{"id":129091,"date":"2026-02-10T18:55:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129091\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:55:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:55:38","slug":"a-guide-to-brooklyn-bakery-diljans-afghan-baked-goods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129091\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guide to Brooklyn Bakery Dilj\u0101n\u2019s Afghan Baked Goods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nestled out in Brooklyn Heights since December, tiny bakery Dilj\u0101n<\/a> has been selling out of its Afghan baked goods and breads. Co-owners Ali Zaman and Mohamed Ghiasi (of Astoria\u2019s Little Flower Cafe<\/a>) wanted to bring the traditional breads that the Afghan Americans grew up eating, with the help of skilled co-owner, baker, and friend Bryan Ford.<\/p>\n

Here, Eater NY takes a closer look at the baked goods that are defining Dilj\u0101n, from the best-selling saffron shah to halwa sticky bun to the giant Afghan naans.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The saffron shah at Dilj\u0101n. Dilj\u0101n\/Official<\/p>\n

A crescent-shaped pastry stuffed with saffron pastry cream dipped in saffron-laced chocolate<\/p>\n

Ali Zaman: Everyone\u2019s done rose water and cardamom, but I was like, \u2018Let\u2019s just try to see what we could do with saffron.\u2019 [Ford] made these beautiful crescents \u2014 the Islamic symbol.<\/p>\n

Bryan Ford: I made a pastry cream with saffron, and bloomed it in the milk for the pastry cream \u2014 no vanilla, because we really want the saffron to shine brightly. I decided to make white chocolate tempered with saffron, which I blended and dipped the pastry into, which creates that nice little crunch. It\u2019s very saffron-forward, but the white chocolate helps break it up.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The halwa sticky bun at Dilj\u0101n. Dilj\u0101n\/Official<\/p>\n

A sweet roll topped with scattered blocks of semolina pudding<\/p>\n

Zaman: Bryan was really smart to say, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we take that same concept, but put it in a sticky bun?\u201d It\u2019s very ooey-gooey, like a cinnamon bun.<\/p>\n

Ford: Halwa would be really cool in a sticky bun with gur<\/a> [jaggery], butter, all the nuts \u2014 almonds, walnuts, pistachio \u2014 and we just made a badass sticky bun. I put chunks of halwa on the pan, and then I put the dough, so when I invert it, the halwa is crispy right on top. It\u2019s got a little toastiness.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The sheer pira at Dilj\u0101n. Dilj\u0101n\/Official<\/p>\n

A round pastry filled with the Afghan milk fudge<\/p>\n

Ford: Some flaky dough, put a layer of pistachio frangipane, bake it, and then I shove the milk fudge into it, and top it with a vanilla diplomat cream, which just gives it a lot of different textures and a little bit of lightness to cut the milk fudge because it\u2019s so rich. It\u2019s dense but light, it\u2019s got cardamom, rose water, sugar syrup, and milk powder. You can fold nuts into it; we do pistachio.<\/p>\n

\"Breads<\/a><\/p>\n

The panja and roghani at Dilj\u0101n. Dilj\u0101n\/Official<\/p>\n

Afghan naan e panja and roghani<\/p>\n

Ford: I gathered information from Ali, Mohamed, and the parents \u2014 they\u2019ve eaten the bread the way it\u2019s supposed to taste, so I drew on their flavor, aesthetic, and smell notes.<\/p>\n

Zaman: The panja is more of a flat traditional bread. The reason why it\u2019s so special to me is that you literally see Bryan\u2019s fingerprints in every single piece of bread that comes out. It\u2019s such a personal, intimate bread. It has to have just enough fluff, but it also has to have a nice crispy bottom, and the indentation with your fingers has to be in this sort of way.<\/p>\n

Ford: The panja\u2019s got to have a decent amount of whole wheat, so I sourced stone-ground flours that could emulate that: Cairnsprings Mills<\/a> [in Washington state] and Brooklyn Granary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zaman: The sourdough gave it this nice little tang, which I wasn\u2019t fully used to, but it was such a perfect addition.<\/p>\n

Zaman: \u201cRoghan\u201d in Farsi is \u201coil;\u201d \u201croghani\u201d is something that is oily, so it\u2019s bread with more oil. We found the sweet spot with 18 percent more olive oil.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nestled out in Brooklyn Heights since December, tiny bakery Dilj\u0101n has been selling out of its Afghan baked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,2372,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-129091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-dining-out-in-ny","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}