Sweets | Page 9 of 11
Kurabiiki cookies
Künefe: Sweet Cheese Dessert
Künefe is a traditional warm dessert made of thin shreds of kadayıf dough filled with a layer of melted unsalted cheese. After baking, the whole dish is richly drenched in sweet sugar syrup. It is decorated on the surface with bright green crushed pistachios or a dollop of thick cream. Künefe must be served immediately while the cheese inside is liquid.
Karaköy Güllüoğlu: My Favorite Pastry Shop in Istanbul
Karaköy Güllüoğlu is a historic Istanbul pastry shop founded back in 1843. This popular establishment specializes in traditional Turkish confectionery, offering an incredibly wide selection of different types of baklava. Customers choose their sweets here themselves directly from showcases and trays. In addition to desserts, you can also enjoy excellent Turkish tea here. Prices here are lower than in establishments in the historic center.
Baklava: Queen of Turkish Sweets
Baklava is a sweet dessert formed by alternating layers of thin filo dough, chopped nuts, and sweet syrup. The most common fillings are pistachios or walnuts. Many nations dispute its origin, but it was perfected by confectioners in the Ottoman Empire. There are countless types and shapes of baklava; cold milky baklava is also popular.
Dondurma: Traditional Turkish Ice Cream
Dondurma is a traditional Turkish ice cream known for its extraordinarily dense and chewy consistency. It resists melting even in the hot summer sun. It owes its unique properties primarily to salep from wild orchids and a resin called mastic. Thanks to them, the dessert's structure resembles chilled dough rather than cream. Street vendors therefore perform a renowned show with it and stretch it with long metal rods. They often tease customers and don't just give them the cone.
Halka Tatlısı: Round Fried Dessert
Halka tatlısı is a Turkish street dessert in the shape of a fried, ridged ring soaked in sugar syrup. It belongs to the most widespread and affordable sweets in the streets of Istanbul. The basis of the dish is a specific choux pastry extruded directly into hot oil. The hot fried pieces are immediately tossed into cold syrup. Thanks to the thermal shock, the surface remains crispy, but the porous inside soaks up the liquid like a sponge. Deep grooves also help trap even more sweet juice.
Pişmaniye: Turkish Cotton Candy
Pişmaniye is traditional Turkish cotton candy. Unlike ordinary cotton candy, it contains roasted flour and butter. This gives it a nutty aroma and fibrous texture. Its traditional preparation requires great physical strength and coordination. Pişmaniye is a popular Turkish souvenir.
Papanași: A Romanian Dessert of Curd Cheese, Sour Cream and Jam
Papanași are fried doughnuts made of curd cheese dough, a ring with a little ball on top drowned in sour cream and jam - the only Romanian dessert in the ranking of the hundred best in the world. I'll explain why they aren't doughnuts, what they share with the curd dumplings from a Czech school canteen and what they tasted like at Restaurant Rustic in Iași.
Cozonac: Romania's Sweet Holiday Bread
Cozonac is a Romanian festive bread made from a rich yeast dough, with a filling of walnuts, cocoa, poppy seeds or rahat rolled into a spiral and baked in a loaf pan. It goes on the table at Christmas and at Easter, and it belongs to a family that also includes Bulgarian kozunak, Greek tsoureki and Italian panettone. You can tell a good cozonac by the way it tears along the grain, into long strips.
Colivă: The Funeral Wheat Romanians Hand Out for the Soul of the Dead
Colivă is sweet boiled wheat with walnuts, sugar and cinnamon, shaped into a mound and decorated with a cross of cocoa. In Romania it isn't cooked for lunch but for funerals and memorial services, after which it is handed out outside the church as alms for the soul of the dead. The custom is shared by the whole Orthodox world from Greece to Serbia, and the name comes from a small Greek coin.