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Lokum

The starch and sugar are cooked together for an hour until a drop in cold water holds a thread.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (cream).

Ingredients

the syrup

the starch paste

to flavour and finish

Method

  1. THE STARCH AND SUGAR ARE COOKED TOGETHER FOR AN HOUR UNTIL A DROP IN COLD WATER HOLDS A THREAD. An hour of stirring, which is the whole job and cannot be shortened. What is happening is not thickening -- the mixture is thick within ten minutes -- it is the breaking down of the starch into shorter chains, which is what turns an opaque pudding-like paste into the translucent, elastic, slightly chewy gel the sweet is made of. Taken off at twenty minutes it sets into something cloudy that cuts like blancmange and weeps overnight. The test is a few drops dripped into a glass of cold water: when they fall as a cohesive thread that can be lifted out and pulled between the fingers, it is done.
  2. THE CREAM OF TARTAR IS WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE AND IT IS NOT OPTIONAL. A teaspoon and a half. It is an acid, and over the hour it inverts some of the sugar into glucose and fructose, which will not crystallise. Without it, the sweet turns to a gritty mass of sugar crystals within a day or two -- which is the single commonest way this fails and it fails after the work is finished and put away.
  3. THE STARCH PASTE AND THE SYRUP ARE MADE SEPARATELY AND COMBINED HOT. Cornflour whisked smooth into cold water in one pan and brought to a thick paste; sugar and water boiled to a syrup in another. The hot syrup is then poured into the starch paste in a slow stream, whisking. Cornflour tipped into boiling syrup seizes into lumps that will never disperse and the batch is lost.
  4. IT IS STIRRED CONSTANTLY WITH A WOODEN SPOON AND SCRAPED FROM THE CORNERS. The whole hour, over a low heat. The mixture catches readily, and a scorched patch stirred back in makes the whole batch taste burnt and turns it grey.
  5. THE ROSE WATER GOES IN AT THE VERY END, OFF THE HEAT. Three tablespoons. Its aroma is volatile and an hour of simmering would drive all of it off.
  6. IT SETS OVERNIGHT, UNCOVERED, AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. Poured into a tin lined and dusted with cornflour, to about two and a half centimetres, and left eight to twelve hours. The fridge makes it weep and go sticky.
  7. IT IS CUT WITH AN OILED KNIFE AND TOSSED IN CORNFLOUR AND ICING SUGAR MIXED. Both, half and half -- icing sugar alone dissolves into the surface within a day and the pieces glue together; cornflour alone tastes raw and chalky.
  8. The cornflour whisked SMOOTH into the 600 ml of COLD water in a large heavy pan and brought to a thick paste, whisking.
  9. SEPARATELY, the sugar, 400 ml water and cream of tartar brought to the boil and boiled 8 MINUTES.
  10. The HOT SYRUP poured into the STARCH PASTE in a slow stream, whisking constantly.
  11. Cooked over a LOW heat, STIRRED CONSTANTLY with a wooden spoon and scraped from the corners, for 1 HOUR.
  12. TESTED from about 50 MINUTES: a few drops dripped into a glass of COLD WATER should fall as a cohesive THREAD that can be lifted out and PULLED between the fingers.
  13. Taken off the heat; the rose water and pistachios stirred in.
  14. Poured into a tin lined and dusted with cornflour, to about 2.5 cm.
  15. Left UNCOVERED at ROOM TEMPERATURE 8 to 12 HOURS. Not refrigerated.
  16. Turned out, cut into cubes with an OILED knife, and tossed in the cornflour and icing sugar MIXED half and half.
  17. TESTED after a day: it should still be translucent and elastic. Grittiness means the cream of tartar was short or the cooking was.

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