Turkish delight is one of my family's favourite sweets, and it all began with Arlo's discovery of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe back in 2009.
Even though you can buy proper boxes of Middle Eastern TD here, it's something I'd been wanting to try to make for ages, but rosewater was my problem. I could never find it in my usual supermarkets but then a nearby shop (Commonsense Organics, Kilbirnie, for Wellingtonians) received a shipment direct from Lebanon so now I have enough to last many batches of TD. Hooray!
I've now made two different flavours and they are both pretty easy. I used a combination of recipes I found online and in books, according to the ingredients I had in my pantry. The kids and I made these origami boxes from this tutorial (and pages from an old calendar) and lined each with a small piece of a plastic bag, so the sweets didn't stick, to give as gifts.
Do you want to make some too? Here is my version:
TURKISH DELIGHT- LEMON OR ROSEWATER
2 cups plain sugar
3 Tb edible gelatin (powdered)
pinch salt
1 cup water
4 tsps pure rosewater or 1 lemon
tiny drop of red or yellow food colouring
cornflour and icing sugar
Stir together the sugar, gelatin and salt in a heavy-based pot. Add water and bring mixture to a gentle boil. Continue to slowly boil mixture for 10-15 minutes, without stirring. Then remove from heat and add either the rosewater or the zest and juice of one lemon. Next add a very small drop of food colouring. Choose a small dish (I used a ceramic baking dish) and rinse it with some water, but don't dry it. Tip in your sugar mixture, let it cool and then leave in the fridge for a few hours to set. When it's firm, you can get it out of the dish but it can be a bit tricky. Find a clean work surface and tip some icing sugar and cornflour onto it, mix it together with your fingers. Using a thin fish slice or similar, you'll need peel it away from the dish (hopefully in one piece) then place it onto the powered surface. Cut the delight into pieces with a hot knife (dipping it in boiling water helps). Roll each piece in more powder to stop it from sticking then arrange in a box.
tiny happy 
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