Sweetener based Turkish Delight

[Sheila of Eskdale]

Right I have a reasonably good recipe for Turkish Delight made with sucralose sweetener rather than sugar. Not the easiest thing to make but well worth it.

250ml - sweetener
560ml - water
1 teaspoon - lemon juice
150ml - cornflour
0.5 teaspoon - cream of tartar
1.5 teaspoon - rosewater
Food colouring
100g finely powdered sweetener (this is to coat the finished cubes so you may need to grind some down if your sweetener isn't fine enough)

1 Get a tray about 15x15 cm and line bottom and sides with greaseproof paper, leave some overlapping the sides to pull the stuff out with once its set. Lightly grease the paper.
2 Put the sweetener, lemon juice and 190ml of water in a pan, heat gradually.
3 Put the cornflour and cream of tartar in a pan then add the remaining 375ml water, a little at a time whilst mixing it in. Heat gradually whilst stirring continuously.
4 You should aim to have the sweet mixture boiling just before the cornflour mixture thickens. Once the sweet mixture is boiling vigorously and the cornflour mixture has thickened, add the sweet mixture to the cornflour mixture , whilst stirring until it is mixed in.
5 Reduce the heat so it is simmering and stir every 5 minutes to ensure it doesn't stick to the bottom. Do this for the next hour.
6 Remove from heat and add the flavouring and a few drops of colour. (Most people don't like rosewater so Strawberry or mint can be used instead but only add a couple of drops of those. Lemon juice can also be added but I'm not sure of quantities.) You can drop a bit in cold water to cool and then taste to check its the right amount of flavour.
7 Pour into the tray and leave overnight to set.
8 Tip out onto board covered in powered sweetener, cut into cubes and coat each side in sweetener. Store in a air tight box. It doesn't keep too long so aim to eat in a week.

 

[Sheila of Eskdale]

I've just found out that some sucralose based sweeteners use the same amount of sweetener as you would for sugar, the recipe above is for a sweetener that uses half the amount that you would for sugar.

 

[Koranai]

I've used this recipe myself a couple of times, it works pretty well! Sadly of course, being sweetener based the shelf life is incredibly short. Currently experimenting with ways to increase this. I'd also recommend coating in a mix of sweetener and cornflour for a more authentic taste/texture!

 

[Mark Parrott]

I'm tempted to give this a go. Won't last a week in our house.

 

[Koranai]

I've just made another couple of batches myself, currently in the setting phase, one rose flavoured and one pomegranate. Will add a picture if I can when they've finished setting!

 

[trophywench]

Carb count?? Total is 447g CHO! Frankly I cannot see this saving more than 1 or 2 g of carbs per square - sweetener generally is around 90g CHO per 100g, whereas sugar is 100g. It's a 6 ins square tin so let's assume it makes 36 - that's 12.5g PER PIECE!!

Sorry - I couldn't be bothered to make it - if I can't eat it and enjoy it. Crikey - 12.5g! - that's lunch some days (2 Ryvitas and some protein and salad stuff)

I suppose to give away at Xmas it would be OK.

Oh - and as far as I'm concerned there are only two main flavours - rose water and lemon. Occasionally - a square of pistachio flavour.

Nothing else, anything else is just not on! - so if you don't like the flavour of the rose water one, then you simply don't like Turkish Delight.

 

[Koranai]

Like any confectionary, diabetic or not, the idea is that you're only meant to have a small amount at a time. Especially with Turkish delight which is often very sweet. Hence why personally I'll be experimenting with obtaining a longer shelf life.

As for flavours though, traditional flavourings include: rose, mastic, bergamot, orange and lemon. Less traditional but fairly common flavours include: mint, pomegranate and cinnamon.
All of these can be made with or without nuts added to the recipe.

If on a very strict carb controlled diet, then likely not a good idea, no. But I'd think the same could be said of most diabetic confectionary perhaps?

 

[trophywench]

I don't believe you mean mastic - God knows what your predictive test was thinking ! LOL

None of us should be eating ANYTHING labelled 'Diabetic' - I thought that had been banned anyway? And I'm always interested in recipes - but any I find on a Diabetes forum I expect to have a carbohydrate advantage over a non-D recipe for the same thing - eg using almond flour for baking - contains less carb.

I have only ever limited what I eat for ONE reason (except on special occasions) - I simply do not wish to be fat.(ter) So confectionery of any sort has to be a lot more special - and also longer lasting in the mouth - than a piece of TD in order to tempt me. I was grought up like this - sweets choc and bread were all on ration still !

I had a mate who adored it - so every Xmas I'd buy her a box - I was allowed one piece. That was that, till next Xmas. She would buy me a bar of Green & Black's high cocoa solids choc in return. Both beautifully wrapped and be-ribboned naturally. We would also have one square of that each. No idea how long it took her to eat her TD - but my choc lasted me until about the end of Feb.

Could you make 36 squares of TD and only eat ONE? - you must be a bloody saint if you can. It doesn't keep though - so you either have to eat it all within a few days, give it away to 35 of your friends who happen to all drop by within that time - or bin it !

No modern children like it anyway - if it ain't got a Haribo label on it - it's clearly muck as far as the majority of our numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren and their mates are concerned! LOL

 

[Koranai]

Actually I really do mean mastic, no predictive text error. Can't say I'd fancy it myself, but it's a thing.

None of my response was meant as any sort of.. personal attack, and I hope it's simply a misreading of the text and situation that makes it feel like this was thought. (I know my interpretation of the meaning of text based conversation is not always good.)

No disrespect was or is meant to your preferred way of doing things, I'm merely trying to provide info and personal experience for those who MIGHT be interested in this recipe that someone posted nearly three years ago.

I can limit how many pieces I have, but that's again, personal. And I'm of the generation that could perhaps be counted as similar to modern children, although no longer a child at this point. Tastes differ, not everyone likes the same things, "modern children" included.

This recipe very clearly would not be suitable for everyone, and that's okay, but for someone craving a sweet treat, in (an even slightly) less unhealthy way, it may be useful.

 

[Matt Cycle]

Mastic is a resin from a tree with a pine or cedar like flavour - according to wikipedia anyway. 😉

Once bought some Turkish Delight from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul when on my inter railing travels many years ago. Great hypo treatment.

 

[trophywench]

Yep indeed, would be good as a hypo treatment but a) expensive here and b) a bit bonkers to bother making it to cure hypos LOL

If you are having that many, that bad hypos - then you're clearly doing something wrong!

I expect it IS a very acquired taste - just like Retsina ! But I apologise, if that's what it is - but the only mastic I've ever known in my whole life (just the 66 years so not that long) has purely been used for sticking stuff to something else that you want to stay stuck and waterproof - eg Sikaflex, and you get it from the builder's merchants!

 

[robert@fm]

the only mastic I've ever known in my whole life (just the 66 years so not that long) has purely been used for sticking stuff to something else that you want to stay stuck and waterproof

Sounds like Fry's Turkish Delight would be great for that purpose. 😱 I've heard (on here) that real Turkish Delight, which is actually Turkish (not just in name), is lovely, but Fry's is like sweetened soap. 😱 Why I liked that stuff as a kid (and even made some) is a mystery for the ages...

 

[DeusXM]

I guess the real question is why would you go thought the effort to save 1-2g per square? For all the impact it has on your BG, you might as well just have the real thing.

 

[Vicsetter]

Where is the Gelatine? All you have done is make sweet gravy. Never mind the carbs, with all that sweetener you could be hanging around for a while.
P.S. my cornflour is powder why is it measured in ml?

Turkish delight standard recipe:

• 25 g powdered gelatine
• 255 ml water
• 4 tsp rose water
• 450 g caster sugar
• 3-4 drops red food colouring
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour

makes about 40 squares, so 11-12g per square.

 

[Matt Cycle]

Where is the Gelatine? All you have done is make sweet gravy. Never mind the carbs, with all that sweetener you could be hanging around for a while.
P.S. my cornflour is powder why is it measured in ml?

Turkish delight standard recipe:

• 25 g powdered gelatine
• 255 ml water
• 4 tsp rose water
• 450 g caster sugar
• 3-4 drops red food colouring
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour

makes about 40 squares, so 11-12g per square.

Turkish Delight is normally vegetarian as it doesn't use gelatine. It uses the starch in the cornflour to set.

 

[Vicsetter]

Yes but at a cost of all those carbs, this is a diabetic forum, not a vegetarian forum. Maybe try using Agar Agar and there are vegetarian Gelatines or you could maybe try using Arrowroot instead of cornflour (1tsp Arrowroort thickens as much a 0.5tbsp cornflour).

 

[Matt Cycle]

I don't eat the stuff myself anyway but not all diabetics are the same. I wouldn't recommend it particularly but in theory I could bolus for the carbs in it. Dose adjustment for normal eating - and let's face it, normal eating in this case for most of the population would be just a little bit more than 1 or 2 squares.

 

[HOBIE]

Have not got a sweet tooth 🙂

 

[Mark Parrott]

It's funny how we know it as Turkish Delight. In Greece it's know as Greek delight & in Bulgaria it's Bulgarian Delight. So if it's made in this country it should be British Delight, but that just sounds wrong.

 

[Annette]

It's funny how we know it as Turkish Delight. In Greece it's know as Greek delight & in Bulgaria it's Bulgarian Delight. So if it's made in this country it should be British Delight, but that just sounds wrong.

That'll be Angel Delight