Almond Candy

Baghdad is reputed to be the homeland of almond candies. Almonds, which originated in central Asia, were introduced to the Mesopotamian region thousands of years ago. In Akkadian, ‘luzu’ was its name (Thompson, The Assyrian Herbal). With the arrival of cane sugar around the fourth century ad, almond pastries and candies, called lawzeenaj, became favorite desserts. Of this almond confection, two kinds were made: lawzeenaj mugharraq (drenched in syrup and oil) and lawz