Kemalpaşa Tatlısı

The balls are fried and then simmered in the syrup itself, which is what makes them swell.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

the dough

• 250 g fresh unsalted curd cheese
• 150 g fine semolina
• 120 g plain flour
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 tablespoons milk

the syrup

• 700 g caster sugar, for the syrup -- the balls are lifted out of it and the surplus is not eaten
• 1 litre water
• juice of ½ lemon

to fry

• 1 litre sunflower oil

to serve

• clotted cream or ice cream

Method

1. THE BALLS ARE FRIED AND THEN SIMMERED IN THE SYRUP ITSELF. Two cookings. They are deep-fried to a deep golden brown, which sets a firm shell, and then lowered into simmering syrup and cooked IN it for twenty minutes -- not merely dipped or soaked. Over that time each ball swells noticeably, perhaps by half again, as the syrup is drawn into the crumb and the baking powder's structure opens up. Soaked in cold syrup instead, they take up a coating and stay the size they were fried, and the inside is dry. The swelling is the test.
2. THE SYRUP MUST BE THIN, NOT A THICK ONE. Seven hundred grams of sugar to a whole litre of water, boiled only ten minutes. A thick, reduced syrup cannot penetrate the fried shell -- it glazes the outside and the balls stay hollow and dry. Thin syrup is absorbed, and it thickens on its own as the balls cook in it.
3. THEY GO FROM HOT OIL INTO SIMMERING SYRUP, BOTH HOT. The usual rule for syrup pastries is hot pastry into cold syrup, to keep the crispness. Here crispness is not wanted at all -- the goal is a soft syrup-laden cake -- so both are hot and the ball is cooked through in the liquid.
4. THE CHEESE IS FRESH AND UNSALTED AND IS NOT DRAINED HARD. A young curd cheese, crumbled into the dough with its moisture. It gives a faint tang and a tender crumb. Salted cheese makes the dough savoury under all that sugar, which is unpleasant in a way that is hard to identify.
5. THE OIL IS AT 160°C, WHICH IS LOW FOR FRYING. These are thick balls with raw flour inside and they need six or seven minutes to cook through. At 180°C the outside is dark before the middle is done, and the dark shell then refuses the syrup.
6. THEY ARE LEFT IN THE SYRUP TO COOL AND FOR SEVERAL HOURS. Off the heat, still in the pan, for four hours at least. The last of the absorption happens as it cools.
7. The syrup ingredients boiled 10 MINUTES to a THIN syrup and kept at a bare simmer.
8. The cheese, semolina, flour, egg, baking powder and milk worked to a soft dough. Rested 20 MINUTES.
9. Rolled into 20 balls, smoothed between wet palms.
10. The oil heated to 160°C -- LOW.
11. Fried 6 to 7 MINUTES, turning, to a DEEP golden brown and cooked through.
12. Lifted straight from the oil INTO THE SIMMERING SYRUP.
13. SIMMERED IN THE SYRUP 20 MINUTES, turning once.
14. TESTED: they should have SWELLED noticeably, by about half again. No swelling means the syrup was too thick or the shell too dark.
15. Taken off the heat and LEFT IN THE SYRUP to cool, at least 4 HOURS.
16. Lifted out onto a dish. Each ball has taken up perhaps a third of its own weight; the surplus syrup is POURED OFF and is not part of the serving.
17. Served with clotted cream or ice cream.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes