Turkish Delight Syllabub

Turkish Delight Syllabub is a liqueur-spiked, creamy cloud of a dessert made from a traditional old English recipe dating back to the seventeenth century. It offers a lighter yet still rich dessert option, perfect after a heavy meal.

This particular syllabub tastes very reminiscent of Turkish Delight, hence its name. It is an easy to make yet very elegant dessert flavoured with orange, lemon and rose.

This Turkish Delight Syllabub is slightly adapted from one shared by Nigella Lawson in her wonderful book Nigella Bites (affiliate link). I have toned down the flavourings a bit, leaving the cream with just a hint of the flavours of the east. The bright green pistachio rubble on the top provides a welcome contrast to the pale cream, and a little bit of very welcome crunch.

Turkish Delight Syllabub

What Is Turkish Delight?

Often flavoured with mint, orange, lemon, or rose, the individual squares of this jelly-like candy are dusted with icing sugar (also known as powdered or confectioner’s sugar) to prevent them from sticking together. Turkish Delight may also contain pistachios, nuts or dates.

How To Serve Turkish Delight Syllabub

Syllabub is often served in pretty glasses. Be warned though, choose small receptacles as a little of this creamy dessert goes a long way! Smaller servings are more than adequate. I scatter chopped pistachios over top and sometimes I serve a cookie or even a piece of Turkish Delight alongside.

My favourite way to serve Turkish Delight Syllabub is in tea cups. Faces lit up when I bring them to the table and they are a wonderful talking point too. Also, my tea cup collection is really special to me. If you would like to learn more, read on. Want to go straight to the recipe? Scroll back to the top and hit the Jump To Recipe button.

My Tea Cup Collection

I never set out to collect cups and saucers, my collection found me. When I was a little girl and we had afternoon tea, my Mom would let me choose the cup I wanted to use from her own collection. This selection could take some time, and was definitely half the fun. Most of Mom’s teacups had belonged to someone else first, and they all had a story. From the Limoges cup and saucer from my Grandma’s best set of china, to the fragile Irish Belleek cup covered in shamrocks, all are little pieces of my family’s history.

My own first teacup came to me when my best friend’s Nana passed away, as something to remember her by. My Grandmas had both died before I was born, and my friend had offered to ‘share’ Nana with me so I wouldn’t be Grandmother-less. Nana, who was lovely, never seem to mind. Some years later, when my beautiful, vivacious Aunt Irene died, my cousin gave me a teacup to remember her by. It is the teacup in the foreground of the photograph at the top of this post, the one with the pink rose on the inside of the cup.

Over the years I received a few teacups as gifts and when I moved to England my mom began to share her collection with me. When Mom died, she left the remaining few to me too. I use my tea cups often and, as in the case of Turkish Delight Syllabub, not just for drinking tea! I always enjoy remembering the stories behind them when I do.

Is This Recipe Gluten-Free?

Turkish Delight Syllabub is naturally gluten free.

How To Store Turkish Delight Syllabub

Turkish Delight Syllabub is best served the day it is made, however it will keep, covered in the fridge for up to 24 hours. It is a wonderful last-minute dessert, perfect for entertaining on busy days.

Turkish Delight Syllabub – Printable Recipe

Created by: April J Harris

Turkish Delight Syllabub

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Servings 8

Turkish Delight Syllabub is an easy to make yet very elegant dessert flavoured with orange, lemon and rose.

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Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

• ¾ cup Cointreau
• the juice of 2 lemons
• ½ cup sugar caster or superfine if possible
• 2 cups double cream Double cream is also known as heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon rosewater
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom or orange flower water
• 2 tablespoons pistachios very finely chopped

Instructions

• Combine the Cointreau, the juice of the lemons and the sugar in a large bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Don’t rush this step as you want the sugar to be fully dissolved.
• Add the cream and, using an electric mixer or hand held electric mixer, whip the cream until it is fairly thick. (You can use an ordinary whisk for this, but it will take absolutely ages, and your arm may actually fall off. At least that was what I thought was going to happen when I tried whipping the cream that way.)
• Add the rose water and orange blossom water. Whip the cream some more, until the cream just reaches the soft peak stage. This is when, if you lift the beaters, the cream forms soft peaks. Be careful not to over-whip as you don’t want the cream to be too firm.
• Spoon the syllabub gently into teacups or serving dishes of your choice (preferably the ones you have been saving at the back of the cupboard for special occasions). Scatter the pistachio pieces on top.
• Keep the syllabub in the fridge until serving time. You can make them a few hours ahead. It’s a good idea to cover the serving dishes with a bit of plastic wrap if you are going to chill them for long. It goes without saying, but if you do use cups and saucers, simply put the teacups themselves in the fridge and leave the saucers stacked on the side until serving time to save space.

Notes

Adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson.

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