Badambura

Badambura is an Azerbaijani confection in which a filling of almonds, sugar and cardamom is wrapped in dough. Powdered sugar is dusted over the pale, many-layered dough, and biting into it reveals bits of nut inside. It is one of the confections made for Novruz in spring, but it is also served at wedding celebrations and as everyday hospitality over tea.

Layering and rolling the dough, then wrapping the filling piece by piece

Layered badambura starts with a dough that combines wheat flour with butter, sour cream, yeast and other ingredients. The rolled-out dough is separated layer by layer with fat and divided into small rounds, and then the filling is placed in the center and the edges are closed. Rather than baking a large tray of pastry with nut filling sandwiched inside and cutting it afterward, the confection is baked with the filling already wrapped in each individual piece.

One specific layering method is to stack four thin sheets of dough with fat spread between them and cut them into narrow strips. Each strip is rolled up into a coil to make the dough for one piece, then pressed flat and rolled out into a round. The filling is placed in the center, and the edges are closed with a twisting motion. Because the stacked sheets are rolled up and then rolled out, fine layers appear on the outside. Since the crust of flour and fat and the filling of nuts and sugar are prepared separately before wrapping, the outside and inside can be finished with different textures.

The almonds are skinned, dried and then crushed. The basic way of making the filling is to use almonds that have been dried rather than left wet, and to mix them with sugar and cardamom. Cardamom is written hil in the local language. Even in a small amount, it adds a clearly noticeable aroma to the mild flavor of the almonds.

Yeast is also used to make the dough soft; creating large air bubbles as in bread is not its only purpose. In badambura, the softness of the fermented dough combines with the fineness of the layers separated by fat. The amounts of sour cream and yeast and the layering methods vary, so no single formulation can describe every product.

Badambura with spiral layers showing on the surface. Photo: Sefer azeri, 2021-05-01, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Full size, no additional processing.

A finish that holds back browning

The layered version presented by Azerbaijan’s tourism board is baked at a low temperature so that it keeps a white appearance without turning brown. It looks white not only because sugar is dusted on at the end; the method also holds back the browning of the dough itself. Rather than the flavor of a deeply browned surface, it offers the soft crust containing fat and the flavor of the almond filling.

Shekerbura is also an Azerbaijani confection in which a sweet nut filling is wrapped piece by piece. Whereas shekerbura has fine patterns cut into its surface, badambura, made with layered dough, is characterized in appearance by its many visible layers of dough. Even though their filling ingredients are similar, the differences in how the crust is made and finished set them side by side as separate confections.

Fillings other than almond, and a fried method

Badam means almond, and the name of the confection contains this word. The typical description is also of an almond filling, but some current products use hazelnuts. Mama’m Bakery, a confectionery company in Baku, lists hazelnuts, cardamom, sour-cream-type ingredients, yeast and other items among the ingredients of its badambura. Although the name contains the word for almond, not all products necessarily contain almonds.

Methods also vary. Another method published on Azerbaijan’s official portal wraps almonds and sugar in a dough made with sour cream and baking soda, fries it in vegetable oil, and dusts it with powdered sugar once it has cooled. The layered, white-baked version and this fried version are recorded under the same name. While the powdered sugar and nut filling remain in common, the appearance of the crust changes depending on whether the fat is used in the layers of the dough or for the final cooking.

On the Novruz table, badambura is set out together with pakhlava, shekerbura and gogal. The household tray that cultural anthropologist Aneta Strzemżalska recorded in Baku in 2024 also held these four kinds. She also notes that cases of replacing home-baked confections with store-bought ones are increasing. Today, badambura still appears on festive trays and also accompanies everyday tea.

Glossary