Posts mit dem Label Desserts werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Posts mit dem Label Desserts werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen

Dienstag, 27. Mai 2014

Nightingale’s Nest (Bülbül Yuvası)

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A cousin of the baklava, this dessert is equally delicious but with a different style. The nightingale’s nests look very appealing and hard to resist. I made these about a month ago and loved them. They tasted so delicious that I decided to make them again with a few little adjustments. Instead of pistachios, you may use hazelnuts, almonds or any other nut you may favor, but for me nothing beats pistachios. I think it is the most delicious nut so it is always my number one nut to use in desserts. Also, traditionally, I believe these are made with pistachios so I do not want to change that. For some reason, I love traditional foods the way they are and do not like to make a lot of changes to them.

In making this dessert, a thinner roller pin (oklava) is used to roll these pastries in Turkey, but since I do not have one I used a thermometer’s storage sleeve. See picture.

Below is the recipe.

For the Pastry:

1 lb phyllo dough
8 oz pistachios (finely grounded)
8 oz (2 sticks) butter

A thin rolling pin or a stick

For the Syrup:

3 cups sugar
1½ cups water
1 tsp lemon juice

For Garnish:

1 oz pistachios (finely grounded)


Add the sugar and water in a pot. Stir until the sugar melts. Let it boil for 2 minutes and add the lemon juice. Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes and remove from heat. Cool syrup.

Melt the butter slowly in a pan. Remove the foam and discard. Let it cool.

Grease a baking tray with butter. Take one sheet of phyllo dough and lay it on a flat working surface with the short side towards you.


Dip a pastry brush in the butter and spread all over the phyllo sheet. 


Lay another phyllo sheet on top of the buttered sheet. 


Lay the rolling pin at the bottom of the phyllo dough and sprinkle the 2 tbsp pistachios on top of the phyllo dough leaving about an inch without pistachio on top section of the phyllo sheet. 


Start rolling the phyllo sheet over the rolling pin leaving the 1 inch on top. 



From both sides crinkle the phyllo dough while the rolling pin is still inside. 


Pull the rolling pin gently and close the ends of the dough leaving the 1 inch section in the middle of the circle.



Butter the phyllo dough immediately and place on the baking tray. 


Repeat until all the phyllo dough sheets are used up. Pour any remaining butter on top of the nests.


Heat the oven to 350º F. Place the tray in the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. The longer it bakes the crispier it gets. Remove from oven and pour the cooled syrup on top of each round immediately. Cover with aluminum foil and let it cool. Distribute the 1 oz pistachios inside each of the nests. Enjoy with a hot tea or coffee.

Sonntag, 6. Februar 2011

Turkish Milk Pudding (Muhallebi)

Muhallebi is a milk based dessert that is known throughout Turkey and the surrounding regions. Traditional Turkish muhallebi can be consumed all year around however in my opinion the best season to relish this delightful dessert is during the summer months. One spoonful of cold muhallebi is refreshing in the heat of the summer and will enliven your palates.

Authentic muhallebi does not include mastic gum flavor, however people have become creative and have made it with various flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, almond and etc. My all time favorite flavor is mastic gum (to see pictures of mastic gum: go to my Cardamom Mastic Gum Pistachio Cake post) which can be found in Mediterranean grocery stores in the U.S. It usually comes in small pieces and mortar and pestle can be used to grind it. Grinding it in a blender or food processor will result in having sticky gum on your machine which actually happened to me. I still cannot get the small tiny sticky gum from my blender, so now I stick to mortar and pestle.

Enjoy muhallebi plain or with any flavor you desire.


2 cups whole milk
1 small piece mastic gum (grinded)
1 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp corn starch
¼ cup sugar
1-2 tsp finely ground pistachios

In a small bowl, mix ¼ cup of the milk with rice flour and corn starch. Stir well so that there are no lumps. Once the milk starts to thicken, set aside.

Boil the rest of the milk on medium heat. Add sugar and stir. Gradually, pour the thickened milk (that was mixed with corn starch and rice flour) on top of the boiled milk and continue stirring. Turn heat to low. Add ground mastic gum. Stir until the milk slightly thickens. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Pour into serving size dishes and store in a refrigerator for 4-5 hours. The mixture will fully thicken in the refrigerator. Sprinkle finely ground pistachios or cinnamon just before serving. Serve with cookies.

Freitag, 6. August 2010

Turkish Kunefe (Künefe)

Künefe is considered to be one of the most delicious Turkish desserts, especially in the city of Antakya (Antioch) located on Mediterrenean Sea, in Southern Turkey. Although künefe shops are very common throughout Hatay, Kilis, Adana, Mersin and Gaziantep provinces, the city of Antakya in Hatay is known for the best künefe in Turkey. What distinguishes Antakya’s künefe from others is the daily made fresh, elastic cheese that is only made in Hatay region. The kadayıf (shredded phyllo dough) is also made from scratch at small künefe shops in almost every corner in Antakya which I find very entertaining to watch.

The künefe shops in Antakya serve the künefe topped with cream or ice cream. Every time I visit home, I go to Antakya which is about two hours from my hometown and have künefe with ice cream. One of my favorite places to eat künefe is in Harbiye (known as Daphne from Roman times) which is in the outskirts of the city in a valley surrounded by plenty of trees and streams of water. Many restaurants and cafes in Harbiye serve künefe, however I opt for eating künefe at Hidro restaurant that overlooks a man-made pond.

Very few people choose to make künefe at home in Antakya since this delightful dessert is abundant, however people who do choose to make künefe at home buy the daily made fresh kadayıf from the künefe shops. Even homemade künefe in Antakya is very tasty which probably is due to the fresh kadayıf.

As you may guess, künefe is not widely available in the States except the packaged, prepared kind found in Middle Eastern stores; therefore I wanted to make my own künefe. I spoke to both my mom and my mother-in-law on how each one makes her own künefe to get a general idea. As a result, I created my own with trial and error. This dessert was made 4-5 times in my kitchen until I acquired the right taste, texture and appearance. I did not publish it until it turned out perfect to me. Of course it is still not like the künefe in Antakya, but it turned out a very good homemade one.

This elegant looking and delicious dessert should be consumed hot, right after the kadayıf absorbs the syrup for the best taste. The cheese will be very stringy, so a knife will be needed when eating this luscious dessert. In Hatay, Adana, Mersin, Kilis, Gaziantep and in adjacent regions, this dessert is very often served for guests after the dinner or at women’s tea gatherings.

Note: If you would like your künefe to be thinner, use a larger pan or Pyrex dish for baking the künefe. Also, I like this dessert a little on the darker side so I let it bake a little longer. Once it turns golden brown it should be ready.

For Syrup:

2 cups sugar
2 cups water

For Künefe:

1 lb shredded phyllo dough
½ lb unsalted, shredded mozzeralla cheese or any other white, stringy, unsalted cheese
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
½ cup milk (optional)

For Decoration:

2-3 tbsp finely ground pistachios

In a medium pot, combine sugar and water and put on the stove. Let it boil and remove from heat. Let it cool.

Remove shredded dough from package.



Shred it in a food processor or chop it up with a sharp knife until the shredded phyllo dough pieces are very small.

Melt butter in a non-stick pan. Add the shredded phyllo and mix continuously.

Add the milk and continue mixing until the butter and milk are completely incorporated into the shredded pyhllo. Remove from heat.

In a round pan or a Pyrex dish, place half of the buttered phyllo dough and press with a spatula or your hands.


Distribute the shredded, unsalted cheese evenly on top of the buttered phyllo dough and press with a spatula or hands.


Add the rest of the buttered phyllo dough on top of the cheese and distribute and press evenly.

Heat the oven to 375º F. Place the künefe pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and pour the cold syrup on the hot künefe. Let the künefe absorb the syrup for about 5 minutes.



Serve hot immediately.


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Montag, 12. Juli 2010

Cherry Compote (Vişne Kompostosu)

The summer is here and so are the colorful and tasty fruits. Being a fruit person, I love buying many varieties of fresh fruits every week. Yesterday evening, I went grocery shopping and could not resist buying so many different types of fruits. One of those fruits that made it to my cart was cherries. I usually savor all these succulent fruits plain, however this time I made an exception and made the delectable cherry compote recipe that is very common in Turkey. Almost any type of fruit can be used for compote. The result surpassed my expectations as I am not a big fruit dessert person. It turned out sweet and very refreshing. This is a keeper so I will continue to make compote with other fruits. Here is the recipe.
½ lb fresh red cherries
½ cup sugar
3 cloves
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp honey
½ cup water

Wash and dry the cherries. Remove the stems and pit the cherries. Do not discard the stems and seeds; they will add additional flavor to the compote. Place the cherries in a small pot add sugar, cloves, vanilla and water. Place the stems and seeds in a cheese cloth, tie the cloth and place in the pot with the rest of the ingredients. Let it boil on medium heat. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes. Remove cheese cloth and discard. Add honey and stir. Remove the compote from heat. When slightly cooled, put in a small serving bowl and place in the refrigerator. Enjoy cool.


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Sonntag, 9. Mai 2010

Sweet Fried Dough (Lokma)

Time flies by so fast that sometimes we cannot keep track of everything going on in our lives. One of those things that I have neglected to keep track of is Turkish Food Passion’s 1st and 2nd anniversaries! In the first week of April 2008, Turkish Food Passion came to life one of those mornings when I used to get up at 6:00 a.m. every day even on the weekends. As much as I like sleeping, I sometimes feel like it is a waste of time (especially naps) since I feel that I could be doing something productive instead of sleeping. In any case, this is how my blog started. This certainly is not the reason for starting Turkish Food Passion however it was a big motivator as weekend mornings would be reserved for blogging before my husband would wake up late in the morning.

Despite the fact that I have been unmindful of Turkish Food Passion’s 1st anniversary and almost forgetting the 2nd anniversary which has past by a month, I am actually elated by what has developed into a rather large collection of Turkish recipes. It has gone much further than what I initially intended for and has gotten more attention than I expected, therefore I would like to thank all of my readers. Whether you leave me a comment, send me an e-mail or if you just follow quietly from the sidelines, thank you so much. My blog would not be here if it were not for you and your support. Also, I would like to thank my husband who has supported me from the beginning and has encouraged me to continue blogging when I was overwhelmed with my work schedule during certain times and tried to quit blogging a couple times.

Having said that, having published 152 posts on Turkish Food Passion, I am almost embarrassed by the fact that my repertoire of recipes includes only four dessert recipes! Yes, I have decided to focus on desserts for a while to widen the dessert recipe selection. In general I am not a big dessert (except baklava and a few other syrupy desserts of course) person, hence the procrastination on making desserts. If I do not have dessert for months, I would probably not ask for it, however when it is available I cannot stop eating it. Now that I have explained the reasons behind not making desserts often, I thought it is a good idea to celebrate Turkish Food Passion’s anniversary with a dessert recipe called ‘lokma’ which actually means ‘bite’.

Lokma is a bite-sized fried dough soaked in syrup that is prevalent throughout Turkey. This recipe was given to me by my lovely mother who almost made it for us when she was visiting this winter. Since we did not spend most of our time in the kitchen, I made sure to write down the recipe instead. Today being Mothers Day, I thought this is also another good occasion to publish this recipe. So, to all the moms in the world, happy Mothers Day!

Warning: These bite-sized pieces are addictive as they are crunchy and sweet. If you leave them out in the open, you will find yourself grabbing a few each time you pass by. It’s proven!


1 cup flour
½ tbsp corn starch
1 tsp dry yeast
1 cup water

For Syrup:

2.5 cups water
2.5 cups sugar
Juice of ½ lemon

For Frying:

2 cups canola oil

In a pot, add water and sugar and bring to a boil. Add the lemon juice and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Sift the flour, corn starch and yeast. Either using a mixer or by a wooden spoon, knead the ingredients after adding water until the dough is runny.




Let it sit for 1 hour.


Heat the oil in a frying pan. Place dough in your hand and close hand. Squirt the dough from the top of your hand and with the tip of a greased dessert spoon remove the dough from hand and place in the hot oil. This step has to be completed very quickly so that all the lokmas cook around the same time. Repeat until the pan is full of small pieces of dough.


As they fry, turn them over until all sides are golden brown.


Remove from oil and place in cold syrup. Let it sit in cold syrup for 5-10 minutes. It goes well with either coffee or hot tea. Enjoy!


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Donnerstag, 1. Januar 2009

Fake Chicken Breast Pudding (Yalancı Tavuk Göğsü)

Happy New Year! Let’s start the New Year with a sweet dessert recipe so that 2009 will be sweet; full of sweet things, sweet people, sweet memories…and etc.

As the name suggests “Yalancı Tavuk Göğsü” (Fake Chicken Breast) is fake, meaning no chicken is employed in the recipe. The original recipe (Tavuk Göğsü) which goes back to a history of a couple thousands of years, includes chicken breasts. The chicken is shredded and pounded until the chicken breasts are in thread like pieces. I have never eaten this dessert with chicken. This version (without chicken) is more popular.

I got this recipe from my sister who had tried it herself recently and recommended it.


4.5 cups milk
1 cup flour
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
½ cup shredded coconut

Melt the butter and add the flour. Stir constantly. Once the butter and flour are integrated, add the sugar and continue to stir. Add the milk and the vanilla extract while still stirring. In order to avoid lumps forming in the milk keep stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens. Pour in a serving dish and sprinkle coconut on top. Refrigerate and serve cold.

Note: You may also use fruit such as bananas or strawberries or other types of nuts to decorate the top of the pudding.


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Samstag, 11. Oktober 2008

Damascus Dessert (Şam Tatlısı)

Şam Tatlısı is a wonderful, syrupy dessert made of semolina (farina) that deserves some praise. The name ‘Şam Tatlısı’ literally means ‘Damascus Dessert’. It is widely known in Southern Turkey and eaten all around the country.

When I was a kid, there was a man who used to pass by our neighborhood trying to sell this dessert in a cart yelling “Şam tatlısıııııııııı. Şam tatlısıııııııııı”. Every time he passed by and we heard his voice, I and the other kids in the neighborhood would call our moms to buy us Şam tatlısı. My recollection of the Şam tatlısı he sold is just out of this world. His dessert was neatly cut in rectangular shape and topped with one or two peanuts on each piece. To this day, I do not know if the dessert was home-made or if he purchased it commercially and resold it. In any case, it was delicious.

I am grateful that my mother also makes an unbelievable Şam tatlısı which I had plenty of when I visited home this summer. She gave me the recipe which I had a great difficulty making correctly. I also tried my mother in law’s recipe a few times which did not help me either. After 5-6 failing attempts trying both recipes that were given to me more than once, I finally managed to make it! It worked. Not as good as my mother’s or the cart man’s but it was pretty good! Both my husband and I were excited like kids when it worked. My husband has a weakness to dessert which hinders me from making dessert too often so that he does not gain weight and clog his arteries! If I let him, he finishes the whole thing in a couple of days. Usually, I end up taking most of it to work or send it with him to his work. Hopefully he really shares with his co-workers rather than eating it on his way to work. But in any case, people always appreciate free dessert!

I also shared my joy of finally being able to make this wonderful dessert with my dear friend Brenda who is a dessert addict. She was waiting for me to get this dessert right, so that she could make it and take it to one of her endless social activities. After successfully making the dessert a couple weeks ago, I informed her that I would post it on my blog in a few days. After bringing the city of Philly upside down, she was able to find semolina (farina) and ready for the dessert, but apparently my blog did not have the recipe posted as promised. I read an e-mail from her the next morning complaining to me that she wanted to make the dessert the night before but the recipe was not on my blog! Since my recipe was ready, I e-mailed it to her immediately and finally I am able to post it the blog! Thanks Brenda for following and actually making my recipes.

Note: After I posted this recipe and blogged about it, I found out Brenda's adventure with this dessert. Even though I said she brought the city of Philly upside down and found semolina (farina), she informed me this afternoon that she had bought the wrong thing! She bought the small, round semolina pasta. She got suspicious when she was making the dessert as it did not become smooth and the cake looked pretty different when she took it out of the oven. She checked it out on Wikipedia and confirmed her suspicion. I had a great laugh when I heard this and had to add this paragraph to what I wrote previously. Hopefully her next attempt to make Şam tatlısı will be better...

With the great help of technology, I always set my recipes on automatic posting for the next month, but this one will not wait. Desserts cannot wait. Here it is...

2 cups semolina
1 tbsp flour
1 cup ground sugar
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 small lemon rind
½ tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp ground raw pistachios (for decoration)

For the Syrup:

2 cups water
2 cups ground sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp fresh lemon or lime juice

First prepare the syrup. Place the water and sugar in a small pot. Stir and cover. When the water and sugar mixture boils, add the honey and the lemon/lime juice. Boil 1-2 minutes and remove from heat. Cool.

Add all the above ingredients for the cake. Whisk all the ingredients in a large bowl until you obtain a smooth mixture. Allow the mixture to relax for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven at 350º F. Grease a Pyrex dish with butter. Pour the mixture into the Pyrex dish and bake for 35 minutes. This may vary depending on the oven you are using, but make sure the top takes a brownish color before removing it from the oven. Start checking it after 25 minutes of baking.

Remove from the oven and slice diagonally, in squares or rectangles. Pour the cooled syrup on the hot cake. Make sure that the syrup is cooled and the cake is hot.

Sprinkle with ground pistachios, walnuts or place whole peanuts, filberts or almonds on each piece. If you choose to place peanuts, filberts or almonds, do this before putting the cake in the oven.

Enjoy cold.

Note: You may also place the nut mixture in the middle of the cake as a layer. In this case, pour half of the cake mixture in the Pyrex dish, sprinkle with 1 cup of ground nuts (either pistachios or walnuts) and then pour the rest of the mixture over it. This is the way my mother-in-law makes it and it can also be very delicious.