OH. MY. GOSH! This was scrumptious, but I will tell you that it takes effort. Novruz Bayrami is a National Holiday celebrated on March 19th, and it is a fun tradition that my children look forward to! I enjoy encouraging them to take part in the Holidays from BOTH sides of the family. In an effort to really get into the spirit and celebrate the Holiday, I decided to make three traditional treats that you will find on every table in Azerbaijan on Novruz! This one here is called Shekerbura! (She-ched-buda).
While I would not say that this recipe was hard at all, it certainly was time consuming and took a bit of effort. It truly gave me a whole new respect for the women who had the time and talent that it takes to roll the edges of this dessert! I had spent weeks looking at videos on YouTube and practicing on play-dough in order to prepare myself for the day I made these. Let me tell you, it was not as simple as I had expected.
For me however, it was worth the effort and it was a delicious treat! I will make this again, but only for Novruz as tradition! haha That being said, here is the recipe that I followed to create these sweet little pockets of sugar and walnuts! YUMMMMM...
Here is the recipe that I followed!!
FOR THE DOUGH:
2.2 lbs. flour + 1 tbsp.
14 oz. Unsalted Butter, cut into large chunks
5 Egg Yolks
9 oz. Sour Cream
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Dry Yeast
1 tbsp. Sugar
1/2 c. Lukewarm Milk
FOR THE FILLING:
2 lbs. Walnuts
1.5 lbs. Granulated Sugar
2 tsp. Ground Cardamom
You will also need a "maggash" which is a pair of tweezers used to pinch the designs into this pastry. I got mine on Ebay here, (Not an affiliate link, but it took me FOREVER to find this one and decided it would help you if I linked it here for quick and easy purchasing.): https://www.ebay.com/p/Maqqash-Shekerbura-Novruz-Nowruz-Pastry-Tweezers-Tongs-Crimper-Maqqas-Makkas/859203673
1. Prepare the dough. Put the flour and the butter in a large mixing bowl. Using your hands, rub them together until you obtain fine crumbs. Make sure there are no large crumbs left.
2. In a small bowl, using a spoon, mix the eggs yolks, sour cream, salt and vanilla powder.
3. In another small bowl, put the yeast, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 tablespoon sugar. Fill it with 1/4 cup of lukewarm milk. Let stand for about 2 minutes. Add the egg-sour cream mixture (Step 2.), to the yeast mixture (step 3), to the flour-butter mixture (step 1).
Using your hands, mix the ingredients until fully incorporated and a rough and inconsistent dough is obtained. Transfer the dough to your work surface. Put the remaining 1/4 cup of lukewarm milk in a separate bowl. Constantly wetting your hands with milk, knead the dough for a few minutes to make it smooth.
Shape the dough into a ball. Put it back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave aside to rest for about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the filling. If you are using already skinned nuts, grind them finely in a food processor. In a mixing bowl, combing the ground nuts with sugar. Add the ground cardamom and vanilla powder. Mix until fully incorporated.
To skin walnuts at home: Place raw walnuts in a large frying pan, and roast over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the skins crack and begin to flake off, about 10 minutes. Take care not to burn the nuts. Working with small batches of nuts at a time, place them them on a kitchen cloth and rub with it to remove the skins. Most of the skins will come off although some will still cling to the nut (especially on walnuts). Do not worry, a little skin will not be that visible in the filling.
Divide the dough into 36 balls, each weighing 50 g.
Work with one ball at a time, and cover the rest. Roll each ball into a 4 inch (10 cm) circle.
Place the circle in the palm of your hand, slightly folded, and put 2 tablespoons of the filling in the center.
Starting at one end, begin sealing the left and right edges towards the center to obtain a half-moon shape. Sealed shekerbura must be somewhat chubby from the filling and never flat.
Using your thumb and index finger, start pinching and twisting the dough along the seal to decorate the edges.
Arrange the pastry on a baking sheet, lined with parchment (baking) paper. Continue working with the rest of the dough balls, arranging them on the baking sheet as you are finished decorating their edges.
Now decorate the tops. Holding a pastry in one hand, and a maggash (tweezers) in the other, pinch the dough with the maggash at an angle and slightly lift it upward (see the picture below). Continue until you obtain a row of pattern. Create similar rows, each at an angle to the next one, until the entire surface is decorated.
You finished pattern should look like in the photo below.
If maggash is not available, leave the top of shekerbura plain, without any pattern.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven preheated to 175C (350F) for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges just begin to change their color and the bottom is light brown. Take care not to overbake the pastries – their tops should be light color when baked. If you did not decorate your pastries with the tweezers, coat them with powdered sugar once they cool off.
This is how baked shekerbura looks. NUSH OLSUN! ENJOY!
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