We will talk today about Turkish Delight which is one of the oldest sweet dishes in history. According to some historians this great sweet has been invented in the Turkish empire and made its way to the emperor himself once it’s made and it was spread fast since then. Very great men such as Picasso, Napoleon and Winston Churchill known to love this dish
Turkish Delight Recipe
1.5 cups of cornstarch
4 cups of granulated sugar
1 cup of powdered sugar
5 cups of water
2 tea spoon of lemon juice
2 table spoon rosewater
1 tea spoon cream of tartar
3 drops of red food coloring or the color your favor
Notice that rosewater can be found at any Middle Eastern markets but if you want you can replace it with any extract of your taste like lemon or mint extract
How to Make Turkish Delight
Preparing Sugar Syrup
- Mix the granulated sugar and lemon juice in a medium saucepan then add 1.5 cups of the water and stir
- Put the mixture over medium heat and keep stirring until the sugar dissolves completely,
- Let the sugar mixture to continue boiling, without stirring.
Making The Cornstarch Pastry of The Turkish Delight
- Place the remaining water in another saucepan (the larger one).
- Add the cream of tartar and cornstarch to the water and whisk them fairly till they dissolve completely (and make sure there are no lumps).
- Put that mixture over medium heat and keep stirring them until boiling and the mixture will become thick pastry
Mixing The Sugar Syrup with The Pastry
- Back to the sugar syrup use the thermometer if you have it and once the syrup reaches 240 F, remove it from the heat.
- Now assuming that the cornstarch boiled and become thick pastry as we expecting you should pour the sugar syrup into the cornstarch mixture slowly and carefully
- If the cornstarch mixture boiled first it can wait for the sugar syrup but you should consider adding the sugar syrup to the mix only when it reaches 240-250F to make the traditional look of that sweet
- Stir the combined mixture slowly on a low heat once every 10 minutes, for about an hour
- When the candy turns to light golden-yellow color you should remove it from heat and add the food coloring and rosewater and stir them
- First prepare a wide pan for the delight by placing aluminum foil in the bottom and spray it with cooking spray.
- Pour the candy into the pan we prepared before and let it rest overnight.
Cutting and Preparing
- After 10-12 hours use the foil as handles to remove the candy from the pan or you can flip the pan on a wide plate.
- Sprinkle the powdered sugar over the candy from both sides
- Cut the Turkish delight into small squares using sharp oiled knife.
Serving and Saving
- Serve the Turkish delight with bon appétit.
- You can store Turkish delight in an airtight container but make sure you powder the pieces enough so they doesn’t stick together.