A family favourite every Christmas is a small pottle of NZ-made Turkish Delight – inspired by our enjoyment over the holidays and spurred into action by a recipe from Julie Le Clerc (Taking Tea in the Medina), I took up the challenge of making it myself.
The recipe below is an easy (almost fool-proof?) way of making it, I then read that no Turk ever made Turkish Delight with gelatine (cornflour is the thing apparently) … perhaps there is some more experimentation to come, but in the meantime the recipe from Julie Le Clerc seemed to make all who enjoyed it very happy!
2 1/2 cups cold water
80 g gelatine powder
3 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp rose water
1/2 tsp red food colouring
1 cup icing sugar
Line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.
Sprinkle gelatine over water in a heavy pot and leave for 5 minutes for gelatine to absorb water like a sponge.
Place over gentle heat until gelatine dissolves. Stir in sugar, cream of tartar and lemon juice. Bring to boil, stirring continuously until sugar is dissolved. continue to boil gently over a medium heat for 15 minutes. (boiling bubbles will be small at first, but become bigger when the mixture is thickened and ready.
Remove from heat and stir in rose water and red food colouring (the latter just a very small amount at a time – you don’t want it too red!). Pour into tin and stand overnight uncovered to set.
Sift icing sugar onto cutting board then turn out the slab and cut into cubes – toss squares in icing sugar – layer on waxed paper in an airtight container.
This was an amazing effort – I’d recommend using a mix of cornflour and icing sugar to toss this in – the icing sugar became quite cake within 24 hours – but nonetheless, delicious!
ourfoodinaweek 