Crescent-shaped pastries filled with a sweet mixture of ground almonds, hazelnuts, sugar, and cardamom, with intricate hand-crimped edges. The quintessential Novruz holiday sweet.
Ingredients
500g all-purpose flour
100g butter, melted
2 eggs
100ml warm milk
1 teaspoon dry yeast
200g ground almonds
100g ground hazelnuts
200g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cardamom
Pinch of salt
Instructions
1Dissolve yeast in warm milk, mix with flour, eggs, butter, and salt into a soft dough.
2Rest dough 1 hour.
3Mix ground almonds, hazelnuts, sugar, and cardamom for filling.
4Roll dough into thin circles, place filling on one half, fold into crescents.
5Crimp edges with tweezers to create decorative pattern.
6Bake at 180°C for 18-20 minutes until lightly golden.
7Cool on a rack. Store layered with parchment paper.
Did You Know?
The intricate pinched pattern on shekerbura is created using special tweezers called maqqash, and skilled bakers can produce dozens of identical crescents per hour. The crescent shape symbolizes the new moon of Novruz.