Turkish Delight

Thanks to Tracey Ariza for the recipe from which this is derived.

Method Overview

1. Create an invert sugar syrup with sugar and quince juice
2. Heat to 105°C
3. Drizzle syrup into hot gelatinised cornstarch mixture
4. Reheat to 105°C
5. Pour out, dust with cornstarch
6. Leave to sweat out, cut into pieces when knife stops sticking

Ingredients (Quince Turkish Delight)

• 2 cups sugar (450 g)
• ¾ cup fruit juice, e.g. quince juice (185 ml)
• ¼ tsp vinegar
• 1 cup water, or fruit juice (250 ml)
• 80 g cornstarch
• extra cornstarch for dusting

Notes

• Don't be tempted to double (or halve) the recipe — the cooking behaviour is quite different.
• The cornflour mixture should be a minimal amount of water required to gelatinise the cornstarch without leaving white lumps. More water makes it easier to work with when adding syrup, but all that water needs to be boiled away after combining with the sugar.
• This will probably work well with any pectiny fruit juice that can be made into a jelly / jam (untested, apart from quince), e.g. blackberry, lime, lemon, orange, strawberry.
• These are all anecdotal notes. Make sure you add a little bit of salt [mental, not physical] to your recipe.

Preparation

• Cover a flat metal sheet or pan with baking paper and dust with cornstarch. The turkish delight will cover about a 25cm diameter circle.

Method

note: stir constantly for steps 1-3

1. Mix the sugar, fruit juice, and vinegar in a saucepan
2. Heat very slowly until the sugar is completely dissolved. I check this by listening for scratchy noises and sampling the syrup with a clean teaspoon. If you are able to hold it at a temperature, you should be able to heat quickly to 80°C and hold it there until dissolved.
3. Heat to 105 degrees celsius (i.e the jam set point).
   • If using a probe thermometer, heat until the probe first reads this temperature, remembering to stir to keep the heat fairly uniform.
   • The syrup is ready when it starts to wrinkle when cooled on a plate (i.e. it wrinkles up when pushed with a finger). If possible, take note of this temperature.
4. In the meantime, mix the cornflour with the remaining liquid, and heat until it thickens. This pre-gelatinisation is not always necessary, but helps when the cornflour doesn't thicken after adding to the syrup (which seems to happen for quince juice). Keep the cornflour mixture heated so that it is still gooey (otherwise hard bits will stick in the turkish delight that can't be removed).
5. Pour small amounts of the sugar syrup into the cornflour mixture while it is still hot, making sure that each addition is fully mixed in before adding more. This will make a very thick mixture.
6. Reheat to the previous temperature (about 105°C), or until it has a soft bite after dropping into cold water. If you smell the sugar starting to caramelise, it's probably hot enough.
7. Pour out onto baking paper, spread out to about 2cm thick, and dust with cornflour.
8. Wait about 1-2 hours, then make a test cut with a clean, thin knife. The turkish delight is ready when the cut won't seal back up. Leave overnight (possibly up to 3 days) if the cut is not clean.
9. Cut into cubes, dust with cornflour, and store in an airtight container with more cornflour.

I hope you enjoy your turkish delight!