Toot – Marzipan Mulberry
Hurricane Sandy huffed and puffed and blew through the East Coast on Monday and in her wake left a trail of heartbreaking woe. I was among the lucky ones who didn’t experience any hardship save for dealing with the freaky fact of the NY subway shutdown, but many people and businesses were hit hard. We New Yorkers are damn resilient but it does feel like it will take a long time to recover from this – kind of like how it felt in the eerie aftermath of 9/11. In circumstances like this, one’s mind doesn’t necessarily make a leap to: “let’s write a blog post about the Persian marzipan mulberry confection!” but promises were made (hi Norma!) and there’s the prompt of a bake sale to help a lovely lady (more on that below,) and so it’s all good in the end. And with that, let’s talk about:
Toot! What a fun word. In any language. Let’s say it again twice: toot toot! (This one’s for you Veronica!) In Farsi, toot is what we call the sweet and juicy and very popular mulberry fruit. Sundried Mulberries are also popular and available year round as a delicious snack that goes just marvelously with hot tea, and makes a terrific trail mix.
Since leaving Iran, I have not had a single mulberry, but when we lived there, I used to climb up the trees in my family’s fruit garden in the summer and gobble up as many mulberries as I could all while trying to zone out the high-pitched scolding of the woman who took care of us and who considered my behavior distinctly unladylike. If she only knew that she was thus rudely interfering with what was destined to be my brief window of mulberry-gorging opportunity, perhaps she may have allowed me to enjoy being a greedy tomboy in peace.
Here’s a pretty picture of a bowl of fresh mulberries (picture courtesy of Emily Ho of Sustainable Foodworks) that I found on flickr. Aren’t they beautiful?
So now, Toot is also what we call the marvelous marzipan confection that is made to resemble this delicious fruit. It uses dreamy ingredients like rosewater and cardamom and requires no baking: just some prep work and then some zen hands-on assemblage. Toot is typically served at weddings and it is also made for the Persian New Year. In fact, the pictures you see here are from the batch that Maman and I made this past Norouz.
(I won’t forget that batch. We didn’t have blanched almonds so per this handy dandy guide I blanched and peeled and roasted our almonds. The process was …. well, to paraphrase David Foster Wallace (RIP), it was a fun thing that I hope I’ll never have to do again. Admittedly though, the sweet smell of roasted almonds was delightful. )
We’re going to make a fresh new batch of toot for whoever makes the highest bid on it at the bake sale organized by Veronica to help Suzie. So if you’ve been looking at the pictures and thinking to yourself “boy oh boy, I needs me some toot” then head on over to the bake sale and make a bid. It is for a good cause, y’all! And need I remind you: toot is totes delicious!
Of course, we have the recipe as well, as always. And this time, we even have a video! Woot! Toot!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup slivered almonds or 2 cups ground almond
- 1 cup powdered sugar or confectioners sugar (to mix with the ground almonds)
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar (to roll the “mulberry” to cover)
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2-3 tablespoons rosewater
- slivered pistachios (approximately 1/3 cup)
Direction
- Using a spice grinder or food processor, finely grind almonds. You should end up with 2 cups of ground almond powder.
- Mix ground almonds, confectioners sugar and cardamom in a big bowl. Fluff and blend mixture with a fork to evenly mix the ingredients. Gradually blend in the rosewater, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, and work the paste with your hands to mix well. Set aside for half an hour.
- Take a small amount of paste and roll between your hands to form a hazlenut-sized ball. Flatten the ball between palms then using your fingers form it into the shape of a mulberry.
- Roll the mulberry shaped dough in the granulated sugar until all sides are lightly covered with sugar. Re-form into mulberry shape if needs be. Insert sliver of pistachio as a stem. Repeat process until you run out of paste. (We’ve uploaded a how-to video for you here which should shed some light on the matter.)
Serving
The downside of toot is that it dries out rather quickly. The upside is that since they are highly addictive and delectable you won’t really have to deal with the trouble of having any left to store. But let’s say you live in a household with highly disciplined people and you have a bunch left, then what you do is that you cover the lot tightly with plastic wrap and store it in an airtight container or in a cookie jar in a cool dry space. Don’t leave them out al fresco, is what we’re trying to say here.
Make it, and enjoy it, and noosheh jaan!
I am so happy you are safe! Yes, New Yorkers are resilient!
This looks so appetizingly delicious! It is a marvelous confection! What a wonderful gift for people too!
Thank you for visiting petit! And you’re right it would make a nice gift. I think that’s what you meant, right?
Yes, I was thinking of my co-workers if I attempt to prepare. Your creation looked incredible!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I will make this before the end of this year, and will let you know.
You better! I was considering ditching the whole post (due to exhaustion) and then thought, no, I can’t do that, Norma needs it!
)) But seriously: you’re more than welcome and can’t wait till you make it and tell me what you make of it.
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Woot woot! Or should I say “toot toot?” LOL! Thank you so much for donating this to the bake sale, Azita, I’m just delighted. I know I will be making this in the future as I can just imagine the flavor in my head and know I’d love it! You’ve given me an idea to try drying mulberries and if I’m successful next summer, I will ship some to you! Fresh is best, but I guess dried ones are better than nothing.
Ooh Veronica, I hadn’t even thought of that but yeah, that would be great if you ventured into a little dried-mulberry side project. When time approaches remind me, I’ll do some sleuthing and see if I can come up with any ancient Persian hints of drying mulberry. Woot indeed! Hope the bake sale goes really really really well for Suzie!
Azita, I love the video and recipe for Toot! Yes, we find that way to much fun to say
I have mulberry trees here but, have only seen the berries when they are white as the birds pick them all. Thank you so much for participating and posting today! xoxo
It was truly my pleasure Suzie!
Seriously you’re hysterical! “Give it a pat pat pat” and you’re “super clear instructions”. SO funny and they look so good! I was thinking about these over the summer and was waiting for Norooz to make them… however I don’t think I’m going to make it that long!
See how easy they are to make though? Don’t wait for Norooz! Make toot while ‘ye may!
Toot-a-rama! So glad you’re safe!
These do sound delectable. As always, beautifully written.
Thank you so much! Toot-a-rama – love it!
It’s always good to have something sweet on hand when facing a disaster! I was initially intimidated, thinking, where was I going to find mulberries? Turns out these can be made from ingredients I already have in my pantry! I’ve made a note to myself to check out the Persian cookbook you mentioned. Am happy to hear your family made it through the storm fine, though it looks like it’s going to be a long time before things are really back to normal there…
Thank you – yes we truly lucked out. And now we’re gearing up for another storm – yikes! Meanwhile, you have to tell me if you do end up making this – I’d love to hear what you think. Constructive crit welcome too! For real.
Um…Yum.
mmm hummm!
Hi Azita,
I was on a long trip to Australia and just got back. These ‘toots’ look great. Never made them… I shall give it a try. ♥ Fae.
I just remade some and want to slightly revise the recipe to so hold off till MOnday if you’re going to make some! Otherwise I encourage you to make some they’re good and a crowd-pleaser offering. Let me know how it turns out if you make some.
I visited your blog a couple of weeks ago and noticed you were away on a glamorous cruise! Hope you had an excellent journey!
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Dear Azita, thank you for this recipe. I have one question, I know you can make Toot in different colours (pink, green etc). Do you use food colouring for pink or powdered rose pertals?! Thank you
Hi, you are more than welcome for the recipe! It is one of my favorite things and people seem to love it.
Re coloring: I have not used the food coloring myself but my mom has done so in the past. She says to use vegetable-food-coloring but cautions to use it VERY sparingly as the paler palette would be prettier but more importantly because the coloring, if heavy-handed, can affect the taste. So to begin with, use just one tiny drop (using an eye-drop-type of contraption.) Start with that and if you prefer a stronger hue, add a tiny bit more. (Chefmaster offers a good selction of vegetable-food-coloring by the way.)
You didn’t ask about this but to avoid a sticky dough, put the dough in the fridge for up to an hour after you make it and it also helps to moisten your fingers and palms as you work your way in forming the dough into mulberry shapes.
Hope this works out for you! If you do get a chance, do tell me how it turned out.
This is one time when I really do give a toot.
Love it… as always.
Merci.
Ah, you always make me either smile very broadly or laugh and chuckle appreciatively. Thank you for visiting Yvonne joon, for real: saffa avoordid! <3 Azita
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