Turkish Delight

Steph started reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" a little over a month ago.

I awaited the question, the same question that I asked my Mom when the book was read to us in grade school:

"What's Turkish delight?"

My vision as a child was that it was a candy, shaped like slices of turkey breast. There was a frosting glaze over it, and maybe some designs drawn with dark icing.

She got to the part of the book where the Queen gives Edmund Turkish delight, and asked the question.

We ended up doing a google search together, to find pictures.

Think blocks of gelatin, flavored with fruit juice and zest, dusted with powdered sugar.

It can also be dipped in chocolate.

Nuts are optional.

Earlier this week, I dug through our cookbooks, and found two recipes in my copy of "The Joy of Cooking". We tried earlier in the week, but didn't cook the sugar long enough, and we didn't use enough unflavored gelatin, so it never firmed up enough. Stephanie chose to dye it blue, so we have something like a lemon-lime jelly.

We tried again last night, and got it right this time. We put a little rose food coloring in, so its like blocks of pink lemonade.

Steph is happy. Because we made the recipe twice, she did almost everything herself the second time around (cutting and juicing the fruit, grating the lemon zest, and all of the measuring. I supervised the cooking of the sugar, since sugar syrup is scary stuff when its still hot).

My hope is that this can turn into a yearly treat that she can make for the holidays.