I named my blog ‘Pommes d’Amour” twenty years ago after the tantalizing eye popping candy apples I would oogle in the Paris patisserie windows on my way to work. Now here I am, Stateside, a lifetime later, with two little girls and a garden filled with apple trees and I’m actually making the recipe! Full circle finally.

I grow a unique apple called Pink Pearl. No doubt if you’ve followed this blog for any length of time you have seen these pink fleshed beauties in my other recipes. It is my favorite. My Mother-in-Law says that these apples are called “blood apples” in Iran, so I find it quite fitting for Halloween.

This is an easy recipe and a fun one. But as a longtime cooking teacher, I must warn, making the candy part of this is not a job for little kids and I personally asked Layla to sit on the other side of our kitchen island and I did not make this recipe with my ever curious toddler Hettie, because she simply does not understand the word ‘No’ or ‘Danger’. In fact, those two words often have the exact opposite effect.

Layla and I picked the last of our Pink Pearls, trimmed our tree and cleaned some branches, we jammed those branches into the tops of our apples and measured our ingredients. I cooked the sugar concoction (alone) to 310˚F and then dipped the apples in as fast as possible before the sugar could set. Seriously easy!

There are options for the flavor and color. We made two batches: in one I used just red gel paste for eye popping scarlet magpie appeal. In the other batch I added a touch of black for a more wicked look. Aside from the lemon juice if you want a little more kick, you can add red hot candies for a bit of cinnamon heat!

Happy Halloween friends! Hope there’s more treats in your bag than tricks!

The post Pommes d’Amour first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

And it’s also impossible to not think about how Aslan, the Lion King, sacrificed himself for Edmund’s sin of treachery at the merciless hands of the White Witch. Oh to be loved by a Lion so great! Thanks to C.S. Lewis’s book The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe, this little confection, for me, has become a beautiful little reminder to forgive and forget.

But maybe you’re asking, “WHY? Why would Edmund do that?!?!” And I don’t blame you. Until I actually tasted Turkish Delight from Turkey (which is amazing) I asked the very same question: “Why oh why, would he sell out his siblings for this yucky, gummy, bland sweet?”

Truly a whole novel could be written about C.S. Lewis’s reasons for choosing Turkish Delight as the enchanted sweet of choice. I mean why not some other triple chocolate ridiculousness? Given the historical setting of this book and also his use of Turkish symbols and names (Aslan means Lion in Turkish), I’m sure there is a deeper meaning here. England’s proximity to Turkey probably meant that Turkish Delight was a special little import and I bet it was also scarce during WWII making it even more desirable. 

Here, Stateside, I will be the first one to admit that I dislike store-bought Turkish Delight (also known as lokma or lokum). Even when I buy it from Middle Eastern Markets I’m disappointed. But when I make it at home it’s soft and pretty and I can flavor it and color it however I want.

Add nuts or don’t. It’s a personal preference. I add pistachios because I like pistachios and because it makes me feel better as a Mom that at least there’s some real nutrition buried in the flavored sugar-cornstarch paste. 

As much as kids love to help out in the kitchen, this is not a recipe to make with them. Sugar burns are dangerous and this recipe involves heating up sugar to the hardball stage and it might splatter a little along the way. If you’ve never made candy before I highly suggest getting uber organized before starting and having a second pair of (adult) hands during the pot to pot transfer is helpful to insure ingredients don’t get lumpy along the way.

I know I always say every recipe is simple. And this is simple. There’s just a minute or two of stirring frantically and mild hyperventilating mid way through the recipe and then it’s all just a happy sweet memory!

Rose essence smells so pretty and it pairs beautifully with raspberry or cherry. You could also add a little vanilla or almond extract. I use pink gel paste for coloring. There are many, many flavors of Turkish Delight so feel free to experiment! Rose, lemon, orange, pomegranate, mint, mastic (like cedar) flavors are among the most popular and nuts of all sorts: pistachio, hazelnut, or walnuts can be used if desired.

Wishing you and yours a lovely Easter, Happy belated Passover and fun Sizdeh Bidar filled with kindness, compassion and forgiveness.

The post Turkish Delight first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.