Qottab - Pastry Filled Persian Sweet

Qottab - Pastry Filled Persian Sweet

Qottab is a traditional Persian sweet originating from the City of Yazd in Iran. Enchantingly nicknamed as the 'City of Windcatchers' due to its dry, warm desert climate and recognised as a world heritage site by UNESCO.

Qottab is a pastry filled sweet, usually filled with almonds or walnuts and various other fillings. An extremely morish sweet that I can't get enough of, it's just small enough to fit into your mouth in one scoop, which doesn't help!

I've made mine with coconut but this sweet can me made with a variety of nut fillings.

Ingredients

For the pastry

375g plain flour

187g oil

62g yogurt

1/4 cup or 125ml water

For the filling

1 1/2 tbsp cardamom

20g coconut

50g sugar

For the sugar syrup

1 litre water

50g honey

250g sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

2 / 3 tbsp rose water

1/4 tsp cardamom

For the garnish

1 tbsp of chopped pistachios

1tsp of icing sugar

1tsp of dried crushed rose petals

Method

Step 1

Making the pastry

• Mix the flour and the oil together

• Add the yogurt and knead until the dough starts coming together

• Add the water

• Knead well until all the ingredients have become one and you have a nice ball of dough very much like a short crust pastry consistency

• Cover the dough with cling film

• Set the dough aside to rest for 1 hour or over night in the fridge

Note: If after resting in the fridge the dough becomes hard, do not add water or oil to it, just put it in the microwave for 10 seconds or place in a bowl and put over a bowl of boiling water until the dough softens up.

Step 2

Making the filling

• Add the coconut, cardamom and sugar to a medium sized bowl

• Mix thoroughly

• Set aside

Step 3

• Make small round balls with the dough

• Take each dough ball and flatten each with your fingers so it has enough room for the filling to be folded into it

• Add a half a teaspoon to one teaspoon full of the filling into the middle of the flattened dough

• Fold the dough over to cover the filling

• Start to bring both sides of the dough together so it looks like a parcel

• Start to shape the dough back into a ball

• Place on a baking tray

• Repeat the above steps until you have filled the tray (s)

Step 4

• Pre-heat the oven at Gas Mark 4 (180 °C) for 5 minutes

• Place your tray in the oven and bake for 20 minutes

• After 20 minutes remove one of the balls and break in half to ensure it has baked through

• If the dough ball is light golden brown and has baked through remove the tray from the oven. If not continue baking for another 5 minutes.

Note: Depending on the size of the ball you make you should ideally get 50 mini dough balls.

Step 5

For the sugar syrup

• Add the water to a medium sized saucepan

• Add the sugar and honey

• Place over medium heat so that both the sugar and honey dissolve

• Increase the heat and allow the syrup to reduce to half

• The syrup should be slightly viscous and sticky

• Add the lemon juice and stir on a very low heat for a minute

• Add the rosewater and stir for another minute

• Remove from the heat

• Add the cardamom and set aside

Step 6

Putting it together

• Add the slightly cooled down Qottab to the sugar syrup

• Toss gently in the syrup so all the balls are covered with the sugar syrup

• Allow to soak for 1 hour and from time to time toss gently to ensure maximum syrup coverage (you could also keep this in the syrup over night)

• Remove from the sugar syrup and place on your desired serving plate

• You can now start to pile the Qottab up into a pyramid like the picture

• Sprinkle with icing sugar, pistachios and rose petals

• I also sprinkled some the filling over and around it as well but this is optional

Enjoy eating this scrumptiously morish sweet from the heart of Yazd with a lovely saffron tea. Noosh-e-Jaan :)

Qottab - Pastry Filled Persian Sweet