Rosewater Turkish Delight

Editors Note: The following recipe is excerpted from Anatolian Kitchen: Turkish Cooking for the American Table to be published by Burgess Lea Press, October 2016.

“Those who eat sweetly, speak sweetly.” Turkish Proverb

If you’ve ever eaten jellybeans, gummy bears, or cherry-red Swedish fish, you owe a debt to the nougat known by the romantic name Turkish Delight. The shimmery treat has spawned imitators in every culture around the world and was perfected in 18^th  century Ottoman Istanbul by a confectioner named Haci Bekir. Haci Bekir’s rose, orange, and pistachio-flavored confections gained the admiration of Sultan Mahmud II who anointed him with the esteemed title Helvacibasi, Chief Confectioner at Topkapi Palace.

The base for the Turkish Delight is a mixture of sugar, water, and cornstarch, slow-cooked and stirred until thick and translucent or glossy, depending on the added flavorings. Cool the mixture for several hours, cut it into squares, dust it with cardamom-scented powdered sugar, and voila! You’ve created an addictive, elegant sweet that stores and travels well. Traditionally, Turkish Delight is flavored with rosewater, but our nut-rich Turkish Delight makes a sophisticated treat that seduces even those who claim they never let sugar pass their lips.

In Turkey, the Middle East, Russia, Greece and the Balkans, Turkish Delight goes by the name rahat lokum, Arabic for comfortable or throat-soothing morsel, so called because in a hot and dusty landscape, a sugar-based candy with its humectant properties will calm a dry or sore throat.

In the 19^th century, an Englishman who, like many travelers before him, fell in love with Istanbul and its hurly-burly streets, discovered rahat lokum in Haci Bekir’s shop hidden in one of the twisty lanes leading from Topkapi Palace down to the Bosporus. The Englishman so loved rahat lokum that when he shipped a case back to London, he gave it a new name, Turkish Delight. The jellied sweet captivated Londoners and novelists, including mystery writer Agatha Christie, and soon found its way into trendy households from Paris to Moscow. Haci Bekir’s Turkish Delight even made it to America in1893, debuting at the Chicago World’s Fair.

For thousands of years, the main ingredient in Turkish Delight – sugar – was considered precious and rare. Sugarcane was first cultivated in tropical New Guinea in the 8^th Century BCE where its sap was gathered as a beverage and sweetener. By the 1^st century CE, sugarcane was cultivated throughout India. Sacred Sanskrit texts included sugar as an essential ingredient in health tonics, where it was valued for, among other things, its store of magnesium, potassium and iron.

In 510 BCE, the Persian Emperor Darius invaded India and discovered “the reed that gave honey without bees,” bringing sugar cane to Persia. But it wasn’t until the Moors arrived in Spain in the 7^th century that sugar was first cultivated and refined in Europe. The refining process removed any traces of molasses to create a pure white crystal. Later, in the 15^th century, sailing under the protection of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, the explorer Christopher Columbus brought sugarcane to the Americas establishing the first sugar cane plantations in what are now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Our many trips to Istanbul would not be complete without a stop at Haci Bekir’s famous sweet shop listed as one of the 100 oldest companies in the world. Still owned by Haci Bekir’s descendants, the shop can be found in Sultanahmet a short walk from Topkapi Palace. In the window of Haci Bekir on Hamidye Street, squares of Turkish Delight, piled high on ornate silver trays, shimmer in pale shades of rose, orange, and lemon. We enter a world where the warm air sweetens our breath and try the samples arranged on the counter, letting a dusting of powdered sugar settle on our fingertips.

Back home in our kitchens, we blend floral rosewater into sugar syrup. And later, stir in toasted pistachios. And later still, after the mixture has set, roll the candy in confectioners sugar laced with sensuous cardamom, imagining that had we met him, our version of Turkish Delight would have pleased Haci Bekir.

Rosewater Turkish Delight with Pistachios

Makes about 70 1-inch squares

For the Nuts:
1 cup pistachios

For the Syrup Mixture:
2 cups cold water
2 cups plain white sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons rosewater
Grated rind of one lemon
¼ teaspoon salt

For the Cornstarch Mixture:
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon rosewater
2 drops red food color, optional

For the Confectioner’s Sugar Coating:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
¾ cup cornstarch

Prepare an 8-inch x 8-inch square pan. Spray the pan lightly with cooking oil and dust it with cornstarch. Or, line the pan with parchment paper and dust the paper with cornstarch.

Toast the pistachios. Place the pistachios in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Toast the nuts stirring constantly to evenly heat all sides until they are fragrant — about 3 — 4 minutes. Set aside.

Nuts can be prepared a day or two ahead and stored in an airtight container in a cool dry place, or in the refrigerator. If the nuts are stored in the refrigerator, bring them to room temperature before stirring them into the nougat mixture.

To prepare the syrup: In a separate saucepan with a heavy bottom, combine the water, sugar, lemon juice, rosewater, lemon rind, and salt.

Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally to create velvety, pale yellow syrup. Continue simmering the syrup until the surface is covered in bubbles or when a candy thermometer reaches 260 degrees.

Turn off the heat.

While syrup simmers, prepare the cornstarch mixture: In a saucepan with a heavy bottom, combine the cornstarch, cream of tartar, cold water, and rosewater. Mix until smooth.

To make the nougat, place the saucepan with the cornstarch mixture over medium heat. In a slow, steady stream, pour the sugar mixture into the cornstarch mixture, stirring to combine.

Cook the syrup/starch mixture for approximately 15 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pan. The mixture will become thick and glossy.

Remove the nougat from the heat. Add two drops of red food color, if desired, to create a pale rose color.

Add the pistachios, stirring until the mixture cools slightly.

Spread the nougat into the prepared pan. With oiled fingers, pat the nougat evenly to create as uniform a surface as possible. Allow the nougat to set at room temperature for 2 hours, but up to 12 hours.

To prepare the powdered sugar mixture: Combine the confectioner’s sugar, cardamom and cornstarch. Sift the powdered sugar mixture onto a work surface or a piece of parchment paper.

To finish the Turkish Delight, turn the nougat onto the powdered sugar mixture. With a sharp, oiled knife, cut the Delight into one-inch cubes. Liberally coat the cubes in the powdered sugar mixture.

Store the Turkish Delight in layers in an airtight container. Turkish Delight will keep in the refrigerator for up to two months, or in the freezer for six months.