Lokum in the UK: what it is, how to order it, where to find it

Name: Lokum
Total time: 120 min
Yield: 30
Ingredients: 400 g sugar; 500 ml water; 1 tsp lemon juice; 100 g cornflour; half a tsp cream of tartar; 2 tbsp rosewater and a little pink colouring, or the juice and zest of a lemon; 100 g pistachios, optional; icing sugar and cornflour, equal parts, for dusting

Quick answer

Lokum, Turkish delight, is a soft, chewy confection of sugar and starch, flavoured with rosewater, lemon, mastic or pomegranate, often filled with pistachio, hazelnut or walnut, and dusted with icing sugar or desiccated coconut. The Istanbul confectioner Hacı Bekir has made it since 1777. It is the sweet served with Turkish coffee, the gift brought back from Turkey, and in the UK it is sold in every Turkish patisserie and grocer, where the fresh kind bears little resemblance to the boxed export version.

Calories and nutrition

Calories: 150
Protein: 1 g
Carbs: 36 g
Fat: 1 g
Salt: 0.0 g

Portion: Three cubes, about 45 g.

Nut-filled lokum is about 20% higher; it is nearly all sugar, so one piece with coffee is the intended portion.

Estimates for a typical portion, based on standard UK and USDA food composition data. Actual values depend on the recipe and the restaurant.

What lokum is

Sugar syrup is cooked with cornflour and cream of tartar for an hour or more, stirring, until it is a thick translucent gel. It is flavoured and poured into a starch-dusted tray to set overnight, then cut into cubes and tossed in icing sugar and starch. The classic flavours are rose, lemon and plain; the classic fillings are pistachio, hazelnut, walnut and, more recently, whole nuts in a log rolled in coconut or pistachio, called fıstıklı sarma lokum. Mastic lokum has a resinous pine flavour. Turkish lokum is softer and less sweet than the gummy, brightly coloured export version, and it should be eaten fresh.

Lokum and coffee

A single piece of lokum is served on the saucer with Turkish coffee, and the ritual is a sip of water, a bite of lokum, then the coffee. It is offered to guests with tea, at religious holidays and at engagements. It is not eaten in quantity; a box is meant to last. The best is bought loose by weight from a confectioner, not in a tin.

How to judge it

Fresh lokum is soft, yielding and slightly elastic, not rubbery, and dissolves in the mouth. It should taste clearly of its flavour, rose or lemon or mastic, and of the nut inside, and the sweetness should be clean. Stale lokum is hard and dry; cheap lokum is chewy like a gum and tastes of artificial flavouring. The coating should be light, not a thick crust of icing sugar. Buy it loose, by weight, from a shop that turns over stock.

Where in the UK it is done well

Turkish patisseries and grocers in Harringay, Enfield and Edmonton sell fresh lokum loose by weight, and a few confectioners make their own. The ranking below counts businesses in our directory whose name signals lokum or a patisserie.

How to order it

Buy it loose by weight, not in a tin, and ask for pistachio and rose. Eat it with Turkish coffee, one piece at a time. It keeps for a few weeks in a cool cupboard; do not refrigerate it.

Where it's done well

UK councils with the most lokum specialists, by restaurant name, in our directory.

Restaurants near you

Search by postcode or use your location to find restaurants likely to serve lokum near you.

Make it at home

Serves 30 · 120 min

Ingredients

400 g sugar
500 ml water
1 tsp lemon juice
100 g cornflour
half a tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp rosewater and a little pink colouring, or the juice and zest of a lemon
100 g pistachios, optional
icing sugar and cornflour, equal parts, for dusting

Method

Dissolve the sugar in 250 ml of the water with the lemon juice and boil to 115°C, the soft-ball stage. Keep warm.
In a large pan whisk the cornflour and cream of tartar into the remaining water and cook, whisking, until it thickens to a paste.
Pour the syrup slowly into the paste, whisking, then simmer over low heat, stirring often, for 60 to 75 minutes until it is thick, golden and pulls away from the pan.
Stir in the rosewater, colouring and pistachios, and pour into a 20 cm square tin lined with oiled cling film dusted with the icing sugar mixture.
Leave uncovered overnight. Turn out, cut into cubes with an oiled knife, and toss in the dusting mixture.

The long slow cooking is what gives lokum its texture; rushing it gives a sticky jelly. A sugar thermometer helps.

Related dishes

Baklava

Baklava is layered filo pastry filled with ground pistachio or walnut, baked until crisp and soaked in a light syrup. Turkish baklava is drier and more layered than the Greek and Levantine versions, with syrup rather than honey and pistachios from Gaziantep as the benchmark. In the UK it is sold by the piece or by weight from Turkish bakeries and patisseries, and the difference between a good box and a bad one is mostly butter and freshness.

Turkish Tea and Coffee

Turkish tea, çay, is black tea brewed strong in a double teapot and served in small tulip-shaped glasses, diluted to taste and drunk all day. Turkish coffee is finely ground coffee simmered with water and sugar in a small pot, served unfiltered with the grounds settling in the cup. Both are rituals rather than drinks, and every Turkish restaurant and café in the UK serves them; how they do it tells you a lot about the place.