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

What sütlaç is

Rice is cooked in water until soft, then milk and sugar are added and the pot simmers, stirred, for half an hour or more until it is thick enough to hold a spoon. A little rice flour or cornflour is often used to thicken. It is poured into individual bowls to set. For fırın sütlaç, the bowls go under a fierce grill or into a hot oven until the surface is dark brown and blistered in patches, then chilled. It is served cold, plain or with cinnamon, and in the Black Sea region with ground hazelnuts. It is not spiced or flavoured with vanilla or rosewater; the flavour is milk, rice and caramelised top.

Sütlaç, kazandibi and the muhallebi family

Turkish milk puddings are a family. Sütlaç has rice; muhallebi is a plain milk pudding thickened with rice flour; kazandibi is muhallebi deliberately burnt on the bottom of the pan and flipped; tavuk göğsü is muhallebi with shredded chicken breast, which tastes of nothing but milk. A Turkish pudding shop, muhallebici, sells all of them. Sütlaç is the most familiar and the baked version is the one to order.

How to judge it

It should be creamy and thick but not stiff, the rice soft and evenly distributed, the sweetness gentle. The baked version should have a proper brown blistered top, not a pale skin. It should be cold. A sütlaç that is gluey or grainy was overthickened with starch; one that is thin was rushed. The best come from pudding shops and the older lokantas that make it every morning.

Where in the UK it is done well

Turkish patisseries and pudding shops in Harringay, Enfield and Edmonton, and most lokantas, make it daily. The ranking below counts businesses in our directory whose name signals sütlaç, muhallebi or a patisserie.