Haji Badami

Haji badami is a small Iranian baked sweet made with almonds and egg yolks. Known as a souvenir sweet from Yazd, these small sweets, scented with cardamom and other spices, are also served at tea.

A Small Dough Bound with Egg Yolk

Some almond sweets use egg whites, but for haji badami, egg yolks are whisked with sugar until pale and then combined with crushed almonds and cardamom. Even among sweets made with the same nut, the way the dough is made differs depending on which part of the egg is used.

In one recette (the proportions of ingredients and the method) from Yazd, cardamom and nutmeg are added to egg yolks and powdered sugar and mixed, and then almond flour and chickpea flour are combined in. Rolled into small balls and baked, the dough becomes bite-size sweets. This example, which uses chickpea flour, does not represent the proportions used by every shop or household.

In methods where you grind the almonds yourself, they are blanched in hot water and skinned, lightly toasted, cooled, and then ground. The ground almonds are mixed little by little into the whisked egg yolks and powdered sugar. The dough is rolled into balls about the size of a hazelnut and arranged on a baking sheet with space between them.

Among Iran’s small sweets, nan-e nokhodchi features roasted chickpea flour as its main ingredient. Haji badami is made mainly with almonds and egg yolks, so the combination of ingredients and the method differ.

A Souvenir of Yazd and Methods in Different Places

In Yazd, visitors take sweets home as souvenirs. Haji badami is one of the local sweets, alongside baklava, small cakes, and others. In Iran, almond sweets come in a variety of names and shapes. In Tabriz, large round almond sweets without pistachio decoration are also given as souvenirs. Even under the same name, haji badami, the Yazd example uses egg yolks and chickpea flour, whereas an example from Neyriz, near Shiraz, adds whole eggs and a small amount of oil. No single recipe can define how it is made in every place.

One story about the origin of the name says that a confectioner in Yazd shared with people the sweets he brought back from a pilgrimage. This is a legend, and it does not establish who named the sweet or when.

Glossary