Turkish delight

 I have always said that if I had to choose one chocolate bar to live on for the rest of my life (do you torture yourself with these hypothetical food questions too?), I would pick Fry’s Turkish Delight. The reason would not be that, as the wrapper claims, it has “60% less fat*”,  but simply that it tastes fresh, isn’t too rich, and has a unique flavour. So this week I set about trying to recreate the taste at home.

While I really don’t think I managed to replicate the exact flavour and jelly-like consistency of a bar of Fry’s Turkish Delight, I have accomplished microwaveable Turkish delight (loosely based on a Super Food Ideas recipe) very similar to the boxed kind that you buy at the supermarket covered in icing sugar, and added some chocolate (a fetish I alluded to in my last post).

You might be interested to learn that the original name for Turkish delight is lokum. It was introduced to Britain after a British traveller tasted some in Istanbul – and was obviously as delighted by it (see what I did there?) as you will be if you try out my recipe.

Ingredients

750 ml hot tap-water

35 g powdered gelatine

500 g caster sugar

120 g cornflour

150 g soft icing sugar mixture

¼ tsp cream of tartar

2 tsp rosewater

4 drops red food colouring

200 g good quality chocolate, roughly chopped
Extra soft icing sugar mixture (if desired)

Method 

1. Grease and line a 27 x 18 cm slice pan and line bottom and sides with baking paper.
2. Pour the tap-water into a large, microwave-safe bowl (I used my big Pyrex bowl) and sprinkle half the gelatine quantity over the top, whisking in thoroughly with a fork. Repeat with the remaining half of the gelatine. The gelatine should break up and mostly dissolve. Stir in caster sugar.
3. Microwave for 5 minutes, stir with fork, then microwave again for 3 minutes.
4. Whisk in cornflour, icing sugar mixture and cream of tartar. Microwave for another 3 minutes.
5. Whisk in rosewater and red food colouring, allow mixture to cool for five minutes, then pour into prepared pan. Scrape any bubbles from the surface with a fork. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.
6. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, ensuring bowl never touches the water. Stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Spread chocolate over top of the Turkish delight with a spatula.
7. Refrigerate about 20 minutes before turning out of the pan onto a chopping board and cutting into squares (or funky shapes) with a big cook’s knife.
8. Straight before serving, roll squares in a small bowlful of icing sugar, if desired.

Tips

• Cooking times are based on my 1100 watt microwave.
• Leave plenty of baking paper overhanging to make it easy later to remove the Turkish delight from the pan and peel off the baking paper.
• From Step 5 onwards, I found it easier to use a proper whisk instead of the fork.
• At Step 5, it’s important to allow that 5 minutes of cooling time so that the baking paper doesn’t warp and buckle into the middle of your mixture. Try it and you’ll see what I mean!
• When melting chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, be careful not to burn yourself on steam escaping from between the bowl and the saucepan – especially when you're stirring the chocolate. You can actually buy double-boilers to use for this exact kind of thing, but I haven't bothered yet.
• Heating your knife will make it easier to cut the Turkish delight. Heat your knife by holding it under a (very) hot tap for a whole minute and drying it off quickly before cutting. If you have trouble with the chocolate shattering, try turning the Turkish delight upside-down to cut.

“*than the average of leading chocolate bars”

Oreo truffles

If you think the taste of an Oreo can't be improved on, you're wrong. When mixed with cream cheese, shaped into balls and coated in chocolate, Oreos can become even more magical. Also referred to as Oreo balls, these delicious Oreo truffles are quite rich, with an intense flavour not unlike cookies'n'cream.
They are fantastic as snacks or bite-sized desserts, and the good news is that the recipe only requires a few ingredients, all of which you can store in your kitchen for months - so if you have the ingredients on standby, you'll be able to whip up a batch without making a special trip to the supermarket.

Ingredients
3 x 150 g packs of Oreo biscuits (or similar)
250 g cream cheese, softened
320 g milk chocolate melts
320 g dark chocolate melts

Method

1. Crush or chop Oreos into small pieces
2. Mix softened cream cheese on low–medium speed for about 30 seconds just to loosen the cream cheese a little. Add the crushed Oreos and mix on low speed until well combined. Refrigerate mixture for 1 hour.
3. Take 2 or 3 large dinner plates (note that they will need to fit in your freezer later). Shape tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls by rolling between your hands. Sit the rolled balls on the dinner plates. Freeze the plates and balls for at least 1 hour.
4. Melt the milk chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, ensuring bowl never touches the water. Stir occasionally until chocolate is melted and smooth.
5. Remove half the quantity of Oreo balls from the freezer. Using two forks, dip each ball into the melted chocolate to coat completely, then carefully place back onto the cold dinner plate. Refrigerate.
6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 with the dark chocolate and the remainder of the quantity of balls.
7. The coated truffles will not take long to set. Serve cold.

Makes approximately 40.

Tips

• The quickest way to break down the Oreos is to lay one packetful at a time on a chopping board, and chop into small pieces with a big butcher's knife
• You can experiment with different quantities in order to find you perfect ratio of cream cheese to Oreos.
• When melting chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, be careful not to burn yourself on steam escaping from between the bowl and the saucepan - especially when you're stirring the chocolate. You can actually buy double-boilers to use for this exact kind of thing, but I haven't bothered yet.
• To remove excess melted chocolate from the balls, scrape the underside of the fork with the other fork before placing the ball onto the plate.
• If you have time to decorate the Oreo truffles, you could sprinkle Oreo crumbs over them before the chocolate sets, or, after the chocolate has set, drizzle with melted white chocolate
• Why freeze the balls on dinner plates? Firstly, freezing the balls ensures that they won't become too mushy when dipped into the warm chocolate (which would leave you with very messy-looking truffles). Secondly, having the dinner plates extremely cold means that the melted chocolate won't spread too far before it sets. If you use room-temperature plates, the truffles will turn out with large "feet" and you could even end up with your truffles sitting in one big puddle of melted chocolate.
• Once the truffles are set, if you think their "feet" are too big, just sit them on a flat surface and carefully cut away the excess chocolate using a small, sharp knife.
• Oreo truffles are best served straight from the fridge (or at least below room temperature), otherwise the cream cheese flavour will be too intense.

Chocolate-coated snakes

I hadn't even thought of this idea until I saw some chocolate-coated snakes for sale in the cafe at work. I quickly bought some (purely for educational purposes, of course) and decided to re-create them at home. I must say, my snakes taste better to me - probably because I used my favourite chocolate.
I thought I should share the "recipe" with you (if you can call it that) in the chocolatey spirit of Easter.

Ingredients
300 g of your favourite chocolate
350 g pack of snakes

Method 

1. Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Keep on medium heat until chocolate is melted, stir until smooth and remove from heat
2. Wait for chocolate to cool slightly (just a couple of minutes), then dip each snake in the chocolate
3. Place chocolate-coated snakes on a sheet of baking paper to set
4. Refrigerate once completely set.

the unsuspecting victims

preparing the torture chamber

Tips

•   When melting chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, be careful not to burn yourself on steam escaping from between the bowl and the saucepan - especially when you're stirring the chocolate. You can actually buy double-boilers to use for this exact kind of thing, but I haven't bothered yet.
• I found that waiting for the chocolate to cool slightly before dipping the snakes into it meant that everything was less messy, and the chocolate didn't spread out too much on the baking paper while the chocolate was still setting
• Don't like snakes? Chocolate-coat your favourite lolly instead. I would love to see some photos. Next I'm going to try chocolate-coating some of Darrel Lea's soft eating liquorice... Those will be some massive chocolate bullets!