Baked Pastry · Tandoor-Fired

Samsa (Somsa)

Photo: Far Chinberdiev / Unsplash · Unsplash License

Traditional samsa isn't baked in a tray at all — it's stuck to the inner wall of a clay tandoor and peeled off once golden.

Samsa are flaky, folded pastries stuffed with fillings like fatty minced meat and onion, pumpkin, or herbs, then baked against the scorching walls of a clay tandoor until the crust shatters when bitten. Vendors sell them fresh throughout the day at bazaars like Tashkent's Chorsu market.

Why it's made this way: Baking the dough directly against a tandoor's hot clay walls creates the intense, even heat needed for the pastry's signature shattering crust.