My Fight with Turkish Delight

"The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious." (44)

It all started out so well....

Here is something I have observed. There are loads cookbooks in my house and in none of them have I ever come across a page in which the author presents us with a recipe that they describe as hard to do. It’s step by step and gives the impression that if you follow those instructions there is no way you can go wrong...right?  

Wrong!

Here is another observation. What if you look in two different cookbooks and they both give you the perfect recipe for the same thing but some of the ingredients are different. The outcome should still be exactly the same...right?

Wrong!

I looked at lots of different recipes for Turkish Delight and came across lots of different versions. Some said use gelatin, some said cream of tartar. I followed the cream of tartar rout as it was apparently more traditional. I followed the steps perfectly, they were pretty much the same in every recipe I'd seen. I Left it to set for 24 hours and when I came back to it, it had taken a turn for the worse.

It had refused to set properly and the last thing I imagined when I read the scene from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was the White Witch handing Edmund a box of Turkish Delight that turns to mush in seconds.

I had to relent and remake the mixture adding gelatin and getting rid my precious idea of staying traditional. So I sucked it up and shouted “FOR NARNIA” while I added what was required in a truly over dramatic moment.  

Another 24 hours later and I still have this.

Maybe the moral of this is don’t trust the internet. Yet I looked at a great deal of recipes that had been said to have worked fine. That got me thinking, before I wrote this I seriously considered going out to buy some Turkish Delight from the shop or making jelly and covering it in icing sugar and pretending that everything had worked out fine. What if, the recipes I looked at online had done the same thing? Or got it from a cookbook and just posted without trying it? Maybe I just did something wrong both times. Or maybe not.

My point is, despite how closely you follow the recipe, it sometimes just doesn’t work out for you. You can either keep going, cheat or give up as I have. 

That is something you don’t see documented in cookbooks. They want to give you the image of the best results you can get. They don’t want to show you the previous five attempts they made that burnt or fell apart. Failure is not going to sell their book. 

There is a reason that sales of Turkish Delight went up increasingly in 2005 when Disney’s film adaptation of the book came out. People didn’t want to try and make the historic sweet for themselves after the film made them curious. They just wanted to try it and move on. 

Tastes change over the years and Turkish Delight is definitely an acquired taste. You don’t want a failed tray full of the stuff like I currently have in my kitchen and it clearly isn’t as easy to make as it seems. The astounding amount of sugar in the recipe alone would have sent me into a hyperactive breakdown as a child. 

For Edmund during World War II where the novel is set, there was food rationing and sugary substances were a rare treat. To acquire some from the Witch would have been such a wonderful treat to him. 

Unfortunately I don’t have a magic bottle that contains mystic liquid that turns snow to rare sweets. So I am stuck with my rubbish version that currently looks more like the slush poured on TV presenters in the children’s Saturday morning shows I used to watch religiously. 

Oh well at least I tried. 

Sammy xx

The White Witch Hot Chocolate

"Edmund saw the drop for a second in mid-air, shining like a diamond. But the moment it touched the snow there was a hissing sound and there stood a jeweled cup full of something that steamed." (43) 

So today I tried my hand at making Hot Chocolate White Witch style. I looked through a few recipes suggested online and came across one here http://www.narniafans.com/fansection/recipes.php for a Narnia style Hot Chocolate and changed it a bit to suit my tastes. 

Here is my recipe for The White Witch Hot Chocolate.

Ingredients
4 Tsp Cocoa
2 Tsp Sugar
1.5 cups Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract (or more)
1 Tsp of Cinnamon Powder
Whipped Cream
Crushed biscuit (Any type)

Procedure
Add milk to saucepan.
Add Cocoa and sugar and stir.
Add cinnamon, vanilla. 
Heat to just under boiling.
Mix well and pour into Glass
Top with whipped cream and crushed biscuit of choice.
(I used a chocolate HobNob)

 "Edmund felt much better as he began to sip the hot drink. It was something he had never tasted before, very sweet and  foamy and creamy, and it warmed him right down to his toes." (43)

So there is my final result and it was attractive and tasted great. I couldn't resist taking some White Witch themed photos to show it off and after I did that it had cooled down enough and I thoroughly enjoyed drinking it. Just as Edmund noticed, the drink is incredibly sweet and creamy and has the magical effect of making me feel warmer and relaxed. As Narnia is frozen and cold due to the White Witches rule in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, this would have been the perfect drink to lure Edmund in with its warmth and attractiveness. The cinnamon is what makes this recipe for me, it really added something to the Hot Chocolate taste that complimented it.

If you have an Edmund style sweet tooth like me you will love this recipe. 

Cheers!

Sammy xx

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“He had eaten his share of the dinner, but he hadn't really enjoyed it because he was thinking all the time about Turkish Delight—and there's nothing that spoils the taste of good ordinary food half so much as the memory of bad magic food.” (95)

Choosing this book to start with was easy because to be completely honest as a child I was always opening my wardrobe and wishing I would find Narnia at the back. Unfortunately it never appeared but there is still hope, never give up on your dreams as the saying goes. 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has an interesting focus on food as a temptation. In the story Edmund is tempted by the White Witch through the use of Hot Chocolate and Turkish Delight. In a way Edmund picks his own poison and the White Witch exploits that to get what she wants, she asks him questions and he answers without thought, his love of the food driving his desire to please her in order to get more.  

“At first Edmund tried to remember that it is rude to eat with one’s mouth full, but soon he forgot about this and thought only of trying to shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate the more he wanted to eat, and he never asked himself why the Queen should be so inquisitive.” (44)

When reading The Chronicles of Narnia as a child I never noticed the religious connotations running throughout every story but looking back as an adult I see the Witches temptation as one of the key moments in the tale where we see this most. The scene could be seen to play on the original sin of Adam and Eve. Edmund’s fixation on the Turkish Delight is similar to Eve’s on the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. The witch leading Edmund to betrayal parallel to the way in which the snake leads Eve. The imagery of consumption through temptation and the consequences Edmund faces make it very difficult to not think of the fall of man.  

At last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking very hard at the empty box and wishing that she would ask him whether he would like some more. Probably the Queen knew quite well what he was thinking, for she knew, though Edmund did not, that this was enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves. But she did not offer him any more.” (45) 

Greed is another issue I think C. S. Lewis explores in his portrayal of Edmund and his reaction to the foods the White Witch offers. I feel it is very significant that both items he consumes are sweet. Sweets are a weak spot for children and something that is demanded and consumed by children more than any other type of food. Edmund is obsessed with the idea of getting more sweets and the White Witch uses that to manipulate him with magic. I feel it may be a message from the author, as if to say, “Look what can happen when you get too greedy.” 

There are probably many other ways of looking into the presentation of the foods in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and when analysing its placing and purpose we see that its presence is less than welcome in this case, instead it is a warning. 

Even with the warnings and the potential of being bewitched I’m still going to brave making Hot Chocolate and Turkish Delight in a White Witch style this week. 

I’ll be back with my recipes and pictures. 

Sammy xx