Monday, July 4, 2011

Home Made Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum)






Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not!

This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book Sweet As... where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights.

Ingredients

1 l water
300 g sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
100 g cornflour (corn starch)
1 tbsp frozen raspberries
1 tbsp rose water
icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust.






In a pot put half of the water (500 ml) with the sugar and lemon juice and bring to the boil. Boil it down until you get a light syrup (here those with the sugar thermometer will go to about 240 degrees, I just waited for the mixture to thicken a little). In another pot mix the remaining water with the cornflour, then bring to the boil and simmer, stirring, until the mixture thickens. Add the hot sugar syrup and stir well.





Now let the pot simmer, without stirring, for at least 30 minutes. More would be good, if you are patient, 45 minutes to one hour is more like the shops do it, but in a home kitchen looking at a bubbling mixture is a little worrying. Still, the more you cook it the harder your Turkish Delights. At the end add a tbsp of rose water, and to colour it, since I try not to use artificial colouring, a few raspberries. The berries will 'melt' in the hot mixture and the little seeds are quite pretty, I think. If you don't like the seeds, just pass the berries through a sieve, and adde the juice only. Pour the hot mixture into a square or rectangular tupperware or similar plastic container (easy to detach the solid block after it sets) and let it cool down and set overnight.




The day after tip out your 'candy' block and cut into pieces. I now understand why when you buy lokum it is full of white powder: it takes lots of cornflour to keep it! To dust it I use a mixture of cornflour and very little icing sugar: if you use too much icing sugar the sweet may 'sweat' and become all sticky! Another problem is humidity: it is very humid here in the Auckland bush, if your sweets seems too 'wet' after cutting them, place them on a oven tray and bake them at 50 on fan for a little to dry. Store them in layers divided with paper, and dust regularly with a mixture of cornflour and icing sugar to keep them dry. Eat within a few days. Turkish Delights are Vegan and Gluten Free. Next post will be about hazelnut Turkish delights :-).






Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©



54 comments:

  1. Yay, love recipes that don't need something like a candy thermometer. Also didn't realise turkish delight was vegan, I assumed it would have gelatin in or something. Cheers, this looks very pretty and delicious!

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  2. Turkish delight - wonderful! My old head chef used to come in early to make turkish delight which formed the garnish for a dessert off the old menu. I have an old english recipe for jubes which are kind-of similar, but use liquid pectin for set which gives better mouth feel & flavour release. I have some french pastille recipes too which use gelatine & acacia gum. Nice work, Alessandra :)

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  4. Che meraviglia: loukoumia, si preparano anche qui ma non avevo la ricetta, grazie! Buon inizio settimana ciao!

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  5. Non ho mai assaggiato questi dolcettii, devono essere molto golosi!! Il colore e la trasparenza sono stupendi! Franci

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  6. Alessandra, prima di tutto grazie della tua visita, delle tue parole e del tuo +1, sei un angelo, spero di farcela a gestire due blog da sola...

    e queste gelatine sono stupende, vorrei provarle ma una dose ridotta, altrimenti le mangio tutte...un abbraccio

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  7. @Nigel, in my book I also put a little pectin as optional, but I didn't have any at home when I made these and they turned out fine. Maybe without they just need a bit more cooking :-)

    @Zo, I saw some recipes with gelatin, but I don't think that they use it in Turkey.

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  8. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! Love them and they are so easy to make :)

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  9. Ma daiiiiii!!!Sei riuscita a fare i Lokum a casa?!Sei spettacolare Ale!!!!Che nostalgia della Turchia...

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  10. Wow Alessandra I didn't realise turkish delights could be made at home easily! I love it, but some can be really sickly sweet. I'd love to try making these at home.

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  11. My neighbour who recently came back from a holiday in Turkey gave us a box each of the Pistachio Nut and Orange delights! It is very sweet!
    You did a good job, looks wonderful!

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  12. Awesome! Making homemade Turkish delights has always been on my to-make list. Most commercially made ones contain gelatine which I'm not keen on. I love the look of these ones, especially with the raspberries in it. That's what I use to colour icing for my daughters bday cakes :-)

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  13. Ma lo sai che ce le ho pronte da postare???? Anche se qui ne sono circondata trovo che farle sia molto divertente :-)

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  14. Ma sai che io invece non le conoscevo.....prendo nota di questa delizia e appena le faccio ti aggiorno...baci e da oggi sono arrivata anch'io tra le tue sostenitrici...passa a trovarmi....ti aspetto...stefy

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  15. my favorit lokoum is the pistaches ! i love it.
    Thanks

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  16. I have always been intrigued to try Turkish delight ever since I saw it in 'Narnia' ;). It always reminds me of mochi somehow, thank you for the recipe, I will definitely try this....:)!!

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  17. wow! I've never seen this before but I'd love to try it!

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  18. Not a huge fan of Turkish dleight,,,,but these are so incredibly pretty it makes me want to revisit it! Beautiful photos :) And +1 for prettiness :)

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  19. @ Araba, adesso spero di vincere il termometro e farli 'da perfezionista'
    :-)!!!

    @ Pommes, I also prefer the nut ones, tonight I'll post them, if I get the time

    @ Cooking Gallery, mochi is more difficult to make!!!

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  20. @ Mairi, just saw your message, thank you for the +1 for prettiness!!!

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  21. This looks wonderful I love Turkish delight. I will have to try making it myself too.

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  22. Alessandra these turkish delight look absolutely "delight" , xxgloria

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  23. My 11 yr old boy who loves cooking sweets would definitely join the Ice Queen for these :-)

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  24. These look so lovely and yum and you have explained it so well.I will be trying this soon.

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  25. They look pretty yummy Alessandra! I love raspberries!

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  26. Alessandra delicious recipe dear,here we call sustancias I,they looks love them cute,hugs.

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  27. That's great! I never knew that you could make it without a sugar thermometer! :o

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  28. excellent execution of the recipe, great pictures. Have a great day

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  29. @ Lorraine, still, I am starting to think that soon or later i should get a sugar thermometer... another gadget!

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  30. questi mi riportano dritti dritti alla mia infanzia maghrebina!

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  31. ho passato un anno in tunisia (ma ero veramente piccolissima e non ricordo niente) e un paio in algeria. ero piccola ma ho splendidi ricordi...

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  32. Ho appena scoperto il tuo sito .... complimenti!!

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  33. ora ho scoperto questo di blog... che mi sembra assai più frequentato :)
    bellissimo!
    Iris

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  34. Hi Alessandra

    These look lovely and I am looking forward to making them. I do have one question though, you say "eat within a few days" but would they keep longer if I used food colouring instead of fresh raspberries? I am making them as a gift and need them to keep for about 2 weeks.

    Many thanks

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  35. I have not are them with food coloring, but I think that if you need to keep them for longer maybe you can add citric acid to preserve them and a bit more sugar to preserve them . There are other flavors' recipes here too:
    http://alessandrazecchini.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/how-to-make-hazelnut-turkish-delight.html

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  36. I've never heard of cornflour in the U.S. Is it corn starch or finely ground corn meal? Help!

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  37. Yes is corn starch, very fine and white.

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  38. Oh, great! That helps out so much. Thank you. I'll be making this soon.

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  39. I love Turkish Delights and I am delighted to get this recipe! Thank you.

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  40. Can we use beetroot for natural colouring?

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  41. Wow that's a wonderfull blog having all details & helpful. lokum recipe

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  42. Hi! I wanted to ask - will this version with less sugar have the same texture as the traditionally made turkish delight? I'm guessing it won't be as sticky for one thing.

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  43. Hi! I wanted to ask - will this version with less sugar have the same texture as the traditionally made turkish delight? I'm guessing it won't be as sticky for one thing.

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  44. Hi Alessandra,
    I have a question. By corn flour, do you mean cornstarch? I am making turkish delight for the first time, and I am very confused which to use. Your recipe is the only vegan one I found!
    Thanks,

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    Replies
    1. Sorry just saw the message, yes corn starch, very white and fine.

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  45. Saw this recipe on my board this morning, Looks great! Im going to try for sure! Greetings, Marian

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  46. Saw this recipe on my board this morning, Looks great! Im going to try for sure! Greetings, Marian

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  47. Hi Alessandra,

    I just tried this recipe yesterday and let it set overnight.
    It looked perfect until I tried to coat it with the cornflower/icing sugar mix, then it simply absorbed the mix and went wet (as other recipes have done for me).

    I followed your instructions and put them in the oven on fan bake at 50c for 1hr, taking a piece out every 15 mins and re-coating it in the mix to see if there was any improvement (there was not).

    Do you have any suggestions for what I am doing wrong?

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