Homemade Turkish Delight from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

No Narnia themed Trunk or Treat (or any kind of party) would be complete without Turkish Delight, the candy with which the White Witch enticed and entrapped Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

I searched and read many recipes, and found a really fabulous one at Oh, the Things We'll Make.  Seriously, it's a great, thoughtful, detailed write-up and recipe, and I followed Tracy's instructions exactly, so I'm just going to send you over there for the recipe, not duplicate it on my blog.

But the pictures were so pretty!  I wanted to write a post about the Turkish Delight in some way.

I did learn a few things for myself when making the Turkish Delight with Tracy's recipe, so I thought I'd share those insights with you in this blog post.

But first, a couple pretty shots of the candy in action at our Narnia Trunk or Treat!

My little Mr. Tumnus (costume tutorial here) couldn't wait to try the homemade candy (even after reading the book).

Chewy and delicious!

If candy-making isn't your thing, you can buy ready-made Turkish delight, too.  But if you're ready to try making your own, I have some tips and thoughts to add to the excellent recipe and tutorial at The Things We'll Make.  

Homemade Turkish Delight Tips and Techniques:

Turkish Delight Tip #1:

The original recipe called for rose flavoring (rose water or rose syrup), but some of the comments I read in my search for a great Turkish delight recipe also mentioned using a bit of vanilla.  And I had orange blossom water (buy here) left over from my experiments in making homemade grenadine syrup.  I used all three in my batch of Turkish delight, and the end result was an amazing flavor that totally reminds me of homemade Swedish fish.  YUM.

Turkish Delight Tip #2:

At first I greased up and lined a 9x13 pan with parchment paper, but the mixture kept cooking down.  So I greased and lined an 8x8 baking dish.  And the mixture kept cooking down.  By the time I got the texture I wanted, I knew I needed an even smaller container for cooling my candy.  My daughter's plastic Ikea plates to the rescue!    It was absolutely perfect for this purpose.  (And for holding craft paint, and for making mud pies, and for so many other things.)

Turkish Delight Tip #3:

The final step in making Turkish delight is dusting the exterior of the pieces in cornstarch.  Even if you do that, you can't leave them in a dish like this for more than a couple hours!!  Yeah, I learned this one the hard way and ended up with one giant Turkish delight candy.  They will keep, but I'd store them in a container, separated by sheets of waxed paper between the layers.

Have you ever made Turkish delight?  I haven't done much candy-making, but I do love it.  If you have a favorite candy recipe, post it in the comments!  I'd love to add to my collection of great candy recipes.