Cardamom Rose Turkish Delight

Sugar High Friday #3 is hosted by Food and Thoughts. This time, the theme is SPICES. The spice you use, should be one of the following three: nutmeg - cardamom - allspice.


As it is holiday season, I had to take a glittery rock star photograph. Click to enlarge, it looks even better BIG!

When I was a kid, I loved to make Turkish Delight as a Christmas present for my dad (hi dad!). I'm sure it was easy to make and it always tasted good. But maybe I am seeing my memories through rose coloured spectacles. It doesn't seem as easy, now I am all grown up.

Disaster #1 June 2004. I tried to make Turkish Delight for my Red Hot and Pink Birthday Party. I was making a gelatinous version. I turned my back for a second and the pan boiled over leaving the stove top in a sticky, gooey mess that was a real bugger to clean, believe me. The result (from what remained in the pan) actually tasted pretty good, but the pieces were a little thin. Some of it it ended up as a kind of jelly roll which I gave to my pregnant friend, K to take home for her moments of sweet craving. I am sure it went some way to helping her produce the 9+lb baby she (with the help of hubby, G,) gave birth to last week. Welcome to the world, Jake!


Disaster #2 I tried to make some Turkish Delight for one of our Charity Bake Sales just last month. I figured I would make the vegetarian corn flour version, just to be on the safe side. Only problem was, I completely forgot one whole step in the recipe and the wretched thing never set. Into the bin, 3lbs of pink, gloopy powdered sugar. Uh oh!

Non-disaster #3 Third time lucky. Of course, I had to get it right this time. There was no room for failure. This would be the Turkish Delight I would be sharing with the world.

This time I plumped for half and half. A recipe that incorporated both Gelatin and Corn Flour. At random I chose an internet recipe from Epicurious
My creative juices told me that a mixture of cardamom and rose water would make a deliciously sweet and tasty combination for this particular candy. I was right. I omitted the pistachios from the recipe and added half a teaspoon of cardamom with the rosewater instead.

Look! you can even see the flecks of cardamom in the close up...

Click to enlarge and see even bigger cardamom specks!


My computer access has temporarily been reduced this past week due to Fred's current obsession with Half Life 2 . So whilst he was absorbed in the game, killing zombies and such like, I was in the kitchen making my candies. Once I'd added the flavours, his attention was roused. He called down to me What are you doing Sam? Eeet smells awwwfuelle. Eet smells like someone eez trying to clean ze toilette. Despite the fact that I find these Turkish Delights quite delicious, I guess the delicate, perfumed flavour and floral scent of rosewater, combined with the strong aroma of cardamom, is not to everyone's personal taste...


* Note * This Epicurious recipe fails somewhere along the line. You need to add a lot more than 1/8 cup of water to the cornflour as one of the recipe raters noted. I am not overly happy with this recipe, next time I am going to try a different one.

Cardamom Rose Turkish Delight