Lauzinaj

The Abbasid almond pastry of the Baghdad cookbooks, ground almond and rose water in thin pastry, soaked in syrup

Origin: Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate (present-day Iraq)

From the journey of Almond.

Lauzinaj is one of the most historically significant sweets in the world, for it stands at the head of two great confectionery families. Recorded in the Arabic cookbooks of tenth-century Baghdad, among them the Kitab al-Tabikh of Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq, it is a paste of ground almond and sugar scented with rose water, enclosed in the thinnest sheets of pastry, soaked in syrup, and cut into lozenges. Its very name comes from lawz, the Arabic word for almond. From this single Abbasid sweet descend, on the one hand, the layered nut pastry that became baklava, and on the other, the moulded almond-sugar paste that became marzipan. The sweet belongs to the golden age of the Abbasid court, when newly abundant sugar from the caliphate's plantations met the almond of the Persian and Levantine orchards in the most sophisticated kitchen of its age. The medieval Arab cooks prized the almond above all nuts and treated it as both food and medicine; lauzinaj was a delicacy of the caliph's table, praised by poets, its fineness a mark of luxury. The classic version wraps the perfumed almond paste in a paper-thin pastry, fries or bakes it, and steeps it in rose-scented syrup, dusting the finished lozenges with ground pistachio. To make lauzinaj today is to recover the common ancestor of half the sweet pastries of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, the dish from which both the Turkish baklava and the German marzipan ultimately spring.

Ingredients

Almond filling

  • 250 g blanched almonds, finely ground
  • 120 g caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp rose water
  • 0.5 tsp ground cardamom

Pastry

  • 270 g filo pastry (about 9 sheets)
  • 120 g unsalted butter, melted (or clarified butter)

Rose syrup

  • 250 g sugar
  • 150 ml water
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp rose water

To finish

  • 2 tbsp ground pistachios, to finish

Method

  1. First make the syrup so it can cool: dissolve the sugar in the water over a low heat, add the lemon juice, and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until lightly thickened. Take off the heat, stir in the rose water, and leave to cool completely.
  2. Mix the ground almonds, caster sugar, rose water, and cardamom to a moist, cohesive filling.
  3. Lay a sheet of filo on the work surface, brush lightly with melted butter, and lay a second sheet on top. Cut into wide strips. Place a line of almond filling along the short end of each strip and roll up into a slim cigar, or fold into a triangle.
  4. Set the rolls seam-side down in a buttered baking dish, close together, and brush the tops with the remaining butter.
  5. Bake at 180°C (fan) for 20 to 25 minutes, until crisp and deep golden.
  6. As soon as the pastries come from the oven, pour the cold rose syrup evenly over the hot lozenges. Let them stand for at least 30 minutes to drink in the syrup.
  7. Scatter with ground pistachios and serve at room temperature.

Notes

The most authentic medieval versions deep-fried the filled pastry rather than baking it; baking is the practical modern method. For a version still closer to the original almond paste, omit the pastry entirely, roll the rose-and-cardamom almond paste into lozenges, and dust with pistachio: this is essentially the ancestor of marzipan. Lauzinaj keeps for several days at room temperature.

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