My Favorite Recipes Collection: Turkish Delight with Pomegranate Juice & Pistatchios with a Hint of Orange.

As promised here is the recipe for Pomegranate Turkish Delight with loads of Pistachios. This is the item that we had in Turkey but could not bring it here and therefore inspired me to make this at home. I actually made this for a party and made it ahead of time along with previous recipes and put them in the freezer. They were a great hit. Basically followed the same recipe except the quantity was a bit more due to having to make this for a party. And since I got better at it with practice used the strainer when rolling the cube in the powdered sugar and corn starch mix at the end. As you can see I used the same box with small slots from the useless, pistachio less store bought "Pistachio Turkish delight", and stored it in them. So made the good use of the boxes.

Ingredients:

4.5 cups cane sugar
2 cups corn starch
2 cups of Pomegranate juice no sugar added
2 cups of water (or you can use 1 cup of water and 1 cup of additional Pomegranate juice, this is for corn starch liquid mix)
Juice from 2-3 fresh lime or you can use lemon
6 cups of roasted salted pistachios shelled pistachios from Costco and 3/4 cup extra crushed pistachio for topping
6 table spoon of orange marmalade with less sugar
3 tables spoon of orange blossom water
2 table spoon of Rose water
1/2 teaspoon of of liquid red food color

10 x 13 Rectangular cake pan, if you want to make thin layers you can use additional 8 x 8 pan which I did. I used silicone pans.
Parchment paper and vegetable oil spray,
5 table spoon of butter or ghee
4 tablespoon of corn starch
4 tablespoon of powdered sugar

Method:

Spray vegetable oil on the cake pan or pans if using two and line them with parchment paper.
Dust/sprinkle some corn starch on it evenly and set aside.
Dry roast the pistachio slightly on a flat griddle, not for long as the pistachios I used were already roasted, set them aside to cool. When cool, crush them gently in to some halves and some whole.

Bring two cups of pomegranate juice to boil and add 4.5 cup of cane sugar, I used a deep square copper lined nonstick pan.
Then add lime or lemon juice.
Turn the heat down to medium - low maintaining a constant boiling. You will see a foam forming. Keep intermittently stirring with wooden spoon and continue cooking until the sugar mixture reduces and thickens but before it changes to caramel. (12 min).

While you are cooking the syrup, in a bowl mix corn starch and cold water, (you can even use 1/2 water and half pomegranate juice, you will then need only 1 cup of water and one additional cup of pomegranate juice) .
Stir/mix well until the smooth mixture of corn starch and water is obtained.
Check the sugar syrup on low heat is ready by scraping the bottom of pan with the spatula. The syrup should recede the the bottom as it should not be too watery liquid form.
Gradually add the corn starch and water mixture to the syrup while still on stove, and reduce the heat to low and stir constantly.

The mixture will slowly thicken, add marmalade and ghee (in Turkish recipe they don't add butter or ghee, but I learned this trick from a similar confectionery we make in India it is called Karachi Halwa, which has same texture as that of Turkish delight but they add loads of ghee in it)
The mixture become more and more difficult to stir, however at this point it will require constant stirring on low heat.
Then add orange blossom water, rose water and food color (you will need more red food coloring to give deep red color) , and 6 cups pf half crushed pistachios, mix well, and continue to stir constantly.
It is going to be even more difficult to stir.

It takes about an hour and a half till it is ready. (this is the hardest part of the recipe)
The preparation is ready when the content is completely detaches from the bottom of pan.
Empty the content (careful !) on parchment paper lined pan or pans and take a small stainless steel bowl or a measuring cup and smear the bottom of cup with butter or ghee and pat the content down evenly in the pan, making about 1 inch thick layer.
Sprinkle the additional crushed pistachio on top and press it evenly.
Let it cool when completely cool, cover it with aluminum foil and let it dry at room temp for 24 hours.

I actually put it in the fridge for 24 hour.
Next day, flip the pan over on a cutting board and remove the parchment paper.
Flip the content over again and cut in to desire size of squares with a large sharp and smooth knife. You can brush the knife with some oil of ghee before slicing.

Then in a shallow bowl combine 3 table spoon of powdered sugar and 3 table spoon of corn starch and mix it with a whisk.
Roll each cut square in the mixture coating it evenly.
I used a strainer this time to roll the cubes in this mix.
As mentioned earlier I put them in the freezer for a party, but they will stay fresh for several weeks at room temperature in an airtight box, since it is hot weather so I put them in the fridge.
It was lot of work stirring the mix but was well worth it as we got to finally enjoy this Pomegranate Turkish delight with lots and lots of pistachio, just like we had it in Turkey.