Nevzine Tatlısı

The syrup is grape molasses rather than sugar, and a splash of vinegar sets the bicarbonate working.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (milk).

Ingredients

the dough

• 500 g plain flour
• 150 g tahini
• 100 ml sunflower oil
• 1 egg
• 150 ml milk
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 200 g walnuts, coarsely crushed

the syrup

• 400 g grape molasses (pekmez)
• 200 g caster sugar
• 400 ml water

to finish

• 60 g walnut halves

Method

1. THE SYRUP IS GRAPE MOLASSES RATHER THAN SUGAR. Four hundred grams of pekmez let down with water and a little sugar, heated to a pouring syrup. That changes the whole character of the dessert: it is dark brown rather than amber, and it tastes of raisins and faint sourness underneath the sweetness rather than of clean sugar. With a plain sugar syrup this becomes an ordinary tahini and walnut tray bake, and the molasses is also what ties it to the tahini in the dough.
2. A SPLASH OF VINEGAR SETS THE BICARBONATE WORKING. A tablespoon, added to the wet ingredients with the bicarbonate. There is no yeast and no baking powder; the entire lift comes from this one reaction, and it starts immediately -- the dough will visibly bubble as it is mixed. Without the acid, bicarbonate alone gives almost no rise and leaves a soapy taste.
3. BECAUSE OF THAT, IT GOES IN THE OVEN WITHOUT RESTING. The reaction is spent within twenty minutes. The dough is mixed, pressed into the tin, scored and baked straight away. Left to stand, the gas has gone and the tray bakes dense.
4. THE WALNUTS GO INTO THE DOUGH AND ARE KNEADED IN AT THE SECOND MIXING. Crushed coarsely and worked through after the dough has come together, so they are distributed through the crumb rather than layered. They are a structural part of it -- two hundred grams in five hundred of flour -- and not a filling.
5. IT IS BAKED ON AN UNGREASED TRAY. There is a hundred millilitres of oil and a hundred and fifty grams of tahini in the dough; it will not stick, and extra grease underneath fries the base and keeps the syrup out.
6. THE WARM SYRUP GOES OVER THE HOT TRAY AND IT TAKES HOURS. Both warm -- a molasses syrup thickens considerably as it cools and a cold one will not pour or penetrate. Several hours to be absorbed, and it is not cut until then.
7. The syrup ingredients heated together, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and it is a pouring syrup. Kept WARM.
8. The flour and tahini rubbed together, then the oil, egg and milk added.
9. The bicarbonate and the VINEGAR added -- the dough will BUBBLE.
10. Brought together, then the crushed walnuts KNEADED IN at a second mixing.
11. Pressed into an UNGREASED tin straight away and SCORED into squares. A walnut half pressed into each.
12. Baked at 180°C for 30 to 35 MINUTES, WITHOUT RESTING first.
13. The WARM molasses syrup poured over the HOT tray, all of it.
14. Left 4 to 5 HOURS, uncovered, until absorbed.
15. TESTED: the tray should be dark brown and soaked through, and the crumb should be open rather than dense. Dense means the dough stood before baking.
16. Cut on the score lines.

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