Thursday, July 26, 2012

Rose Turkish Delight Recipe

Turkish Delight  is one of those sweets that you buy to treat yourself.
I’ve always purchased a few delicate cubes from a specialty Chocolate / Confectionary store wrapped in cellophane with white dusting of icing sugar coating the perfectly soft pink jelly cube.  Needless to say, with Turkish Delight being one of Jack’s second-favourite things in life (behind myself as his girlfriend), these sweet little cubes of deliciousness never lasted more than the day I bring them home.

If I make a trip to any local food Markets, or pass a Turkish Kebab Shop (all class) – I have no excuse not to buy some for us him.    

These usually range from $1.00 a cube to about $2.50 per cube. Pretty steep when we go through about ten in one sitting…

After (too) many purchases of Turkish Delight and a diminishing bank account, I decided to try to make this sweet treat to save my pennies and win brownie points from Jack (win-win).

It wasn’t even his birthday… (Best-girlfriend-ever-just-saying)

Believe it or not, making Turkish Delight is more achievable than you think! I was able to make these without any specialised technique at all apart from stocking my pantry with unusual ingredients such as gelatine and rose water.
But once you have these, easy-peasy!

I think these would be just delightful as a little gift idea! You don’t even need the full 24 hour setting time until you can cut up the cubes and eat away. (You can tell someone didn’t have the patience to wait this full time!!).

Enjoy!


Rose Turkish Delight







Prep time:
15 min, plus 24 hrs setting time

Cook time:
25 min

Serves:
Makes about 40 pieces

Ingredients
·         sunflower oil, or other neutral-tasting oil, for greasing
·         25 g powdered gelatine
·         255 ml water
·         4 tsp rose water
·         450 g caster sugar
·         3-4 drops red food colouring
·         3 tbsp icing sugar
·         1 tsp cornflour

Method
1. Lightly oil a 20x25cm baking tin.

2. Mix the gelatine, water and rose water in a large heavy-based pan and add the sugar.

3. Heat gently until the sugar and gelatine have dissolved, stirring continuously.

4. Bring to the boil without stirring.

5. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

6. Remove from the heat, stir in the food colouring and leave to cool for 2-3 minutes.

7. Pour the mixture into the oiled tin and leave to set for 24 hours.

8. Cut into squares.

9. Mix the cornflour and icing sugar together and toss the Turkish Delight in the mixture.

10. Store in an airtight container, between layers of greaseproof paper.