The Sweet Story Of Persian Desserts And Sweets | IranAmaze
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Persian Pastry
The Persian sweets vary regarding the region you’re visiting. During the centuries, Iranians have found out about the Persian dessert recipes, developed them, and forwarded them to the next generations. Some of these recipes even date back to ancient Persia. Some recipes are common everywhere. But, some depend on the available ingredients, such as Persian sweets with rose water, dates, rice flour, and wheat germ. Some sweets and desserts are sugar-free, and some are vegan ones.
The Exclusive Ingredients
Let’s give you a clue to recognize a pure Persian sweet. Cardamom, saffron, and Kashan rose water: wherever they join together, expect a yummy time! You will find these three buddies in most of the traditional Iranian sweet recipes.
Saffron
Rose Wate
The next essential ingredient is rose water. You can find it in different regions of Iran. But, Kashan rose water is the prototype. If you happen to visit the city in early May, you’ll have the chance to see the Kashan rosewater festival.
Cardamom
Desserts or Sweets? That’s the question
The Persian sweets have always had an independent place from Iranian meals. They weren’t only a concluding part of lunch or dinner. It wasn’t among Iranian customs to taste desserts right after their main course. Rather, there has been a separate ceremony after the main course: drinking the Iranian brewed tea together with the Persian pastries.
Tea and its Friends
From the simple sugar cubes to the enriched local Persian sweets, they never let the aromatic Iranian tea be alone. As soon as you get to know the Iranian hospitality culture, you can make sure that after having tried the best Iranian dishes, you are going to the next level — the tea party.
The Origins of the Persian Sweets & Desserts
Actually, you can find various kinds, forms, and tastes of cakes and cookies in every region and city of Iran. Yet, some Persian sweets and their related cities have become more well-known and popular. Here we are going to introduce them.
1. Koolooche
2. Nougat
The great and noble city of Tabriz in the northwest of Iran offers you this specific sweet. It’s a chewy sweet made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts, and whipped egg whites. Nougat became more famous when Google named its android seven after it.
3. Nan Berenji
4. Aard Nokhodchi Cookies
5. Sohan
6. Gaz
One of the most famous souvenirs of Iran and amongst the traditional Persian sweets. It is a chewy sweet made from sugar, egg white, rose water, stuffed with pistachio, almond, and walnut. Gaz is Isfahan’s renown sweet. But it’s also made in other central and western cities like Share-Kord and Kerman.
7. Baklava
A delicious dessert sweet in the Middle East, Central Asian countries, as well as Greece. It has a long history with hundreds of developed recipes from ancient times.
8. Qottab
Small pieces of almond and walnuts filled crescents that are deep-fried and sweetened by rolling in the sugar powder. They are specific sweets of Yazd.
9. Faloodeh
A traditional dessert which is served cold and is suitable for summer. It consists of thin vermicelli-sized noodles made from starch. Faloodeh is floated in a semi-frozen syrup containing sugar and rose water. Some prefer to have it with lime juice or cherry sorbet. This unique Persian dessert originates from Shiraz. Thus, some call it Faloodeh Shirazi.
10. Saffron Ice Cream
A freshening dessert made from milk, eggs, sugar, rose water, saffron, and pistachios crumbs. It is an ancient Iranian dessert. This creamy ice cream was first invented during the Achaemenid dynasty (500 BC).
11. Kolompeh
A stuffed small, flat and round cake from Kerman. It is filled with smashed dates, cardamom powders, and other local flavors. Crushed pistachios are used for decoration.
12. Ranginak
There are different recipes for Ranginak based on the mentioned ingredients in the southern region of Iran. This region’s main product is various kinds of dates.
Sweets for Special Occasions
Like every other culture in the world, we have special desserts or sweets for special occasions like New Year, festivals, mourning ceremonies, and memorials. These occasions are included in Iran holiday packages where you may have the opportunity to experience the process of making Persian sweets and desserts like Samanu and Shole Zard.
Nowruz
The ancient festival of Nowruz is also a festival of baking colorful Persian sweets for entertaining the guests. These sweets and pastries vary in different regions of Iran. But, Persian sweets Baklava, Qottab, Nan Berenji, Aard Nokodchi are common ones you’ll see in most of the Iranian houses.
Besides, there is a special and ancient Iranian dessert that is specific to the new year ceremony: Samanu. This Iranian sugar-free dessert dates back to about 500 AD. Traditional Samanu only has two ingredients: wheat germ and water. Thus, it is also a vegan Persian dessert. It has a special process of preparation that takes about a week. Samanu is one of the elements of the Nowruz Haft-sin table.
Yalda
Every year we celebrate Yalda, the last night of the fall. Based on an ancient custom, Iranians stay together at this longest night of the year to avoid loneliness and darkness. They tell stories, recite poems, and eat nuts and a sweet dessert, Baslogh. It’s a small half-round sweet made of starch, sugar, cardamom, and designed with walnut.
Ramadan
When you have been fast a whole day, and you want to break it at sunset — as Muslims do during the holy month of Ramadan — you need energizing things to eat. In Iran, besides the special meals we serve for this purpose, there are sweets and desserts as well that can be good starters after hours of hunger.
The main Persian sweet that decorates our dish is Zoolbia (Jalebi) and Bamieh. A crispy juicy sweet made of flour and sugar syrup. Also, some kinds of puddings are common these days.
The next favorite pudding is Shole Zard (saffron pudding), cooked rice with saffron, cardamom, rose water. It is also a special dessert for mourning ceremonies like the Muharram festival.
Please Your Sweet Tooth
We have traveled through all the directions in Iran to bring you the famous Persian sweets and desserts, their preparation, and history. But, these were just a small list of the Persian sweets. There are still many more left that you can discover through Iran’s cultural tours and navigating deep into the cities and villages.
Originally published at https://iranamaze.com on August 4, 2020.
