Making Turkish Delight

Briefly, turkish delight is a combination of two really cool materials: polymerized cornstarch and carmelized sugar. Producing either one of those is pretty easy, by itself, but to make turkish delight you’re producing them together, so that they are mixed into a silky, sweet, moist but chewy goo. I’d love to find a materials scientist who can tell me more about what’s going on in this mixture, because it’s clearly some interesting stuff. But if you’re not into material science, you can just eat it.

When you caramelize sugar, you melt it in water and then drive the water out by heating it so that the sugar undergoes all kinds of crazy chemical changes that result in formation of unsaturated polymers. With the corn starch, you’re melting it in water and heating it so that the molecule chains unravel and form a mesh that captures water molecules. To make turkish delight you partially caramelize/polymerize sugar then mix the wet corn starch matrix in, and boil it down until you drive enough moisture out that the whole mass locks together. The tricky parts of the process are mostly in keeping it from getting lumpy, keeping it from turning into a solid block of goo, keeping it from liquifying into a mass of runny syrup, or making a trip to the emergency room because you burned yourself with gooey syrup. Sugar syrup and corn starch polymer both hold heat pretty well – if you get this stuff on your hand it will stick and sit there while it transfers 200-degree heat to your skin. Avoid that.

OK, I confess, I thought it’d be a bit easier to get people to read this recipe if I included some illustrations of the process. And Sarah looks better than I do; that way I was able to work the camera while she worked the recipe.

• 4 cups sugar
• 4 ½ cups water
• Juice of one fresh lemon or lime
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• up to 2 tablespoons flavoring (more on this later)

• 2 saucepans
• wooden spoon
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• heat resistant spatula
• 9x9" silicone baking pan(s)
• candy thermometer (don’t even try to make this recipe without one!)

Making this recipe will consume between 1 and 1 ½ hours.

This is all the stuff laid out ready to go. The first time I make anything, I always lay everything out so I don’t have to fumble around as I try to find it.

I use square baking pans that are 9"x9" bought on amazon.com for $6 apiece. Wipe them with a very very light coat of vegetable oil. All you’re trying to do is fill the microscopic pores in the silicone, you hardly need any oil at all. But you sure do need a bit.

Put the pans on the stove out of the way but in reach. When you’re ready to pour your goop out it’ll be hot and you won’t want to carry it around the kitchen. Make sure the pans are on a flat surface or you’ll get uneven-shaped turkish delight.

In this example we are going to make a 2-flavored batch. Normally, I make just one flavor and it’s a lot easier. But it’s nice to have lemon/clove and rose/pomegranate or something like that – different flavors make your end product more interesting.

Pans on stove with silicone pans and little bowls with flavoring mixes. Since we are making a 2-flavor batch, I have one flavoring mix near each of the silicone pans, to keep things organized.

Flavorings:

Either:

• 1 tablespoon rose water
• 1 tablespoon pomegranate juice (mostly for coloring), can use grenadine

Or:

• 1 tablespoon lemon extract
• 1 tablespoon clove-water tea (take a dozen cloves and boil them in ½ cup of water until there is 1 tablespoon of liquid left. Drain. Use.)

Or:

• 1 tablespoon mango extract
• 1 tablespoon lavender tea (take some lavendar blossoms and boil them in ½ cup of water until there is 1 tablespoon of liquid left)

Obviously, you can have fun with your flavorings. I’ve found that more than 2 tablespoons of water is a bad idea – you’re mixing it into the caramel/goo at the end and if you add too much water it’ll separate out and you’ll have sticky goo instead of turkish delight. If you’re making a 2-flavor batch, halve the quantities of flavorings that you’ll put in each half-batch.

I don’t think that oil-based flavorings work as well as sugary/extract/watery ones. I’ve used pure clove oil and it tended to promote clumps. Instead I prefer to make flavored tea(s) by just boiling herbs or spices in the microwave in a small bowl and draining off the results. You can buy flavoring extracts on amazon.com – make sure you get food flavor not massage oil. There are lots of products that contain "rose petal" and you want the food flavoring not the skin cream. Trust me.

 Sugary Syrup:

Juice the lemon, then mix the lemon, the 4 cups of sugar, and 1 ½ cups of water in a saucepan. Turn on the heat and put the candy thermometer in. Stir it occasionally as it comes to a boil. Keep stirring and watch the temperature; when it reaches 230F (soft ball) you’ll be ready to go to the next step.

(Syrup in pan coming to heat while cornstarch mixture sits)

While the sugar is boiling on its way to 230 degrees F, put the 1 cup of cornstarch and 3 cups of water in the other saucepan. Add the cream of tartar. Stir it gently. Initially, when mixed, the cornstarch will clump up into a weird goo. Be gentle when you stir it; cornstarch in water is a non-newtonian fluid and resists being stirred proportionally to how hard you stir it. It’ll take a bit of gentle work but you can turn the cornstarch/water mixture into an evenly-mixed milky liquid. There should be no clumps in it.

 Caramel and Cornstarch

(Creamy-looking cornstarch; the stuff keeps thickening as you scoop it out of the pan)

The cornstarch/syrup mix will initially be a bit white but as you blend them it should turn clear. Put the heat on and start to bring it back to a boil. Stir constantly and squish any blobs of cornstarch to get them completely mixed with the sugar syrup. If the cornstarch is too tough to mix in, you let it go too far and your turkish delight will be granular and have hard plastic-tasting bits in it.

(mixing the syrup and cornstarch over heat)

Boiling Down the Turkish Delight

(Wait. This is a totally unnecessary picture. But, you get the point)

(Stir periodically)

After a while the syrup/goo will start to clear and get gooeyer. If you stir it vigorously, it may separate from the edge of the pan. You’re going to stir the goo for about 40 minutes more or less, and the goo will begin to get slightly yellowish and thicker. You can test how thick it’s getting by taking the spoon out and letting it cool a bit – it should solidify and get gooey.

(Testing!!)

(turning yellow)

 Finishing

If you’re making a two-flavor batch, take another saucepan (or the cornstarch pan, rinsed) and put it on medium heat so the pan will get warm. If you pour the hot goop into a cold pan it’ll congeal! Pour half of the mix into the pre-warmed pan, then add the flavoring and stir thoroughly. Pour off into the pans.

(mixing the pomegranate flavor in ½ of the goop)

(Mmmm! Goo!)

Let the goo cool overnight. Do not cover. If you’re a perfectionist (like I am!) you can dust the top of the pan-fuls of goo with powder mix while it’s still damp – that way it’ll stick. See the next step...

To finish the turkish delight the next day, you’re going to cut it up and put it in powdered sugar and cornstarch.

Take cornstarch (about 1 cup) and confectioner’s powdered sugar (about 1 cup) and mix them together in a container. You’re going to use this powder to keep the turkish delight from sticking to itself, the floor, your clothes, etc.

Make a flat surface of powder on a cutting board, then pull the goop out of the silicone tray and put it down on the powder. Flip it over as necessary and get both sides covered so they aren’t sticky.

Get a flat-bladed knife like a cleaver or the insanely expensive sushi knife shown above, and powder its edges, then quickly press it through the turkish delight to cut it into strips. Cut fast with a pressure downward; don’t try to draw-cut or it’ll curl and stick to itself. Put the cut strips into the powder container so that the exposed fresh edges get powdered. Then line them up on the cutting board again and cross-cut them.

A small strainer is a good way to distribute powder without rubbing it; simply put some in the strainer and shake it gently over the turkish delight.

Then you’re done!

You can box it as long as you don’t use an airtight box. This little box of turkish delight was filled with several layers, separated with sheets of parchment paper and powder. It was then wrapped and sealed with wax pressed with the butt end of a live .50 BMG SLAP round. Don’t put live rounds into 400 degree wax!I survived but you might not!