Nowruz Favorite · Almond-Cardamom Turnover
Qottab
Photo: Mehdi / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Yazd's qottab is fried, not baked, and rolled in powdered sugar while still warm, so a thick sweet coat clings to the crisp shell around the almond filling.
A dough enriched with yogurt and butter is filled with ground almonds or walnuts, sugar, and cardamom, folded into a crescent, and deep-fried until golden, then dusted with powdered sugar. Yazd's bakeries sell it year-round, with sales spiking around the Persian new year.
Why it's made this way: Yazd is Iran's best-known source for qottab, and the city's version — sweet, cardamom-forward, and tied to Nowruz — is treated as the standard-bearer for the pastry nationwide.
More from Iran
Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.