Persian desserts

Persian sweets — from Iran, Afghanistan, the diaspora and Armenian neighbours — are the most floral of the world's great dessert traditions. The defining flavours are rosewater, orange-blossom water, saffron, cardamom, pistachio, almond, and the unmistakable golden-thread sweetness of the country's prized kashk-e-zafarani saffron infusions.

The repertoire includes the layered sugar-floss of pashmak from Yazd, the chilled saffron-rosewater ice cream of bastani sonnati, the saffron rice pudding called sholeh zard, the syrup-soaked semolina sponge of revani, and the milk-pudding malabi (shared with the Levant). Many of these sweets were developed across centuries of court cuisine and remain associated with specific cities — pashmak with Yazd, gaz with Isfahan, sohan with Qom.

Persian sweets are typically lower in sugar than their Arab cousins and higher in fragrance — a single rose petal or saffron thread is asked to do considerable work.