Qottab

Apart from historical monuments and warm-hearted people, Yazd is also famous for its delicious sweets. The people of Yazid use a variety of raw materials to make delicious sweets that can satisfy all tastes! One of the famous sweetmeats of Yazd is Qottab, which is served with the evening tea. Even though Qottab is known as a Yazdi sweetmeat, it is also produced in Kerman and is very popular there.

Ingredients

Egg yolks: two

Yogurt: half a pint

Butter: 100 grams

White flour: two cups

Baking powder: one tablespoon

Walnut kernels or pistachio kernels: three-quarters of a cup

Powdered sugar: three-quarters of a cup

Rose water: one tablespoon

Cardamom powder: one tablespoon

Cinnamon: half a teaspoon

Sometimes, instead of walnuts or pistachios, other nuts such as peanuts are also used; although rarely!

Rose water gives a pleasant aroma to Yazdi cake, but be careful not to add too much, because it may destroy the sweet taste of Yazdi cake and even give it a bit of bitter taste.

Recipe

One hour before the start of baking Qatab, leave out the butter and other ingredients that are usually kept in the refrigerator so that they all will have the same temperature.

Stir the egg yolks to the point that they become rather thick.

Add the softened butter and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth. Now it is time to add the yogurt in the same way and stir the mixture.

Sift the flour and baking powder together to separate the powdery part. It is very important to remove the pellets, otherwise, hard grains may appear in the structure of Yazdi cake. Add flour and baking powder to the ingredients slowly in several steps, so that no part gets lumpy. After the mixture of flour and baking powder has become a bit thick you can knead it a beat with hand to make it even smoother but it should not start sticking to your hand.

Place the dough in a deep container, cover it with cellophane, and leave it in a warm place. After an hour, the batter will be ready.

In the meantime, prepare the mixture that should be put inside your Qottab.

Crush the pistachio or walnut kernels but do not turn them into powder. At the same time, the pieces should not be too coarse. Pour the crumbs into a container, add two tablespoons of powdered sugar, cinnamon and cardamom powder, and mix everything together. Finally, add rose water. This mixture should not take the form of a paste. Thus, avoid beating or stirring it too much.

After an hour, spread the dough on a flat surface in such a way that its diameter does not exceed half a centimeter. Cut the dough and put some of the mixture in the middle of the dough in each cut. Lift one side of the dough and put it on the other side and press the edges with your hands so that the mixture fits inside the dough. If you like, you can close the dough in a cylindrical or spherical shape, but in this case, it will be more difficult to fry it. The last step of making Qottab is to fry it. Fry them until they turn golden.

Qottab absorbs a lot of oil during frying, so after frying, wrap it in a kitchen paper towel to absorb the excess oil. This also helps to cool down the Qottabs.

The last step is rolling the Qottabs in powdered sugar, but make sure they have become cool enough because the hot ones will not absorb the powdered sugar.

If you want to use less oil and make the Qottab more dietary, you can also make it in an oven. For this, put the Qottabs on the oven tray and put it in the oven after it reaches a temperature of 180 degrees.

One of the famous sweetmeats of Yazd is Qottab, which is served with the evening tea. Even though Qottab is known as a Yazdi sweetmeat, it is also produced in Kerman and is very popular there.