filling looks like meat, but in fact it is an onion cooked using a special technology.
Recipe:
Dough - 1 kg of flour, 350 g of butter, 2 eggs, 2 tsp. yeast and granulated sugar, 1.5 cups of milk, salt. Filling - 450 g walnuts, 2 onions, salt, pepper, turmeric.
Mix half a glass of warm milk with sugar and yeast, after 15 minutes add melted butter, eggs, remaining milk and flour. Knead the dough and leave it for 2 hours in a warm place. In the meantime, prepare the filling - fry the onion in butter until golden brown, add turmeric, pepper, salt and nuts. Form 50 cakes from the dough, roll out, add to each filling and wrap in the shape of a shakerbura. Bake at 200°C for 20 minutes.
The cult of tea and sweets in Azerbaijan, an incredible number of types of jam.
Writes
1. Tea is drunk from a glass typical for this region - armudy (armud - pear), tea does not cool down, and the edges are not hot, very convenient! Moreover, the volume of armuda is sufficient, unlike Turkey, where it is somewhat small. Tea is drunk mostly black, sometimes with the addition of herbs or purely herbal. Green tea is not very popular, but rather came as a fashion trend lately. Tea, of course, without sugar. With tea, there is always an abundance of sweets on the table. 
2. Also, different types of nuts, raisins, pressed sugar with different syrups are served with tea. 
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Jam. 
4. I probably have never eaten such exotic types of jam as, for example, watermelon jam, jam from young walnuts, from white dogwood, from paradise apples. I couldn’t believe the last one for a long time, and I realized that these were apples only after I felt the bones on my tongue, but it looks like a cherry. The last three types of jam are the visiting card of the Gabala region of the country.
Baklava 
5. Baklava is strongly associated with Azerbaijan, each region has its own characteristics. I liked baklava most of all - “uchgulag”, which means treushnik, a sweet zest of the Gabala region of the country. 
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Halva
This dish absolutely changed my ideas about halva, I will dwell on it in more detail. This is a completely different dish, different from the gray mass of seed waste, which is sold here ... On the very first evening, I noted the Sheki halva, the best and most special halva in Azerbaijan.
Wherever you come in the country, be sure to order Sheki halva, it is likely that its taste will make you visit Sheki itself
Halva is an oriental dessert made from sugar, nuts or seeds; the word is used to describe several types of confectionery. One type of halvah is based on ground oilseeds. Another type is based on wheat flour or vegetables.
Sheki halva. 
7. This halva can only be tasted in Azerbaijan. Hard work and cooking conditions limit the ability to cook at home. Therefore, we buy only ready-made. However, this delicacy, along with other national food, is prepared for the Navruz holiday (the ancient holiday of the New Year, celebrated in March). There are many recipes for Sheki halva on the Internet, but real Sheki halva can only be enjoyed in the city of the same name. The fact is that the secret of its production is known to those for whom the preparation of halva has been a family business for 200 years. People call them "halvachi". They do not reveal the recipe to anyone, therefore, no one will ever know how to bake a grid-shaped rishta, how many chopped nuts to add to the dough, how to make sweet syrup. Be careful, in summer, due to the high content of oil and rice flour, halva spoils faster. There is only one thing left - to come and try a piece in person. 
8. Trying this halva back in Baku, I had absolutely no idea how such a taste is formed, soft and crispy at the same time. However, I had an amazing opportunity to see the holy of holies in Sheki - a workshop for the production of halva. This is Mammad Saleh, the owner of a small workshop for the production of Sheki halva, he is a master in the third generation, his father, grandfather, great-grandfather were “halvachs”. 
9. And now about the process of preparing this confectionery masterpiece. First, the dough is prepared on the basis of rice flour, with the help of special containers it is poured onto a hot pan in several layers, forming a grid. This grid is called a rishta, 1 rishta is ready to be removed from the pan in 1 minute. 
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14. Then the dish itself is formed - 6 layers of rice rishta are placed on the bottom, then a special nut mixture is poured and 4 more layers of rice rishta are placed on top 
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18. A special jam is made from saffron, which is used to decorate halva on top, applying it to the surface with a goose feather 
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21. This is a wedding halva: 
22. Then halva is baked in a frying pan for 30-40 minutes 
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24. After that, it is abundantly poured with a special syrup based on sugar or, in a more expensive version, based on honey. 
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26. The next day, halva is soaked: 
27. Then it is cut, weighed and packaged in boxes per kilogram. What scales and what design of boxes! Yes, modern printing can never be compared with this provincial authenticity 
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31. It remains a little to envy these Sheki children who have this incredible natural dessert every day 
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33. Well, our tea party with Azer Gharib, the main traveler of the country, who kindly agreed to tell me the intricacies of Azerbaijani cuisine 
© Alexander Cheban
