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Strawberry Rhubarb Lokum

Lokum or Turkish Delight are the perfect little treat with coffee. Simple ingredients and a bit of stirring brings this lovely exotic confection together. These are flavoured with an easy to whip up Strawberry Rhubarb 'juice'. Rolled in icing sugar or chopped nuts finishes these off perfectly.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Turkish
Keyword cornstarch, icing sugar, lokum, pistachios, strawberry rhubarb
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Cooling Time 8 hours
Servings 24 cubes

Ingredients

Syrup

  • 375 ml water, or 1 1/2 cups
  • 800 g sugar, or 14 oz or approximately 3 3/4 cups
  • 30 ml lemon juice, or 2 tbsp

Lokum mix

  • 160 g corn starch, or 5 1/2 oz
  • 15 g cream of Tartar, or 1 3/4 tsp
  • 500 ml strawberry rhubarb juice, or 2 cups (in recipe below) See Notes
  • 250 ml water, or 2 cups

For Garnish

  • 50 g chopped pistachios, or 2 oz or approx 1/2 cup
  • 20-30 g organic rose buds, or 1 oz or approx 1/2 cup
  • or
  • 50 g Icing sugar, or approx 1/2 cup
  • 50 g corn starch, or approx 1/2 cup

Strawberry Rhubarb 'Juice'

  • 2 cups chopped rhubarb
  • 1 cup chopped strawberries
  • 2 1/4 cups water
  • 3/4 cup sugar

Instructions

To make the Strawberry Rhubarb Juice

  1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium heavy bottomed pot and cook over medium heat till the sugar dissolves.
  2. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes. Then remove from the heat and allow to steep till cooled down.
  3. Strain through a mesh strainer and set aside.
  4. Prepare a pan with cling film (plastic wrap) The pan should be about 8 x 10 (20 x 26 cm), 9 x 4 (23 x 10 cm) or thereabouts. You don't want it to small or else, it will fill up too high and the final cubes will be very thick, and may not set correctly)

Lokum Syrup

  1. Put the water, sugar and lemon juice in a medium pot over medium heat and stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Bring the syrup to boil and then reduce to heat to a medium simmer. Cook without stirring for about 15 to 20 m titl it has reached 240F using a candy thermometer. (Alternatively you can use the Soft Roll method to test- see the blog post for the link for testing sugar syrups.)

Lokum Mix

  1. While the syrup is simmering away, combine the corn starch, cream of tartar, strawberry rhubarb juice and water in larger pot over medium low heat and whisk until completely combined (no lumps).
  2. Once the syrup has reached the correct temperature stir it into the cornstarch mixture. Add the syrup a little bit at a time to the paste and keep stirring, switching to a silicone spatula or spoon. Stir regularly and let simmer on medium low heat for about 20 minutes or until it becomes a smooth and very thick paste (it should pull away from the walls of the pot)
  3. Pour the mixture in to the lined baking pan and use a silicone spatula to quickly smooth out the top of the mixture.
  4. Let it cool down and set for at least 6 hours. I leave it for at least 8 hours or even overnight.

Finish the Lokum

  1. Mix icing sugar and corn starch with each other in a shallow bowl.
  2. Turn the set lokum upside down on the counter and slice into lengths and then cubes. Aim for a cube about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in size (a bit smaller or larger is fine) Cover all sides of the cubes with sugar starch mix. Alternatively use chopped pistachio-rose buds mix.
  3. Keep at room temperature and enjoy.

Recipe Notes

Feel free to replace the strawberry rhubarb juice with pomegranate (not molasses) or orange juice.

If you find that your cubes weep a bit and the icing sugar coating disappears, do a second coating after 8 hours. Then serve. 

Store in a container that has some ventilation, or line with paper liners. Store at room temperature.

This recipe is a riff on the Pomegranate Lokum found on the Ischta blog.