The history of lokum (Turkish Delight)

The story of the creation of Turkish Delight (lokum) begins in the late 1700s (1777), when Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir, confectioner to the imperial Ottoman court in Istanbul, listens to the sultan rant:

"Hard candy! I'm tired of hard candy!" the sultan growled as he cracked a tooth on yet another sourball. "I demand soft candy!"

Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir had come to the imperial capital of Istanbul from the Anatolian mountain town of Kastamonu in the late 1700s to hear his emperor's plea. His mountain-man blood rose! His face turned grim with conviction! He set his jaw with determination! He was going to take bold and decisive action!

He marched into his confectioner's kitchen and thought up a recipe: he mixed water, sugar, corn starch, cream of tartar and rosewater, cooked it up, poured the mixture into a flat pan slicked with almond oil, and let it cool. Then he sprinkled it with powdered sugar, cut it into bite-sized chunks and...his hand trembling, his eyes bright with anticipation, his mind fraught with trepidation, his lips quivering to receive the morsel...he bit!

What? No crack of candy crunched by his mighty alpine jaws? No shower of sugary splinters scattering through his oral cavity? Why, this new confection was soft and easy to chew, a pleasure, a treat for both palate and teeth! It was... it was...a comfortable morsel!

Rahat lokum ("comfortable morsel"), nowadays called simply lokum, or Turkish Delight, was an instant hit, especially at the palace. Ali Muhiddin became a celebrity overnight as palace bigwhigs (or, more usually, their lackeys and gofers) traipsed down the hill from Topkapi Palace to Eminönü on the Golden Horn to buy boxes of Comfortable Morsels to thrill the jaded palates of Ottoman potentates.

You can still buy lokum at Ali Muhiddin's shop in Eminönü today, almost 250 years since the intrepid confectioner saved his sultan from sourballs. It's on Hamidiye Caddesi at the corner of Seyhülislam Hayri Efendi Caddesi, two blocks east of the Yeni Cami (New Mosque).

Over the centuries Ali Muhiddin's descendants (the shop is still owned by the family) fiddled with the recipe, adding good things like walnuts, pistachios, oranges, almonds, clotted cream, and of course chocolate. (The plain rosewater original is still a favorite, however.)

Lokum (Turkish Delight) is now made and sold in thousands of shops throughout Turkey, and enjoyed with Turkish tea or coffee, or just by itself. A favorite place to buy it is Afyon, where the rich local clotted cream is used to make kaymakli lokum.

You can make your own Turkish Delight at home. Here's a recipe.

When you visit a shop, don't be afraid to ask for a free sample: say Deneyelim! (deh-neh-yeh-LEEM, "Let's try some!")

* Source of article: Turkey Travel Planner

* Painting of the Court Confectioner Ali Muhiddin Hacı Bekir in his Bahçekapı shop done by the Maltese artist Preziosi, the original picture can be seen at the French Louvre Museum.


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A real turkish delight recipe (lokum)

This is one great Turkish Delight recipe! There are many recipes for Turkish Delight on the web. But when you read deeper you generally see that it is not the famous traditional Turkish Delight (lokum), instead they are either Greek or Arabic recipes. You can be sure that this one is the real Lokum recipe. Because I found it among Ruki's traditional Turkish sweets recipes. He has many great recipes on his site. You can add rosewater or food colorings as you wish. Plus you'll be able to add nuts, pistachio (fıstık), walnuts to this recipe too. But first you have to roast them. Now here are the ingredients for this delightful real Turkish Lokum:

* 4 cups (800 gr) of granule sugar
* 4 1/1 cup (1.125 lt) of cold water
* 1 desert spoon full of lemon juice
* 1 cup of (250 ml) cornstarch
* 1 desert spoon of white cream tartar
* 1-2 spoon full of rosewater (if you wish)
* also if you wish you may add a few drops of red food coloring to make it pink.
* 1/2 cup (125 ml) hazelnut, almond, walnut first roasted in a pan or owen and cooled off.
* 3/4 cup (190 ml) powdered sugar - sift it.
* 1/4 cup of additional corn starch
* a bristle brush
* a sugar thermometre
* a little pot with cold water
* and a tin tea filter


You should use a heavy saucepan with a thick bottom for cooking syrup. Plus a cup of water and a tin tea filter should be near you. While the syrup is boiling you'll use the tea filter to collect the bubbles formed on the syrup and then you should dip it into the cold water pot or hold it under the tap to clean it before dipping it back in the syrup.

Preparing the syrup of Turkish Delight

(800 gr) Sugar + 3 1/4 cup of water (875 ml) + lemon juice, blend them before you place it on the stove. Stir the sugar with a wooden spoon continuously while it is boiling and help it melt. Also while the syrup is boiling use the bristle brush to scrape the inner upper sides of the saucepan by drawing circles and pushing down the left around sugars- so that the sugar doesn't cristallize- do this often. After the sugar melts completely stop stirring and let it boil. Once the boiling syrups' heat reaches 240F/115C (you'll use the sugar thermometer at this point) take the boiling sugar off the stove at once.


In another deep and thick bottomed saucepan, blend the cornstarch, cream tartar and the rest of the cold water (1 cup - 250 ml) with a whisk until it becomes smooth enough. It should form a white liquid that isn't so thick by the time it's blended. Put it over the stove. Stir with a wooden spoon.
Beware, for it can thicken easily and unwanted pores can form. It may even be easier to stir with a whisk.

Now take the hot sugar syrup and add it to this cornstarch mixture over the stove, meanwhile keep stirring with the whisk. When it comes to boiling point, let it boil for 10-12 minutes over a half lit stove.

Wait in front of it while keeping on stirring with a wooden spoon. Stirring is very important in the whole process of preparing Turkish Delight. It will become a golden colored, thick and sticky mixture.
If you add rose water and food coloring it will become pink.

Also if you wish, now is the time to add nuts, pistachio, almond or walnuts. They should be roasted in a 350 F/180 C oven and cooled. You can put them as a whole or minced.

Pour the thick mixture into a 25 cm x 25 cm pyrex or pot (you should first butter the pot or pyrex by hand) Then wait for the mixture to cool and thicken.

Mix the powdered sugar and 1/4 cup of cornstarch in a flat plate. Cut the Turkish Delight in squares with a oiled knife (just carefully spread grapeseed or an oil of your preference on the blade). Then smear the powdered sugar mixture all over by hand. Lay them in a glass or tin box, in between the lines again sprinkle the sugar powder +cornstarch mixture amply.


* You must take some caution before working with sugar which means high temperatures. For example, a little pot with some cold water and a bristle brush should be under your hand so that while boiling the syrup, you can scrape the upper inner parts of the pot downwards to prevent the sugar from sticking on the side of the pot and crystallizing. Plus the pot should be good quality, thick bottomed, because you will be working with high temperatures.

* To use a sugar thermometer, attach it to the side and lower the thermometer so that the bottom is touching the bottom of the pot. Then raise it about an inch or two. Never let it touch the bottom of the pot, but don't get it so high that all you get is superficial heat. You want it to be inside the substance itself so that you can get a true reading of its temperature.

* Source of this Turkish Delight recipe: I translated it from Ruki's "Bayram Lokumu recipe". He has many other great recipes for all kinds of traditional Turkish sweets.