Turkish Delight as Irish Moss - recipe

Did I already tell you I like sweet things? Yeah?
And on those rare occasions when I'm allowed to have free reign in the kitchen - I make sweet treats - and according to the top chef of the kitchen - a mighty BIG mess too. But we get there...

Since my attempt at making pink Turkish Delight was successful, I decided to try mixing things up a bit and make Irish Moss. Well, it's what we call it in this corner of the world - not a piece of seaweed was used...

home made Irish Moss - liquorice jube

This is what you need:
* 400g sugar - 2 cups
* 35g (75ml) cornflour - 2 Tbl spoons/¼ cup
* 1ml (a pinch) of citric acid
* 200ml water

* 125g licorice - chopped
* 1 or 2 tots black Sambuca (optional)

* 6 teaspons powdered gelatine sprinkled onto 50mls water (or if you have leaf gelatine, use 12 sheets soaked in 400mls of water for 5 minutes before squeezing out the water)
black food colouring
50g cornflour (105mls)
50g icing sugar (95mls)


This is how you do it:
Rub/spray some rice bran oil (or canola/sunflower oil - you want an oil with very little flavour/taste) around a 12x12cm pan/dish/tin. Make sure your dish is at least 5cm deep...

Mix 400g sugar, 35g cornflour, pinch of citric acid and the chopped up licorice in 200mls of water and stir over a LOW heat until the sugar has dissolved. Sadly, you will never get the licorice to completely melt
Then cook this for 7 minutes (no need to use a temperature gauge - nice!)

boil for 7 minutes

Add the Sambuca (if you've chosen this. The alcohol content will boil away and leave you with just the essence,) and prepared gelatin
Mix this in and stir until the gelatine has melted
Then add some black food colouring until you have the desired shade of night (I've tried it with and without food coloring... and in this case, my preference is eating with my eyes first... it HAS to be black)
Simply pour this mix into your oil smeared pan and let it set/ cool down for a bit
(BUT - if you prefer a perfectly smooth jube without little bits of licorice, then push this mixture through a sieve first. And remember, this stuff is like molten lava at this stage, so be careful)

molten licorice jelly 

Slam it in the fridge for 4 hours at least (on a breadboard worked well for us - to absorb any residual heat and also keep the mix level)
prepare the 50g cornflour and 50g icing sugar by sifting it into a flat bottomed bowl (or into a plastic bag)
Sprinkle some over your breadboard
When you're ready to serve/package: dunk the underside of your pan in hot water for literally a few seconds so that it comes loose easily and goes straight onto your dusted breadboard - ready to be sliced into small blocks or cut into whatever shapes you desire
Roll these blocks of sweet goodness into your cornflour/icing sugar mix
Then enjoy


Turkish Delight as Irish Moss

Turkish Delight - easy recipe

I LOVE a sweet treat on a regular basis. Turkish delight is one of those indulgences that just appeals to me, though not everyone in this household would agree - their loss. No more store bought delight for me...
Finally!! another recipe here that let's us make use of that bottle of rosewater just sitting in the pantry.

This is what you need:
400g sugar (500mls)
35g cornflour (75mls)
1ml (a pinch) of citric acid
200mls water
2 teaspoons rosewater (any more than that and you'll land up with something that tastes like bubblebath - so easy on the rosewater)
6 teaspons powdered gelatine mixed with 50mls water (or if you have leaf gelatine, use 12 sheets soaked in 400mls of water for 5 minutes before squeezing out the water)
pink food colouring
50g cornflour (105mls)
50g icing sugar (95mls)

This is how you do it:
Rub/spray some rice bran oil (or canola/sunflower oil - you want an oil with very little flavour/taste) around a 12x12cm pan/dish/tin. Make sure your dish is at least 5cm deep...
Mix 400g sugar, 35g cornflour, pinch of citric acid in 200mls of water
Heat over a LOW heat until the sugar has dissolved
Then cook this for 7 minutes (no need to use a temperature gauge - nice!)
Add the rosewater and prepared gelatine
Mix this in by stirring until the gelatine has melted
Then add some food colouring until you have the desired shade of pink
Simply pour this mix into your oil smeared pan and let it set/ cool down for a bit
Slam it in the fridge for 4 hours at least (on a breadboard worked well for us - to absorb any residual heat and also keep the mix level)
prepare the 50g cornflour and 50g icing sugar by sifting it into a flat bottomed bowl (or into a plastic bag)
Sprinkle some over your breadboard
When you're ready to serve/package: dunk the underside of your pan in hot water for literally a few seconds so that it comes loose easily and goes straight onto your dusted breadboard - ready to be sliced into small blocks or cut into whatever shapes you desire
Roll these blocks of sweet goodness into your cornflour/icing sugar mix
Then enjoy

If you want to jazz things up a bit, use orange-blossom water instead of rosewater and yellow/orange food colouring instead of the pink. Add some pistachio bits when you put the mix into the oiled pan

And if that ain't enough, look out for our Irish Moss recipe coming up soon - using this recipe but with liqourice and black Sambuka



Turkish Delight - easy recipe