I’m here to revolutionise your Turkish delight experience. When you picture Turkish delight, do you picture those yellow and pink squares of super extra sweetness? Yeah, me too. But then we were introduced to bespoke Turkish delight. It looks like this.
Not what you were expecting, eh?
Alright let me start from the beginning. Before my trip to Istanbul over Easter, I was convinced I didn’t like Turkish delight. It’s just far too sweet for me, and I didn’t really like any of the standard flavours you can get – rose, lemon, pistachio.
But a colleague gave me a very cryptic hint just before I departed. She said, “don’t get the square stuff! Get the rolled stuff!”
I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. All I could think of were those sweet little squares.
So I’m here to demystify things.
Alright, first you need to find somewhere that makes bespoke Turkish delight. I personally recommend Sahi Istanbul, but basically you need to look for a counter with someone who looks like a bespoke Turkish delight maestro working away behind it.
Don’t hesitate. Go straight in! Start counting your spare change because you will want some of this.
How to: Bespoke Turkish Delight
First, you choose your box size. This obviously determines price. The boxes are beautiful and wooden, so make a great gift.
They have all different kinds of dried fruits displayed in those jars by the boxes – cranberries, raisins, apricots and more. Then by the front of the counter they have little bowls of nuts. We’ve got walnuts, hazlenuts, pistachios. Then further on in the fridge they have fresh ingredients like Turkish cream, chocolate paste and pomegranate seeds.
Once you’ve picked your filling, you choose an outside. These are all made from cornflour so are entirely gluten free. You can have plain with powdered sugar, coconut coated, or rose petal coated.
I chose the plain with powdered sugar with Turkish cream, chocolate paste and pomegranate seeds. It was an inspired choice, I have to say.
The Turkish cream is very thick and sweet, it’s almost like buttercream icing. Delicious. That went on first…
Then the chocolate was piped on…
Then the fresh pomegranate seeds…
Next it was rolled and sealed by pressing the edges together, before being snipped away from the rest of the sheet…
Then it was snipped into individual pieces (with an implement that looks worryingly like sheep shearers) and rolled in more powdered sugar…
Before being presented beautifully in my box of choice.
I was so excited at this point that I insisted on having my photo taken with the bespoke Turkish delight maestro. He was so friendly!
It was all finished and tied beautifully with string…
Before being bagged up for us to take away.
They didn’t last long, I have to say, because they were absolutely delicious. I am now a Turkish delight convert – but the bespoke stuff. The rolled stuff. You get the idea.
If at this point you think I’ve definitely been paid by Sahi to talk them up; I haven’t. I just had such a great experience there I’d like to share it all with you. They’re such friendly people who work there, and they support local businesses through their shop which sells all sorts of amazing homewares and snacks:
You can dine there too; see their website for menu details. Sadly we didn’t have time to, but we heard a couple who were obviously on a private tour at one of the tables. So it’s officially a hidden gem!
Notes:
Sahi Istanbul
Address: Kemankes Kara Mustafa Pasa Mah., Kilic Ali Pasa Mescit Sok. No:2, Karakoy (34425 Beyoğlu / İstanbul)
Be aware that the Turkish delight containing fresh ingredients will only last 3 days, so it may not be the best to take back to friends and family. The dried fruit and nuts will however last for up to 3 weeks.
Our small wheel cost around 40TL (I can’t remember the exact price, my bad) which is about £10. No, it’s not the cheapest. But it’s by far the best we found.
Have you ever had rolled bespoke Turkish delight?
-Rachel
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sometimes its just SO worth it to spend a little extra for something amazing. i mean it was MADE to order for you and the packaging! i’m a sucker for packaging 🙂
xoxo cheshire kat
Yep. And I love that it was all local and not super touristy. I’m a sucker for packaging too. I so wanted to keep the box but it got a bit destroyed in transit 🙁 But it’s ok because I still have the nice bag it came in!
My mouth is watering! This looks amazing!
It was absolutely delicious! And so different from what I thought it would be!
Oh my goodness that sounds absolutely divine, and I love that they make it right in front of you! That sucks that only certain ingredients actually last, but that just means that all of the products are that fresh! I definitely need to get my hands on some bespoke Turkish delight sometime soon!
Yeah it was so cool getting to choose everything that went in it. I think my choice was a little unorthodox (he looked a bit perplexed, I think most people have a slightly more healthy option!) but it came out so well. Well I think so, anyway! I hope you get the chance to try some soon as well!
This is so fun! Seeing food being made makes it tastes even better, and anything with pomegranate is a winner in my book! I have to admit, I’m not the biggest Turkish delight fan, buuuut I may have to eat the real deal in Turkey and I may just change my mind 😉
I totally agree with you about seeing food made. It was so cool to see the skill, and also to choose exactly what I wanted in it! I wasn’t the biggest fan of Turkish delight either, but this is totally different. the outside gooey wrapping stuff isn’t actually sweet itself, just all the fillings and the powdered sugar are. So it’s a lot more manageable than those vivid squares of sugar. I hope it does change your mind!
That is so amazing! I have never tried Turkish Delight. Every time I think of it, it reminds me of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, because Edward (?) was tricked by the ice queen with turkish delight.
Oh yes! Me too! And that did not end well. I think it was Edmund? And he was annoying for ages. Anyway, I’d recommend this stuff as I didn’t get kidnapped by a queen after I’d eaten it!
I’m not a fan of Turkish delight but I’d give this a go! Sounds really cool getting to pick everything yourself! 🙂 My mum LOVES turkish delight so I’ll need to tell her about this!
Away From The Blue Blog
No I’m not a fan of the normal stuff either. This was completely different though! Much less sweet, despite the fillings I’d added…! I hope your Mum manages to try some of this. So delicious.
I’ve actually never heard of Turkish delight before but it does look delicious!!
I would highly recommend the rolled kind, in case you didn’t get the hint 😉 Don’t buy it from a supermarket because that stuff is not good (far too sweet!).
looks awesome! although i must admit i’ve never had *real* turkish delight…for some reason (and don’t judge) but i thought it would have been similar to that candy bar Big Turk! LOL
I have never heard of Big Turk, they don’t have that in the UK – but I just googled it and it looks like standard turkish delight in chocolate. So the not-good Turkish delight that they sell a lot to tourists is like that only covered in icing sugar, instead of chocolate. This stuff I had was totally different, and way less sweet. The outside wasn’t flavoured, meaning you could pick exactly how it would taste. For me, that’s chocolate!
this looks amazing. I like Turkish delight, but this looks even better!
I had never even seen it with such amazing fresh ingredients before, the pomegranate seeds were a game changer. I really hope you get to try this, it sounds like you’d really enjoy it!
Oh my goodness, that looks like a little piece of heaven!
Sigh. It was. I’d like to go back and get some more now!
I love little places like this and supporting the local community. I would rather pay $$ for quality than the same amount for quantity.
I completely agree with you. That’s why we kept going back there (we had more than one visit to this shop!) and we would have bought some of their amazing homewares too (eg lovely striped Turkish towels) if we’d had a scrap of room left in our bags!
Oh my goodness this looks amazing!
I had no idea there were different types of turkish delight! I only ever tried it because of my husband and The Chronicles of Narnia, but I know we don’t get the really good stuff here in the states. I wonder how hard it is to make?