Sweet and slightly exotic, Turkish delight is a popular Middle Eastern candy that can be made and flavored in a variety of ways. Learn how to make it at home and customize it to suit your taste.
Several years ago, our family went on a European cruise that brought us to Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Kusadasi, Turkey. Of course, when cruising, you only make short stops in touristy areas. So, of course, I do not proclaim myself an expert in anything Turkish.
While I was there, though, rather than picking up an “authentic fake watch” (Yes, that was on a sign I saw!), I bought two beautiful hand-painted bowls and several boxes of Turkish delight.
What is Turkish delight?
Turkish delight, also traditionally known as lokum, is a sweet gel confection made with sugar and starch. It can be flavored in a number of ways, often with nuts, citrus fruits, and/or rose water. The most common is probably the pink-colored rose-flavored lokum, but other popular varieties use pistachios and walnuts. It’s very popular in the Middle East but has gained popularity in other parts of the world.
This gel-based sweet has piqued my interest ever since I watched an animated movie of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (from the Chronicles of Narnia) at my grandparents’ house as a kid. In the story, the white witch lures young Edmund Pevensie with this delectable treat. His love of Turkish delight was enough to get him to betray his family and join her.
With my love of trying new things, especially anything exotic or with a “perfumed” type flavor (like litchees or roses), I knew I had to give it a try.
What does it taste like?
I suspected that I would like Turkish delight, but wasn’t prepared for how much I would like it. Normally, I don’t eat a lot of sweets. In fact, I really only have a hard time passing on licorice and its chewy texture.
With my first bite of rose-flavored Turkish delight, though, I was immediately taken in by its exotic flavors combined with that chewy texture that I adore. Unfortunately, the boxes I had bought were a bit deceiving. They were quite large but were well padded. I was a bit disappointed to find that I had really only brought back a few pieces of this new treat I loved so much.
The other variety I bought was more like a nougat with peanuts and pistachios. Both were delicious.
Making a traditional Turkish delight
So, I was determined to learn to make Turkish delight from scratch at home. After seeing numerous recipes, I figured making it must be easy. Unfortunately, after numerous attempts, I wasn’t completely happy with the outcome. I ended up with a sweet treat with a delicious rose flavor, but felt that it lacked a bit of chewiness.
Traditional Turkish delight is made with a starch and sugar. You have to play with the gelling of the starch and the hardening of the sugar mixture to get the right texture. (In contrast, some modern versions use gelatin or a similar gelling agent to achieve its characteristic chewiness.) While my boxes of Turkish delight had corn starch as the main starch used, I imagine that the truly traditional versions of this treat called for other starches instead.
When I published my first Turkish delight recipe on this blog, I used corn starch (as most recipes do) and avoided adding wheat because I was testing out a gluten-free diet at the time. (Wheat flour was on the list of ingredients of the lokum I had bought.)
Many people enjoyed the recipe, but I still wasn’t happy. I didn’t get consistent results with the recipe and found it to be finicky. I also wasn’t sure about the texture achieved with corn starch alone.
What didn’t work
While my first attempts resulted in a flavor that was spot-on, the texture was a lot lighter and softer, not at all chewy like the Turkish delight I had bought in Turkey. So, I tried numerous times to get it right.
I’m almost embarrassed to say how many times I have tried to make this.
Experimenting with the texture
When you rely on the cornstarch to thicken the candy, you end up with a semi-solid mass of candy, but it is more like a solid gel and not at all chewy. On the other hand, a chewy candy such as taffy is made by achieving a certain temperature with a mixture of sugar and water. So, I decided to experiment using different temperatures for the sugar and water mixture.
During my first attempts, I brought the sugar to 240ºF, just above the point where the sugar is inverted (more on that in a sec), and then added in the cornstarch solution. I ended up with a rose-flavored jelly treat that wasn’t at all chewy. It was sort of gelatinous in texture (although that doesn’t really describe it well either).
I then tried heating the sugar solution to the hardball stage before adding in the cornstarch solution. The result? A chewy Turkish delight that wasn’t so powerfully sweet, but with a caramelized sugar flavor reminiscent of flan.
The challenge was to get something in between.
In my first published recipe, I settled on heating the syrup to 260ºF. (Even at that temperature, though, the candy can take on a more caramelized flavor.)
Unfortunately, with that first recipe, I found there was a lot of room for error, even when following the recipe carefully and monitoring temperatures along the way. The final result depended on the cooking time, the humidity of the cooking space, etc.
I have since found that using other starches is the key to getting great texture without all of the hassle.
Adding the starch mixture
Many recipes online tell you to make a sugar syrup first and then make a separate paste out of the starch (normally cornstarch) and water. You are then supposed to mix everything together and cook the mixture longer. While I tried that method first, I didn’t see any benefit to making a separate paste out of only starch and water. It only made for difficult blending later on. Instead, I found it much easier to add an uncooked mixture of water and cornstarch to the sugar syrup and cook them together to thicken them.
From what I have read about Turkish delight production, it seems to be the usual way of making it anyway.
Adding the flavoring
Most recipes have you add the rosewater or other flavorings right before pouring the mixture into the mold, once you’ve achieved the desired consistency.
Adding flavorings such as rose water at the end, though, adds more moisture to the mixture. That, of course, inevitably changes the final texture, softening the candy. I’ve found that with my new recipe, it’s fine to add the rose water as part of the water used at the beginning. The flavor holds up quite well through the cooking process.
Another option? I found a recipe from a Turkish girl who flavored her Turkish delight with rose oil. While that sounds like a great solution, it’s also an expensive one for most of us.
Ingredients
So, after years of experimentation, I’ve finally found a recipe that I’ve been able to reproduce successfully several times now. The key to getting the texture and flavor I wanted was to use a different starch.
My first success used a 50/50 mixture of wheat flour and cornstarch. The wheat flour helped get a chewy texture that worked really well for this recipe. Still, it was tricky to cook it down enough to get the candy firm enough. (Those who’d like to give it a try, though, can substitute out half of the cornstarch in my original cornstarch-based recipe.)
In the end, my favorite version uses rice flour instead of cornstarch.
Other than the rice flour, I used white sugar, water, and some citric acid. I flavored my candy with rosewater, but you can add other flavorings instead. If you want to make pink candy, you’ll also want to use some red food coloring. (On my first attempt, I used homemade beetroot powder and it worked quite well as a natural food coloring!)
Perhaps in the future I’ll try with other starches. I’d love to hear from those of you who have done that sort of experimentation!
Does it need cream of tartar?
Most recipes for Turkish delight use cream of tartar, many insisting that it’s very important for the recipe. My conclusion, after some investigation, is that the cream of tartar is only being used to acidulate the mixture. The sugar syrup you make at the beginning is also known as invert sugar. It helps keep your final candy from crystalizing.
As cream of tartar isn’t easily available in Spain (nor was it listed on my box of Turkish delight), I used citric acid instead. To make invert sugar you slowly cook the water, sugar, and citric acid (or cream of tartar) until you end up with a syrup around 236ºF. If you don’t have citric acid, you can also use lemon juice to bring down the pH.
Incidentally, some recipes added the cream of tartar to the cornstarch mixture rather than to the sugar syrup. I’m not really sure what they were intending to do, but I feel like they sort of missed the point of what the cream of tartar was actually meant to do.
Making Turkish Delight with Cornstarch
Before beginning, prepare the mold you plan on using. I used a small silicone mold greased with coconut oil. If you don’t have silicone pans, line a small baking pan with wax or parchment paper. (Consider greasing the paper with oil or butter to keep the candy from sticking to it.)
Mix together the sugar, water, and citric acid in a heavy bottom pan over medium to high heat. Bring the mixture to a slight boil before lowering the heat.
Continue to cook the mixture over low to medium heat until you reach 240ºF. While you shouldn’t stir the mixture throughout the process (as this can affect the temperature), you can occasionally use a spatula to wipe down any sugar crystals from the side of the pan.
As the sugar syrup cooks, mix together the cornstarch, water, and rose water.
Mix starch and water. Bring sugar syrup to 140ºF. Add the starch mixture to the sugar syrup.
When the sugar syrup reaches the right temperature, take it off the heat source. Pour some of the sugar syrup into the starch solution to warm it. Then, drizzle the starch mixture into the hot sugar syrup while continuously stirring them together.
Once combined, cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly. It should soon get quite thick. If you have a hard time removing the lumps, you can use an immersion blender to help achieve a smooth texture.
To achieve a chewy candy, you will want to reduce and thicken it even more. That can be achieved by cooking it for quite some time over low heat until you get the desired consistency.
Check the consistency by adding some of the hot mixture to cold water to cool it. When the cooled mixture can be shaped well and hold its shape, the mixture is ready and you can pour it into the prepared mold. Spread it out as best you can with a spatula. It should be very thick and sticky.
Let cool for several hours.
Unmold the mixture onto a clean counter sprinkled with cornstarch. Cut the candy into small squares with a sharp knife, coating each of them with cornstarch to keep the candies from sticking to one another.
Preventing sticking
Most recipes call for coating the candy with powdered sugar or a combination of powdered sugar and cornstarch to prevent them from sticking to one another. The Turkish delight I bought in Turkey was only dusted with cornstarch and not with sugar. Turkish delight is already very sweet. Plus, the candy may “sweat” causing the sugar coating to “melt” off of the candy. That’s why I don’t recommend coating the candy in powdered sugar.
I recommend coating the candy with the starch you’ve used instead. If using sugar, you may have to add starch to it or reapply the coating before serving your candy.
Making Turkish delight with rice flour
You can probably guess by my introduction, that my new favorite method for making Turkish delight uses rice flour. The process is simpler, and I prefer the result. You don’t even need a candy thermometer!
To make Turkish delight with rice flour, mix together all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Whisk the ingredients together, concentrating on getting out any lumps. Cook the mixture over medium to high heat until it begins to boil. Then, lower the heat to low to medium, stirring often.
As you cook the mixture, it will get thicker and thicker. It will also turn a more golden color. When you notice it changing color and getting quite thick, turn the heat down to very low, stirring occasionally.
Check on the candy by placing some of the mixture into very cold water. When you can form it and it holds its shape, it’s ready to pour into a prepared mold. (Silicone molds can be greased with butter or oil. Other molds can be lined with a clean cloth covered with a thick layer of starch or lined with parchment paper that has been greased with oil or butter.)
Combine all ingredients. Optionally, add food coloring. Cook until thickened.
Allow the candy to fully cool before cutting into small pieces.
Troubleshooting
The trickiest part of making Turkish delight is to get the texture just right. If you don’t cook the mixture long enough to evaporate off all of the excess water, the mixture won’t be firm enough.
Some people prefer a softer Turkish delight. To obtain that, it won’t be as necessary to cook off as much moisture.
I, on the other hand, prefer the candy to have a bit of “bite”. To fix a batch of soft Turkish delight, you can reheat it and continue cooking off the excess water. You can then pour it back into the mold when you feel it’s ready.
Trying to cook off all the water, though, is easier said than done. Even on low heat, it’s easy to start caramelizing the mixture (or even burning it) when there isn’t a lot of water left. To prevent that, you should continuously stir it, but there is an easier way…
Melting Turkish delight to further cook it. Baked Turkish delight
A great trick I’ve found is to bake the almost finished mixture directly in the mold! This allows you to gently heat and evaporate away the excess water without overly cooking and caramelizing the sugar! If you try this method, keep the oven at its lowest setting. (I bet a dehydrator would also work well!)
Storage
Store Turkish delight in an airtight container at room temperature, coated in starch. Because of the high sugar content and the low moisture, it is safe to eat for many weeks/months, but will lose freshness with time.
I’ve found that the Turkish delight made with cornstarch is more likely to “sweat” and become soggy with time while the one made with rice flour gets dry with time.
Video
Traditional Turkish Delight Recipe (Using Cornstarch)
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- ¾ cup water
- ⅛ teaspoon citric acid or lemon juice or cream of tartar
- ½ cup water
- ⅝ cup cornstarch
- Rose flavor to taste- rose water, syrup, or oil
- Red coloring (optional)
- extra cornstarch for dusting
Instructions
- Prepare your molds. I used silicone molds greased with coconut oil. If you don’t have silicone pans, line other pans with greased wax or parchment paper. (The final candy will be sticky, and that will help with the unmolding process.)
- Begin by mixing together the first 3 ingredients (sugar, 3/4 c. water, and citric acid) in a heavy bottom pan, and bring to a slight boil before lowering the heat.
- Heat, without needing to stir, over low to medium heat until you reach 260ºF. You can occasionally use a spatula to wipe down any sugar crystals from the side of the pan throughout this process.
- Meanwhile, mix together the solution of cornstarch and the remaining ½ cup of water.
- When the sugar syrup has reached the right temperature, temporarily take it off the heat source and ladle in a bit of the sugar syrup into the cornstarch mixture to warm it.
- Slowly drizzle the cornstarch mixture into the sugar syrup while continuously stirring them together.
- Once all of the cornstarch solution has been completely incorporated, begin to stir the mixture over low heat. You will notice that the mixture should get quite thick almost immediately.
- Despite the fact that the mixture is quite thick, you will want to reduce and thicken it even more before adding in your flavorings. I found it was best to keep the mixture over a low heat so that the sugar wouldn’t caramelize on the bottom, affecting the flavor of the final product.
- As you heat and stir, you should notice that the gel becomes quite transparent. It will also reduce slightly in volume.
- To determine the point when you should add your flavoring, test the consistency of your candy by dipping a spoon into the gel, and then dipping the gel covered spoon into a glass of ice water. As the candy cools, you can judge the consistency and stop when you are happy with it. The longer you cook the candy at this stage, the chewier it will become and the more it will hold its shape at room temperature.
- Add in your flavorings and colorings. I wanted a strong rose flavor like the one in the turkish delight I bought in Turkey so I used a combination of 2 Tbsp. rose water, and 2 Tbsp. rose syrup. (In the first trials, I used only rose water, and it seemed to be enough for the softer versions of the candy. As you heat it more, though, the flavor gets more subtle, so I needed to add more flavor to compensate for that. You can check the flavor when you check the texture in ice water.)
- Once you’ve incorporated all of your flavorings, check the texture once more to make sure that the addition of any new liquids hasn’t affected the consistency of your candy too much. If necessary, slightly mix and warm your mixture a little longer at very low heat to help evaporate a little water, but be careful and take into account that doing this for too long can alter and diminish the flavorings you have added.
- When you are happy with your result, pour the mixture into your prepared molds and spread it out as best you can with a spatula. It should be very thick and sticky.
- Let cool for several hours.
- Cut into small squares, using cornstarch to keep the candies from sticking to one another. All of the recipes I found online either used powdered sugar or a combination of powdered sugar and cornstarch for dusting the candies, preventing them from sticking to one another. The turkish delight I bought in turkey was only dusted with cornstarch and wasn’t dusted with sugar, something I find to be unnecessary as the turkish delight is already very sweet. If you do choose to use powdered sugar for dusting, keep in mind that the candy may sweat and the sugar coating may end up “melting” off of the candy so you may have to add in more cornstarch or reapply the coating before serving your candy.
Turkish delight (Rice Flour version)
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup rice flour
- ¾ cup water
- 2 tablespoons rose water
- ⅛ teaspoon citric acid
Instructions
- Prepare a mold for the candy. Silicone molds can be greased with butter or oil. Other molds can be lined with a clean cloth covered with a thick layer of starch or lined with parchment paper that has been greased with oil or butter.
- Mix together all of the ingredients in a saucepan, whisking to remove lumps.
- Cook the mixture over medium to high heat until it begins to boil. Then, lower the heat to low to medium, stirring often.
- As you cook the mixture, it will get thicker and thicker. It will also turn a more golden color. When you notice it changing color and getting quite thick, turn the heat down to very low, stirring occasionally.
- Check on the candy by placing some of the mixture into very cold water. When you can form the cooled mixture and it holds its shape, it's ready to pour into the prepared mold.
- Allow the candy to fully cool before cutting into small pieces.
This post was originally published on July 28, 2015. It was rewritten, adding a new rice flour recipe, new photos, and improvements to the recipe instructions.
Krystle
I followed the letter to the T and when adding the corn starch mixture it never went past liquid form. It didn’t set at all. 🙁 Not sure what I did.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Krystie,
I’m not sure what to tell you. I had it thicken up every single time I made it, no matter which recipe I tried. The cornstarch should really thicken things up when you cook it.
What type of cornstarch did you use? I know the corn flours/etc. have different terminology in different countries.
I need to make this again and see if I can further better the recipe and make video to better show the process.
Philippe Charron
I’m having the same issue. I’m using “Fleischmann’s” corn starch.
Tracy Ariza
I haven’t had this issue ever, so I had to do some research to see the reasons why cornstarch may not thicken up…
The main ones I found were 1) You need to make sure to heat up the mixture high enough. The cornstarch needs to get back up to a boil to thicken.
2) Overbeating can make it thin out again. (I sort of doubt that could be the problem here, but I’ll leave it there, just in case.) 3) Too much acid can affect the thickening process. I didn’t have issues with the amount of acid added, but maybe differences in acids could affect it? Maybe try with less.
Here’s an interesting thread talking about cornstarch for thickening.
Julie
Hi….I just attempted to make some turkish delight from a recipe book my grandaughter got from her school library…it doesn’t seem to be setting and when checking against your recipe it seems to have too little cornflour..only 2 tablespoons to 1 Cup water compared to your 5/8 Cup to 1 Cup water…so I will try to melt down and add more cornflour and a touch more rose water for taste….hopefully it works! Thanks for your detailed run down!!!
I love TD and had many yummy varieties when visiting Turkey several years back! What an enchanting country!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Julie,
Yes, that does sound like a lot of cornflour. I hope you end up with a final result that you can enjoy.
I really want to start playing with this recipe again as I find it to be a bit finicky. I want to figure out a way to make the results more reproducible.
You are right about Turkey being beautiful!
Good luck with your Turkish delight. If you learn any tips along the way, I’m all ears and happy to share them with the world. 😉
Jenny
5/8 cups corn starch. Is that just over half a cut of cornstarch?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Jenny,
Yes, that’s correct!
I usually use my 1/2 scoop followed by my 1/8 cup scoop, but if you don’t have a 1/8 cup scoop, you can use 2 Tbsp. instead! 🙂
michael
THE ABSOLUTE PERFECT RECIPE IS THUS:
1.6kg sugar with 2teaspoons cream of tartar.. mix with 750ml water, heat to boil then put aside..
240gm corn flour, 1000ml water and heat to a thick paste..
slowly add the sugar syrup while stirring, then simmer for a minimum of 1 hour.. stir while simmering.. now it will be very thick.. add red food colour and for a great rose flavour add at least 100ml of rose water, yes at least that much, but now you will need continue to heat (not boil) for a short time.. to get it back to a thick paste..
this will taste like rose petals melting in your mouth or your money back..!
the end result will make approx 2kg of perfect turkish delight..
enjoy..
Tracy Ariza
Hi Michael,
Thank you so much for your recipe!
I will definitely give it a try as I’ve been wanting to update this recipe with more tips and tricks and a video!
I’m happy to experiment as much as need be to get this right! 😉
Lisa
I tried the recipe in the post and, like a few others have commented, the mixture never thickened. I added some more cornstarch and still… nothing. It turned into a not-quite-hard candy. It seems like the sugar had already set to a hard candy at 260F and the cornstarch had no effect on it.
I tried Michael’s recipe and it worked perfectly. I used an immersion blender after mixing the syrup to the cornstarch paste to make it smooth. But I followed the instructions including simmering for an hour, and it seems to have worked perfectly. It’s currently cooling on my counter. I flavoured with less than 100ml with rosewater (I didn’t measure but I used all I had) and some Rose’s Grenadine syrup for flavour and colour. It tastes lovely!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Lisa,
I’ve been working hard on updating older recipes (You’ll see that most of my latest posts have a note at the bottom that they were originally posted years ago- and are now completely updated.) I never was fully happy with this recipe because even with my own notes, I didn’t end up with the same result each time! This recipe has kept me frustrated, so I was just about ready to start working on it again.
Since writing this, I realized that using the temperature as a guide while making something like this isn’t as precise as I thought it was. This is mainly because I didn’t realize that one shouldn’t be stirring when working with temperatures because that will greatly affect the real point you’ve reached. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I think that is why it’s hard to reproduce the recipe and turns out well sometimes and not so well at others.
Anyway, I realized when making hard turron that it’s impossible to go by the temperature, especially if you need to be stirring something- and, well, in the case of turron I had to continue to cook off the extra liquid until the right consistency was reached. That’s what I wanted to try with this now.
All of this was to say that I had already bought the ingredients to start trying this again. I want to improve the recipe to make it more foolproof, add video, etc. So I really appreciate your feedback. I’ll take a look at his recipe and will keep it in mine during my experiments!
Yusrah
Hi! I tried making this today. And upon getting the sugar syrup to 260 F and drizzling the cornstarch in, the mixture never thickened up and I’m not sure why. Do you have any idea why that happened?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Yusrah,
I’m not really sure. Even when it cooled, it didn’t thicken up?
How long did you cook it with the cornstarch?
Zeynep
I just tried making it (I didn’t have the citric acid, so tried 2 different times: once with lemon juice and once with cream of tartar) the two times and both of those times it never did thicken up. Not even when I let it cool a bit. So I had the same problem… and I’ve no idea why. I followed the recipe to the letter 🙂
Zeynep
Tracy Ariza
Hi Zeynep,
I wonder if it’s something to do with different types of corn starch. Are you using corn starch and not corn flour? (it’s named differently in different parts of the world.)
I need to make this recipe again soon to get video and better show the process. I may update ideas of how to thicken it too.
Pamela Joyce Warwick
I remember helping my Mum make old fashioned lollies for birthday parties when I was a little girl. It was something she loved to do as her personal contribution to the festivities. Now I am going to try to make some of my own, starting with the Turkish Delight. Thank you for your recipe and practiced help.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Pamela,
Thanks for your comment. I also remember making chocolate candies as a child. 🙂
I wish you the best fo luck with the recipe!
Mona
Hello, I got a box of very tasty Turkish delight in various flavours and especially loved the zesty, lemony variety with cranberries and pomegranate flavor. Being a chocolate addict, this was the only treat which had me reach for it, rather than a piece of chocolate. It was so refreshing! Any idea how to make it?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Mona,
I’m not really sure, but that does sound lovely.
I’d try using a mixture of cranberry and pomegranate juice for the liquid in the recipe. Perhaps to get a stronger, more concentrated flavor, you could heat up the juice with some lemon zest in it, and then strain out the lemon zest before using it. If you evaporate off some of the liquid, you could get a more concentrated flavor.
I could try when I get back to experimenting with this recipe again because that does sound like a lovely combination. I actually just juiced the last pomegranates in my fridge and froze a bunch of pomegranate juice.
Iin Wibisono
Thanks so much for the recipe. This is something we used to eat when we live in Azerbaijan, the neighbour country of Turkey. I have been wondering how to make it as it is quite expensive and we love them so much. I am going to give it a try and see if I can be as successful making it.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Lin,
This is a bit of a tricky recipe, and I have to admit to not being 100% happy with it- and still wanting to perfect the recipe, but I had a good go at it. 😉
I wish you the best of luck with it.
Iin Wibisono
Thank you for your reply. My son and I almost did it. It wasn’t perfect but we were very happy. We were able to mold and cut them into cubes. You are right about coating, cornstarch is better than the sugar & constarch mix. Thank you again. It brought back sweet memories of Turkish delicacy in our family.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Lin,
I’m happy it worked out well enough! I agree- I haven’t gotten it perfect yet either. I really need to work on it and see if I can perfect it further, but yes, I definitely think the cornstarch coating is the best!
Gemma
oh wow you put so much effort into this post and your pictures are beautiful. I have just made some ‘elderflower delights’ from a different recipe which called for 100g of cornflour and I only used 3tbsp honey instead of the 700g sugar… the goo tasted nice, just got to wait now and see if it sets! I’ve never eaten turkish delight but will definitely come back to your recipe and try making it your way – safe in the knowledge that you really, REALLY gave it your best shot at creating an accurate homemade version and maybe mine will come out ok too 🙂
Tracy Ariza
Hi Gemma,
I really need to give this another go. I learned a lot more when I worked on making my hard turron the right consistency. Many fails there too helped me understand this whole candy making process much more.
The problem is that I have been trying to cut sugar out of my diet and I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I will say, though, that in my next attempt, I plan on keeping the first temperature lower (so as not to give the candy a caramelized flavor), but would cook it much longer (at low temperatures) in the second stage with the cornstarch.
Turkish delight is similar to turron in that you reach a candy stage, but then add delicate ingredients and then want to get to a certain texture again without burning them.
I found out through that process that you can’t rely on temperatures when you are constantly moving the ingredients, and have to instead rely on testing with cold water.
Hopefully my new tips will help you.
Perhaps this summer, I’ll give this a good new go and update the post with my findings.
CHARMAINE LEE BERRY
I bought some Turkish delight at a Persian market here in my SF Bay Area town. It was home made by them. Should it be stored in the refrigerator and/or wrapped in Saran wrap for keeping?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Charmaine,
No, I don’t think you need to refrigerate it if it’s the traditionally made type that uses cornstarch. When I bought mine in Turkey, all of the stores had them outside and it was quite warm there.
You could use some sort of plastic to keep them from drying out. The ones I bought were sold in plastic bags. I hope that helps.
Inseok
Thank you for your post, it is really helpful xx
Tracy Ariza
You’re welcome!! 🙂