Turkish Delight

Ingredients

4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup cornflour (cornstarch)
2 3/4 cold water
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 Tbls rosewater
1-2 drips pink food colouring
1 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)
1/4 cornflour (cornstarch)

Method

Syrup

Heat pan on medium heat.

Combine 4 cups sugar, 1 Tbsp lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups water in the pan.

Stir constantly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to boil.

Turn down to low heat and insert thermometer.

Cook syrup until it reaches 115 degrees Celsius.

Once temperature is reached take the sauce pan off the heat and set it aside.

Thickener

Heat the other pan on medium heat.

Combine 1 cup cornflour, 2 3/4 cups of water and 1 tsp of cream of tartar.

Stir constantly until mixture thickens into a paste.

Take sauce pan off heat and gradually mix in the syrup to the paste, stirring gently with the spatula.

Put the combined syrup and paste back over low heat and whisk briskly.

If there are lumps, continue whisking until mixture turns into a gel.

Keeping the heat low, cook for an hour stirring every two minutes. Remember when stirring to scrap the sides and bottom of the pan.

If you find that your mixture is sticking to the sides of the pan, you can add a little vegetable oil to the sides, but no more than a few tsps.

Flavouring

Mix in 1 1/2 Tbsp of rose water and 1-2 drops of pink food colouring to the mixture, once it has cooked for an hour.

Continue to stir everything over low heat until all is mixed, this can take up to 10 minutes.

Once this is mixed and it has cooled down enough to touch the pan, start to pour into your cake tray.

Make sure the mixture in the cake tin is evenly distributed.

Lightly cover the slab with cornflour.

Leave to set overnight in a cool, dry place. Refrigeration is not recommended.

10 Hours Later...

The gel should be cool and firm to touch.

Take a cookie sheet and cover it with plastic wrap and dust it with cornflour.

To get the gel out of the cake tin, you may need to use a butter knife to loosen the edges, once it is loose gently flip the cake tin over onto the cookie sheet.

Now lightly dust the other side that just came out of the tin with cornflour and cover with a cookie sheet and plastic wrap, leave it sit for another day.

Next day..

You can now cut up your Turkish delight as you wish.

Once cut let them sit and be exposed to the air for a few minutes.

Lightly roll them all in cornflour and let them sit for a further 20-30 minutes.

Once they have sat, then cover in icing sugar, the icing sugar should stay.

Storing

Store the squares in a container away from moisture.