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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Turkish delight

I'd got it into my head I wanted to make Turkish delight a while ago, which spurred a quest to find cream of tartar (which was quite difficult, in the end I bought it online). Then I had the cream of tartar, but it took me a long time to get around to making the Turkish delight. This weekend seemed to be the time: perhaps because it is a surprisingly vegan food (happy days, I always liked it and hoped it wasn't made with gelatine) and we were invited to a vegan party on Saturday evening... But we ended up taking pretzels there and I took the Turkish delight to a non vegan brunch on Sunday morning instead. It didn't really seem like conventional brunch food but I figured anything goes for brunch... right?

I followed this recipe, almost exactly, with the addition of some red food colouring to make it pink.

2 cups granulated sugar
5/8 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 1/8 cups water
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 tbsp rosewater
2-3 drops red food colouring
1/2 cup icing sugar
Vegetable oil

Grease the inside of an approx 8 in square / 2 in deep baking pan (or similar) with vegetable oil. Line with baking paper and grease the paper.

In a saucepan, combine the lemon juice, granulated sugar and 3/4 cup water on medium heat. Stir constantly until sugar dissolves. Allow mixture to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the mixture reaches 240F, or firm ball stage (when tested by dropping a tsp into water). Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine cream of tartar, 1/2 cup cornstarch and remaining 1 3/8 cups water in a second saucepan over medium heat. Stir until all lumps are gone and the mixture begins to boil. Stop stirring when the mixture has a glue like consistency. Stir in the lemon juice, water and sugar mixture. Stir constantly for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, and allow to simmer for 1 hour, stirring frequently. Once the mixture has become a golden colour, stir in rosewater and food colouring. Pour mixture into paper-lined pan. Spread evenly and allow to cool overnight.

The following day, lift the Turkish delight out of the pan onto a clean surface using the edges of the paper. Cut with a sharp, oiled knife into approx 1 inch squares. Mix the icing sugar and remaining 1/8 cup cornstarch in a bowl. Roll the Turkish delight pieces in the icing sugar mixture until they are well covered. Eat right away, or keep in an airtight container in layers separated with baking paper.


This worked surprisingly well, although not perfectly. The end result was a very pleasant, pink Turkish delight with a subtle rose flavour. It was tricky but not impossible judging the sugar stage (I don't have a sugar thermometer). The finished result was slightly wet: after the sugar coating it wetted most of the covering sugar so I had to re-coat it before taking it out. Not really a problem, but it looks much prettier when freshly dusted. Not sure why it happened: perhaps the initial sugar solution should have been boiled for longer? or perhaps I should have let it sit longer before coating it with icing sugar? or perhaps it was just to do with the humid weather? Could have increased the rosewater to 1 tbsp: it was maybe a little too subtle. And the colour was slightly pinker than I wanted: two drops of colouring would probably be enough.

Note: an idea from the original recipe's comments to help with the sweating: cut it into pieces and let air dry while turning frequently for another 2 days before sugar coating - perhaps leave in the switched-off oven overnight?
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