Turkish delight is one of my favourite sweets in the world, in particular when flavoured delicately with rose. Rose can be a very overpowering flavour but Turkish delight and rose are made for each other – so imagine my disappointment when I went to my essence container and the bottle of rose essence I have seen hundreds of times had disappeared! *grumbles* Who knew it had the power to grow legs and wander off?
Be patient and let it set for 24 hours. Don’t be tempted to cheat!
Not letting it deter me I decided that lemon is the second most popular flavour of Turkish delight, so that would do. I haven’t been beaten though, I will definitely be making it with rose essence sometime soon.
Turkish delight or lokum as it is known in Turkey is hundreds of years old. It was popular with Turkish royalty and has in many countries been used as a symbol love and romance *cue awwww sound*
Something I have learnt over time is that the best dishes tend to be the simplest things to prepare and that definitely holds true for Turkish delight.
The finished product is delish
The Edmonds version (page 230) is a decent representation of what Turkish delight should be like. The end product is a lovely soft texture which firms up the longer it is left after coating with a cornflour/icing sugar mix. Even though I had to use the lemon essence instead of the rose *boooo!* it was still a hit with everyone here. The only thing you need to remember when making Turkish delight is that it needs 24 hours to set. The mix does set very quickly but don’t be tempted to cut the time, leave it for the full amount as the extra time really does help with the end result.
A candy thermometer gets rid of the guess work
While you are waiting for you Turkish delight to set you could whip up another simple and delicious confection – Butterscotch.
Cut before it totally sets
The recipe can be found on page 227 and it literally has 5 ingredients. One word of advice is to use a candy thermometer when making things such as butterscotch. There are other methods of testing the “doneness” but the thermometer gets rid of all the guess work and you will definitely thank me for it in the long run. My other word of advice once you’ve made the butterscotch, is to make sure all your teeth and fillings are in good condition because this butterscotch is delicious but will definitely test your dental work!
So much delicious!
So I thoroughly recommend the Edmonds Turkish delight and Butterscotch recipes. They make the perfect little treat and if you want to be extra romantic you could do as the upper class socialites would do in Europe and present your loved one with little squares of Turkish delight wrapped in a lace hanky *cue more awwwwws*
Until next time. Happy cooking 🙂