Lemon Turkish Delight Cookies
*This recipe was developed for Sasko Flour, who approached me to find ways to use their products creatively. I agreed to this project as Sasko Flour products have been used in our house and my mother’s for so very many years. I’m pretty sure you live in South Africa, you have a packet of cake flour or self raising flour from them too *
I’ve had the chance to sample a huge variety of Turkish Delight or lokum as it’s known in Turkey a few weeks ago. I’ve always been partial to the rose and lemon varieties, I guess these are the flavours we are most accustomed to back home. I used lemon Turkish Delight in these cookies. Using the Quick Treats Flapjack mix to make these lemon scented, lemon flavoured lovlies, which are crumbly and cakey in texture, I took great delight (ahem) in extending the tastes and sounds of my recent visit to Istanbul in the kitchen.
Ingredients
Makes 20-25 cookies
1/2 bag (+_230 g) Sasko Flour Quick Treats Flapjack Mix
1 large free range egg
60 ml castor sugar
45 ml vegetable oil
80 ml thick (double cream)/ Greek yoghurt
zest 1 large lemon, plus juice of 1/2 large lemon
1 tsp lemon extract
6-7 blocks lemon Turkish Delight, chopped into bits
Method
Preheat oven to 190˚C and grease a baking tray.
Add Quick Treats Flapjack mix, egg, sugar, oil, lemon zest, juice, extract and yoghurt to a bowl.
Mix to form a thick, smooth but slightly sticky ball of dough.
Use a spoon to drop small balls of dough onto tray. Place a few bits of turkish delight in centre of each.
Note cookies do swell up so leave some space between each.
Bake for 10-12 minutes – will just start to brown on top.
The cookies are crumbly and chewy – more little scone-like in texture.
Cooks’s notes
Omit Turkish delight and add glacé lemon if preferred.
Ishay, what a great idea! Surprisingly, I still have quite a bit left from our Istanbul eats tour and would love to try something different with them. I’m thinking rose lokum would be a delicious pairing with lemon.
Hello! How wonderful to hear from you. I love the rose too and the ones that look like rolled soft meringues with the coconut on the outside. Thanks for visiting – hope you enjoyed your trip.