Qottab

Qottab (قطاب) is a small Iranian confection made by wrapping a sweet nut filling in a wheat-flour pastry, deep-frying it and dusting it with powdered sugar. Beneath the white surface lie a thin fried pastry and a filling scented with cardamom. It is known as a specialty of Yazd and is also prepared for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, which begins at the spring equinox. There are both round parcels and half-moons with twisted edges, so it cannot be pinned down to a single shape by appearance alone.

Fillings that differ between Yazd and Kerman

Qottab is not a confection of Yazd alone. Kerman also has a confection of the same name, and a regional difference is described: whereas Yazd’s centers on almonds, Kerman’s uses pistachios or walnuts. Both are finished with powdered sugar, but the color of the filling revealed when a piece is broken open, the oiliness of the nuts and the aroma all change. There are also home-style methods that use walnuts and bake the pastries in an oven. Therefore, “a fried pastry filled with almonds” may be a representative description, but it is not a definition that applies to every method.

Pastry and filling beneath the powdered sugar

The representative Yazd filling consists of almonds, sugar and cardamom. Because finely ground almonds are mixed with powdered sugar, it differs from fillings with a high moisture content, such as bean paste. Some methods bind it with rose water, but wrapping it while still a dry powder is also a local tradition. Rose water is not necessarily essential for flavoring, and how the aromas of nuts and spices are combined is what distinguishes one maker from another.

The pastry also varies. While some recipes (sets of ingredient proportions and methods) add egg yolk or yogurt, Yazd also has a tradition of making it without eggs or milk, by combining wheat flour, solid fat and lukewarm water. The method published by the cook Elaheh Mirafzali is one example. A soft dough containing ghee or another fat is rolled thin, the filling is placed on it, and the opening is sealed. When a circle of dough is folded in half and the joined edges are twisted shut, a continuous pattern forms along the outer edge of the half-moon. Another method is to gather the opening in the hand and shape the pastry into a round.

The powdered sugar added after frying is not just a decoration covering the browned surface. It provides the first sweetness in the mouth, followed by the textures of the pastry and the nuts. In Mirafzali’s method, the oil is drained off and the pastries are dusted with powdered sugar while still warm. Some are finished with a scattering of pistachios, so that green flecks appear on the white surface. Even when nuts are visible on top of the powdered sugar, they do not necessarily indicate the type of filling inside.

Other Iranian confections also wrap nuts and sugar in thin dough. In the case of qottab, clues for identifying it are that small sealed parcels are made one at a time and that fried pastry is combined with powdered sugar. It differs from confections finished by soaking in syrup both in how sweetness is added and in mouthfeel.

Small confections for welcoming guests at New Year

In Yazd and Kerman it is sold boxed as a souvenir, while in Yazd households it is also a confection for welcoming guests at Nowruz, the New Year at the spring equinox. Some is sold boxed in uniform shapes, while some is wrapped one piece at a time at home for welcoming guests.

The name “qutab” appears in the food lists of the Ain-i-Akbari, a late 16th-century record of the Mughal court. However, its ingredients are meat, wheat flour, ghee, onion, ginger and spices, and the record also notes that in India it is called “sanbusa.” The sweet qottab of present-day Yazd, with its nut filling and powdered sugar, cannot be equated with the recipe in this record. Even though an old name survives in the record, that alone cannot determine a year of invention for the Yazd style or a direct lineage leading to it.

Qottab dusted with powdered sugar. One broken piece shows the two-layer structure of pastry and nut filling. Photo: Shams948 / CC0 1.0, original image.

Glossary