I was recently given a Swedish Rosette set by a Persian relative. She gave it to me so I could make the Persian pastry nan-e panjerehi, translated as “window bread” because of the tiny hole shapes in the pastry. It turns out that this most delicate of fried desserts is neither exclusively Swedish nor Persian. After making the rosettes with my cousin, Mahin, I brought them to a dinner party, where one guest remarked that her Romanian grandmother used to make them. Her Italian husband said that he remembered eating the rosettes back in Italy. When I looked up the dish online to find out more about it, I learned that Mexicans eat a version of this very same dessert, but [...]...