Our article will help you learn how to cook an unusual oriental sweet called shaker borax. The recipe for this treat comes from the national cuisine of Azerbaijan, but many people in Central Asia, the Middle East and the Caucasus love it. In those parts, the borax shaker is served both at the festive table and at ordinary everyday tea drinking. Try to cook this dish and you.
What is a borax hacker?
This recipe is common not only in Asia, but also in many regions. Researchers of culinary traditions of different countries believe that Iran is the historical homeland of this sweetness. In Europe and the States, this beautiful treat is sold in oriental pastry shops and coffee houses.
In form, this baking resembles large dumplings, decorated with an intricate pattern. As a filling, use a mixture of crushed nuts and sugar. A baker’s hacker is baked in the oven, but not for long so that the dough stays light rather than golden.
Essential Ingredients
Azerbaijani borax shaker is prepared from products that can be easily obtained. You can easily find everything you need in any supermarket.
For the test, we need the following:
- wheat flour - 200 g;
- dry yeast - 10 g;
- warm milk - 50 ml;
- sour cream - 1 tbsp. the spoon;
- raw eggs - 2 large or 3 small;
- butter - 50 g.
And for the filling use any nuts: walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, cedar. A mixture of different types of nuts is also suitable. For the specified amount of ingredients, you need about half a glass of nut mass and sugar. But peanuts for this dish are undesirable.
Cooking dough
The bakery dough for a baker’s shaker resembles waffles. Pour yeast and a pinch of sugar into the milk to prepare. Leave in a warm place for a quarter of an hour.
Sift the flour into a deep bowl, slide a hole in the center. Add melted butter, lightly beaten eggs with a fork, sour cream and milk with yeast. Stir until smooth. And now you need to cover the dough with a towel and forget about it for an entire hour.
Nut filling
Borax shaker, the recipe of which, like many other oriental sweets, contains nuts, is a rather high-calorie dish. To prepare the filling, sprinkle the dry kernels of nuts on the board and chop with a knife. Mix the crumbs with sugar in a 1: 1 ratio. Some Azerbaijani hostesses add ground cardamom or vanilla sugar to the resulting mass.
Formation and decoration
Surely you noticed the unusual decor of this dish before you even cook it? The shaker of borax is a very beautiful treat; it is not without reason that in Iran it is served for one of the main holidays of the year - Novruz. On this day, people rejoice in the vernal equinox, and the figured nut treat represents the moon. Please note: in shape it really looks like a crescent.
To form the products, divide the dough into lumps the size of a large apricot. Roll each lump into a cake and lay a ball of nut filling on one side. Pinch the edge, as if sculpting a dumpling.
To get beautiful sides with a pattern, special tongs with spikes are used in Asia. If your arsenal doesn’t have anything similar, experiment with a regular plug. Leave cloves on the sides of the products.
Baking in the oven
Azerbaijani borax shaker is preparing quickly. For baking, a temperature of 170 ° C is enough. Preheat the oven in advance, and set the baking sheet with the sweets laid in one of the lower positions. Bake no more than 15 minutes. Remember: the dough needs only to be dried, and not properly browned.
Once your borax hacker is ready, overload it with a spatula on a wooden board and let cool.
Serving to the table
This treat is served after complete cooling, so it is quite possible to cook it on the eve of the festive feast. The borax shaker, the recipe of which came from Asia, like most similar dishes, does not need additional devices. You can eat this treat simply by hands, holding by the edge and biting off small pieces. However, if it is more convenient for you to use a dessert fork and knife, this will not be considered a mistake or bad manners.
There is another important serving rule: a borax shaker is never served with alcohol. The most suitable drinks for it are aromatic tea, brewed coffee, fresh fruit juices, a decoction of dried fruits or rose hips.