Famous Azeri Desserts (by Leyla Baghirzadeh)

 
   
Baku's Pakhlava (Baklava)

Ingredients*:
Best quality wheat flour: 600g,
Sugar powder: 200g,
Melted butter: 40g,
Sugar: 50g,
Honey: 100g,
Minced walnuts: 200g,
Cardamon: 1g,
A pinch of salt,
One table spoon of lemon juice.

*All ingredients can be purchased in any grocery store.

Preparation: Baklava has very complicated technological process.
Take wheat flour of the best quality (4/5th of a glass). Add water, salt, melted butter, sugar powder, lemon juice and knead the dough in a big basin. The rest of flour should be left for rolling. Knead the dough again for about 20-25 minutes. Then sprinkle it with water, divide it into large rolls. Each roll should be sprinkled with cold water and kept for a while.
Knead the dough, scatter it with flour and keep it for 10-15 minutes. The pastry becomes elastic as a rubber. Roll the dough into 4-5 mm thick pieces that fit the cooking pan. As you lay the rolled dough on a pan scatter the stuffing on each layer. Cut the dough in the pan into rhomboid pieces, pour the melted butter on top and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes (approx.350F). The baklava should be cooled down. Pour the syrup made of honey on top. It is recommended to keep the syrup warm after preparing it.
Baklava should be kept in syrup for 5 minutes and could be served after.

To prepare stuffing: Mix minced walnuts with crushed cardamon and sugar.
   

Shakarbura

Ingredients*:

Best quality wheat flour: 500g,
Melted butter: 150g,
Milk: 200ml,
Eggs: 2 pc.,
Yeast: 20g,
Almond or hazelnut: 400g,
Sugar: 400g,
Cardamom: 1g,
Saffron: 0.5g,
A pinch of salt.

*Most of ingredients can be purchased in any grocery store. Saffron can be purchased in specialized middle-Eastern shops.
Preparation: Dissolve yeast in a milk heated up to 30-35oC and add some salt. Scatter the wheat flour into a separate basin, add milk with yeast, eggs, melted butter, and saffron water and knead the dough. Cover it and leave in heated place for 1,5 hours, to let it rise. When the pastry is rising, split it on 30g pieces and using a roll pin, roll them into 2mm thick sheets. Then, add the stuffing into the rolled pastry, fold it up, twist the edges into helical form. Place shakarbura on the palm of the left hand and with the right hand decorate it with tweezers putting different decorations on its surface. Put shakarbura in a copper tray or metal sheet and leave it for a short time. Then, bake it in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 180-200oC. When shakarbura is ready take it out from oven and cool down.

To prepare stuffing: About one pound of sweet almond should be scattered into boiled water and stewed for 5-8 minutes. Mince skin-free, dry almond through the grater with fine holes. Add sugar and minced cardamon in proportion 1:1. Fried, whitened hazelnuts could be used instead of almonds.
   

Shor Goghal
Ingredients*: Stuffing for goghal:

Wheat flour: 700g,
Yeast: 20g,
Salt: 5g.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wheat flour: 30g,
Melted butter: 30g,
Beaten up egg-white: 2 pieces,
Caraway: 1g,
Ginger: 0.5g,
Black pepper: 0.5g,
Salt: 2g,
Poppy seeds: 2g,
Saffron: 0.5g,
Cinnamon: 0.5g.
*Most of ingredients can be purchased in any grocery store. Saffron can be purchased in specialized middle-Eastern shops.
Preparation: Add water, yeast and salt into best grade wheat flour, and knead dough. Wrap the dough. Leave it for 1-1.5 hours in a heated place to let it rise. When the pastry is ready, split it on pieces and roll them 0.5mm thick. The rolled sheets should be flatten and put on each other in layers of 8-10 pieces. Then, cut them in 10x15 cm size, roll and press them by hand. Make them in form of a hat, and put 25-30 g of stuffing inside of each. Then edges of the dough should be spliced and smoothed. The surface of goghals is covered with yolk mixed with saffron water, and scattered with poppy seeds. Goghals are laid on an oiled pan, and baked in an oven or in a stove.

To prepare stuffing: Mix beaten up egg-white with melted butter, adding pounded caraway seeds, pepper, cinnamon, salt, ginger, wheat flour and crumple until you get granulated paste.
   
Şəki Ovması (Sheki Crumbles)  

Ingredients*:

Best quality wheat flour: 1000g,
Butter: 150g,
Sour milk: 200ml,
Eggs: 2 pc.,
Yeast: 20g,
Almond or hazelnut: 400g,
Sugar: 300g,
Cardamom: 0.5g,
Saffron: 0.5g,
Coriander seeds: 3g,
Ginger: 0.5g,
Poppy seeds: 0.5g,
A pinch of salt.

*Most of ingredients can be purchased in any grocery store. Saffron can be purchased in specialized middle-Eastern shops
Preparation: Mix wheat flour, yeast and water. Add syrup made from sugar and saffron. While kneading dough gradually add sour milk, minced cardamom, ginger and coriander seeds. When dough is ready, divide it into 500-600 g rolls. Keep them under a table-cloth for 10-15 minutes. Then roll the pieces to make them 10-15 mm thick. Decorate them with a special stick, paint with egg and saffron water mixture, and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake them in a tile stove or in the oven.
   
Shakarchorak  

Ingredients*:

Best quality wheat flour: 500g,
Melted butter: 250g,
Egg white: 2 pc.,
Sugar: 300g,
Vanilla: 2g,
Clove: 2g,
A pinch of saffron.
*Most of ingredients can be purchased in any grocery store. Saffron can be purchased in specialized middle-Eastern shops.
Preparation: Melted butter and sugar should be thoroughly whipped within half an hour. Gradually add egg white. Then add vanilla and wheat flour into obtained mixture. Knead dough. Divide it into 50-60 g round pieces. Make a small dent in the middle of each piece. Drop saffron water into it and put a piece of clove. Then place them on a buttered pan and bake in the oven at a moderate temperature.