Azerbaijan lands are very famous for their desserts. The same dessert can be prepared in different regions with its own unique styles and their aromatics are individually. All of them are loved with their colorful looks and unique aromas. Many Azerbaijani desserts feature natural ingredients, like honey, nuts, and fresh dough, to make intense flavors without overloading on sweetness. Like many other dishes in Azerbaijani cuisine, desserts can vary from region to region, with some regions specializing in certain desserts.

Pakhlava

"Pakhlava", or "baklava", perhaps the most famous of the national sweets As it’s known internationally it is a rich dessert made of thin pastry layered with honey and chopped nuts. Most commonly served on Nowruz in March, pakhlava has a distinctive diamond shape, which symbolizes fire (called pakhla in Azerbaijani, and a prominent feature in many carpets). There are many variations of baklava in Azerbaijan - Baku, Guba, Shaki, Ganja, and each has its own characteristics. Make sure to try the pakhlava in theese regions famous for their distinctive sweets.

For example, the most common, classical Baku baklava is in the form of diamonds, on the surface of each of which a nutlet is laid. Baklava can contain up to 10-12 layers of thin wheat dough filled with nuts, mixed with sugar and cardamom. Click for the recipe

 The Ganja baklava resembles a Baku baklava, however, pink infusion (gülab) is added to its dough during cooking, and the walnuts used for the filling are completely peeled, making the baklava light. From above, the Ganja baklava is smeared with tincture of saffron and sprinkled with poppy seed, which is also pre-scalded with boiling water and cleaned, therefore the poppies are white.

In turn, Shaki baklava (or halva) is made from rice flour, chopped nuts with spices, syrup or honey. Usually Shaki baklava is cut in the form of rectangles.Click for the recipe 

Guba baklava, is also prepared from rice flour, but it is cut into the usual rhombuses with a nut in the middle, like Baku baklava. At the same time the dough of this baklava is unusual, trellised like a thin mesh. Guba baklava can contain up to 50 layers of dough, layered with nuts. Its production (as well as Shaki baklava) is a labor-intensive process and it is performed mainly by men. By the way, from the same rice dough in Guba they make another original sweetness - bukme. It consists of several layers of lattice rice dough, in which a filling of nuts and granulated sugar with spices is wrapped. You can try this product only in Guba.Click for the recipe

Shekerbura

 Another famous Azerbaijani pastry is sheker-bura, which is often prepared by housewives and found on sale in pastry shops. This pastry features a filling of sweet almonds or nuts, mixed with sugar and cardamom and wrapped in dough. The dough is then pinched shut with an intricate design, and the outside is decorated with special tweezers.screwing the edges with a spiral. . The slightly crescent shape symbolizes the moon. The finished product is light yellow, crumbly and fragrant.It has a recognizable appearance, thanks to a special cooking technology. Like pakhlava, shekerbura is often made for the Nowruz holidays in March. Click for the recipe 

Gogal

Classic gogal is a pastry made of puff dough with various fillings - salt (shor-gogal) or sweet (shirin-gogal). As a sweet filling, a mixture of butter with flour and sugar or nuts ground with sugar is most often used. Shor-gogal is a round yellow bun, filled with fennel and anise seeds, and seasoned with turmeric, salt, and pepper. Though they’re more savory than sweet, shor-gogal are cooked for Nowruz alongside shekerbura and pakhlava, since their round shape symbolizes the sun. The dough for shor-gogal is thin and flaky, and is often made with 9-12 layers, though common wisdom says that the more layers there are, the more flaky and tasty the bread will be.Click for the recipe 

Badam-bura

Badam-bura differs from sheker-bura in that its dough is flaky, and the filling, according to the name (“Badam” in Azerbaijani - almond), must contain chopped almonds, mixed with sugar. But most often, hazelnuts or a mixture of various nuts is put in the badam-bura filling found on sale. The finished product is sprinkled with powdered sugar. Click for the recipe 

Kulcha (Kulche)

Kulcha are a sweet, spicy pastry, traditionally baked in a clay oven. The name kulcha (kulche) probably shares a root with the bread known as kulcha, popular in India and Pakistan. Two different types of kulcha are found in Azerbaijan: spicy kulcha from the northwestern town of Shaki (Р •РЎ›Р ™РІ„Сћki) and stuffed kulcha from the southern town of Lankaran.

Shirin chorek (Sweet bread) or Sud choreyi (Milky bread)  

Enjoy this bread with a cup of strong black tea as Azerbaijanis would typically do. Or, if you are not into tea as much as Azerbaijanis are, enjoy it as a snack, for no reason at all. Just so. It is good. And subtly sweet. And Milky. And Yellow. Click for the recipe 

Nogul

This is the most famous traditional Azerbaijani candy. Sweetness is made by running in sugar syrup cilantro seed (there is also an option with cardamom instead of cilantro). The dressing for cilantro seed is a boiled sugar syrup with the addition of vinegar. In a special pot, seeds of cilantro or cardamom roll overgrown with icing and flour. Gradually, the product increases in shape, acquiring a round bumpy shape. Nogul is a candy with an indescribable original taste familiar to many Azerbaijanis since childhood.

Sheker chorek

Sheker chorek is a simple and popular Azerbaijani pastry, the name of which is translated as “sweet bread”. For its production from the steep sweetened dough, kneaded in melted butter, form balls, which are smeared with egg yolk and baked. It turns out crumbly biscuits, perfectly suitable for home tea. Click for the recipe 

Guymag

Guymag is a rich Azerbaijani dish, high in calories, made from the simplest of ingredients – flour, clarified butter and water. It is traditionally given to mothers who have just given birth and to patients after surgery to keep their strength up. Cinnamon adds a pleasant flavour to Guymag. Guymag also serves as a hot breakfast, when a weather is cold. Guymag should be served hot. Click for the recipe 

Fasali

This exquisite sweetness is not often available, but it is definitely worth finding and trying it out. Fresh dough for fasali cooking is oiled, folded in several layers, cut into rectangles, twisted and flattened in a vertical direction to form a round thin cake with a diameter of 10-12 centimeters. Fasali on both sides are fried in butter in a frying pan, and then sprinkled with powdered sugar. You can imagine what a delicacy in the end it turns out: puff cake, crispy and crumbly, moderately sweet and buttery. Click for the recipe 

Kyata (Keta)

Kyata is a very tasty Azerbaijani national confection, which can be of different forms. Its most common types are the Baku kyata and the Karabakh kyata. Baku kyata is puff, triangular or rectangular, with jagged edges. And the Karabakh kyata resembles a wide flat bun with a sweet filling. And in both varieties of kyata filling is made from butter, ground with sugar and flour. Each type of kyata has its admirers. Click for the recipe 

Kurabiye

Easy to prepare, but very tasty cookies - kurabiye, in Azerbaijan you will find in any pastry shop. Kurabiye in Baku style is made from shortcrust dough and is a flower-shaped cookie, in the center of which is placed a drop of jam. However, the form of kurabiye may differ. There are cookies in the form of sticks, with a hollow along the entire length, filled with fruit jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Whatever form it is, tender kurabye will be enjoyed by both adults and children. Click for the recipe 

Bamiyah (BallР ”Р’±badР ”Р’±)

 Bamiye is a rather unusual sweetness. It is made from choux pastry, which is passed through a meat grinder with a special nozzle with a toothed hole in the middle. It turns out ribbed flagella dough, which is cut into equal parts, 7-8 centimeters long and fried in vegetable oil. After that, the bamiye is placed in sugar syrup to saturate. Finally, after drying, sweetness is sprinkled with sugar. As a result, bamiye acquires a crisp outside, while remaining juicy and tender inside. Click for the recipe

Mutaki

Mutaki (mütР ™РІ„СћkkР ™РІ„Сћ) are a popular pastry across Azerbaijan. The pastry takes its name from a traditional Azerbaijani bolster, the mütР ™РІ„СћkkР ™РІ„Сћ, with which it shares its shape. The pastry for mutaki can also be made with yeast, using the same method and ingredients as for sweet nut pies (shekerbura). These, a kind of bagels with a fruit filling are made from sweet yeast dough, rolled up in the form of tubes. For the filling, most often use apricot jam. The filling is put on a piece of dough in the form of a triangle and rolled into a tube. Mutaki are light yellow, soft and crumbly. Click for the recipe  

You can see that sweet resemblance between mutaki dessert and pillow by looking attentively at the photo. :))