Kolompeh

The date paste is enclosed completely, so it bakes like a small pie rather than a filled biscuit.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (milk).

Ingredients

for the pastry

• 500 g plain flour
• 200 ml sunflower oil
• 100 g sugar
• 150 ml warm milk
• 7 g fast-action yeast
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

for the filling

• 400 g dates, stoned
• 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 80 g walnuts, chopped
• 3 tablespoons sunflower oil

to finish

• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, or ground
• 40 g pistachios, slivered

Method

1. THE DATE PASTE IS ENCLOSED COMPLETELY, SO IT BAKES LIKE A SMALL PIE RATHER THAN A FILLED BISCUIT. Its article says kolompeh looks like a pie with a mixture of minced dates, cardamom and other flavouring inside, and that is the distinction worth drawing: two discs of pastry, edges sealed all the way round, with the filling in a sealed chamber. The other date pastry on this site is a ball of dough folded around its filling and flattened. Here the filling steams inside its case and stays soft and wet, which is why the pastry has to be thin and the seal has to be complete -- a leak and the sugar runs out and welds the thing to the tray.
2. THE DATES ARE MINCED TO A PASTE, NOT CHOPPED. Its article says minced dates. Stoned and worked with the oil and cardamom in a processor or pounded, until it is a smooth spreadable paste. Chopped dates leave gaps and the filling collapses unevenly.
3. THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF CARDAMOM AND IT IS THE POINT. Two teaspoons in the filling and one in the pastry. Its article names cardamom immediately after the dates, ahead of everything else.
4. THE PASTRY IS MADE WITH OIL RATHER THAN BUTTER. Its article names cooking oil among the four main ingredients, with dates, wheat flour and walnuts. Oil gives a softer, more pliable pastry that takes a seal better than a butter dough.
5. IT IS ROLLED THIN AND CUT IN PAIRS. Two millimetres, cut with a round cutter, filling on one disc, the second laid over and the edges pressed with a fork all the way round.
6. THE TOP IS PRICKED SO IT DOES NOT BURST. Two or three small holes in the upper disc to let steam out. This is the other half of the sealed-chamber problem.
7. SESAME OR PISTACHIO ON TOP, PRESSED IN. Its article names pistachios or sesame powder as the usual decoration, brushed on with a little milk so they stay.
8. IT BAKES AT 175C FOR AROUND TWENTY-TWO MINUTES. Until just coloured. The pastry is thin and oil-rich and goes from pale to dark quickly.
9. IT COMES FROM KERMAN AND IT IS NOW MADE IN FACTORIES. Its article places it in Kerman, lists the local ingredients used for it -- local oils, Kerman dates, Persian walnuts, local cardamom, sesame and wheat -- and notes industrially produced kolompeh has become one of the city's main souvenirs.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Iran · All recipes