Baku Pakhlava

Dissolve the yeast in warm water at about 35 °C. Add the sour cream, 1 egg, 30 g melted butter, flour, and salt; knead into a soft, smooth dough. Cover it and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Chop the walnuts and mix them with 500 g sugar and ground cardamom. Set aside a few walnut halves for decorating the diamonds.

For the syrup, bring 300 g sugar, 150 ml water, and the saffron to a boil, simmer for 3–4 minutes, remove from the heat, and let cool until warm; then stir in the honey.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces: make two slightly larger for the bottom and top layers, and the rest equal in size. Roll out each piece very thin. Grease the baking pan with butter.

Lay down the thicker bottom sheet of dough, brush it with butter, and sprinkle with some of the walnut filling. Continue layering the thin sheets one by one, brushing each with butter and sprinkling with filling; cover with the top sheet and pinch the edges to seal.

With a sharp knife, cut the pakhlava into diamonds, without cutting all the way through the bottom layer. Brush the top with the yolk of the second egg and place a walnut half in the center of each diamond.

Bake in an oven preheated to 180 °C for 35–40 minutes. Drizzle the top with 100 g melted butter and return the pan to the oven for another 5 minutes, until the surface turns a deep golden brown.

Remove the pakhlava, cut through the diamonds all the way to the bottom, evenly drizzle with the warm saffron-honey syrup, and let it sit for 30 minutes so the syrup soaks in. Serve warm or at room temperature.