Turkish Desserts: Top 5 That You Should Taste

Apart from the history, nature, and historical places of Turkey, Turkish cuisine takes a big part of Turkish culture. In wealthy and poor days, old Turkish communities found new desserts and foods. Old Turkish communities even attribute meaning to desserts, such as Semolina Helva. In today’s article, we are going to talk about desserts that even have idioms about them. Let’s start with an idiom ‘’Tatlı yiyelim, tatlı konuşalım’’ (Let’s eat sweet, talk sweetly).

Baklava

Baklava the most famous Turkish dessert in the world. The most known and original baklava comes from Gaziantep and has pistachio. Nevertheless, depending on the region, there is walnut, pistachio, or hazelnut among thin sheets of dough. Other important ingredients are syrup which includes sugar, water and lemon, and clarified butter. While biting, don’t forget to listen to the crackling sound of dough, it is an important criteria for tasty baklava.

Kunefe

Our other famous Turkish dessert is Künefe. At first, Künefe was made in Mersin, and then people in Hatay people started to make it too. Shredded dough combines with saltless cheese, clarified butter, and syrup. In both cities, they prepare on a big tray then they portion it. In addition, some Turkish people like to put vanilla ice-cream because vanilla ice-cream makes künefe lighter. If you want to see one of the longest melted cheese, try stretching out the cheese of künefe.

Katmer

Katmer has two different types but today I will mention the sweet one. This dessert comes from Gaziantep. Chefs have a different way of rolling out katmer dough. In super thin dough, there are sugar, pistachio clarified butter, and pretty much cream. After putting all the ingredients, they fold katmer like an envelope. Like most Turkish people, I suggest that you eat katmer with vanilla ice-cream.

Semolina Helva

Unlike other desserts, semolina helva has an important meaning in Turkish culture. In general, Turkish people make semolina helva, when someone passes away. According to old Turkish beliefs, when they fry semolina, the emerging smell goes to the soul of the person who passed away and semolina helva feeds the rest of the people. Relatives of a person who passed away, treat people to semolina helva. Ingredients are semolina, milk, butter, sugar, milk, and water. At the serving stage, you can put vanilla ice-cream, I highly recommend it.

Pistachio Twist

Pistachio twist is one of the greenest and my favorite dessert. This dessert’s featured side is having so much pistachio. Thin sheets of dough combine with so much pistachio, butter, and syrup. My suggestion is that try to control yourself because after eating pistachio twist, you will feel thirsty and be so energetic. An intense cardio session can be good after this tasty dessert.

After these tasty photos and words, I’m sorry to make you hungry. After the Turkey trip, I guarantee that you will gain weight without any regret because all the bites of these desserts are worth it. These desserts will make you so energetic that please eat them before traveling the city. Otherwise, you won’t be able to consume this energy.

BONUS: If you are looking for a more modern Turkish dessert, you can also try the new generation Turkish lokma: Lokmata!