Keto Turkish Delight or simply Greek loukoumi – How about Ketonian Delight?
Keto Turkish Delight was born after Debra, a Ketonian from New Zeland asked us if we can ketonise it… What do you think? Can we ketonise something so sugary that it makes your teeth hurt? My favourite phrase says – “Everything can be ketonised!” Even if the original Turkish delight contains only sugar and starch, in the land of Ketonia, there’s always a healthier substitute.
This is how Keto Turkish Delight or better say – Ketonian Delight was born! And boy was it a successful ketonisation. I am especially happy with the texture and how it’s still soft and gummy on the next day.
I just adore working with grass-fed beef gelatine. This Keto Turkish delight or Greek Loukoumi will bring loads of joy in Keto universe. Since Greek Goes Keto has ketonised so many oriental sweets… This will be a “cherry on top” of those Keto treats from the East!
Advantages of Keto Turkish delight (Greek loukoumi) over the classic sugary version
- It contains NO SUGAR and starch! In fact, it has zero carbs if you don’t coat it with coconut shavings
- It’s made with grass-fed beef gelatine and therefore can serve as a natural collagen supplement
- You can play with the flavour and create one million homemade versions
- There’s no high temperature involved and it’s safe to include children in preparation
- You don’t have to keep it in the refrigerator
The history of Turkish delight and its Greek Loukoumi version
Loukoumi is a legendary unhealthy sweet, made of sugar, water and starch. There are different aromas and sometimes nuts and seeds are added. As if it wasn’t enough, they are additionally covered in powdered sugar. They are usually served with Greek coffee. Keto Turkish delight can be served with coffee to, but it will not add any sugar!
Now, even though it’s a traditional sweet from the Greek island of Syros, this treat was invented by the Turks. This is why in English you know it as “Turkish delight” The word “loukoumi” was borrowed from the Arabic tradition and the meaning is something like “comfort for the throat” (rāḥat al-ḥulqūm, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel or Moldova it’s called Rahat lokum).
Loukoum originated in the Ottoman Empire and it spread throughout the Balkan peninsula. They were brought to Greece in the 19th century by refugees from Asia Minor. Interestingly, Loukoumi is not that popular among Greeks, but tourist seems to adore them. On the other side, Keto Turkish Delight might become popular among Ketonian Greeks and Non-Greeks! 😉
From Narnia to Ketonia
‘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.’
You would not believe how many texts on Turkish Delight and its significant meaning as the ultimate temptation in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia have been published! I am talking about scientific works here. Academic discussions are submerging Edmund’s Turkish delight obsession, the ultimate reason he sells out his siblings to the evil witch… How funny, right?
These discussions focus mainly on one mystery: Why in the world Turkish delight? Seems like, before the second world war, in Britain, this exotic sweet was highly-priced and considered as posh! 😮 Many fans of Narnia got disappointed when they tried it! They wondered why would Edmund want this when he could have asked for anything in the world. The answer is, it’s so difficult to prepare, that the Brits had to import it! As an exotic thing, it simply got extremely popular and overpriced in England.
As a Ketonian, I am hoping, C. S. Lewis wanted to say – Sugar is addictive, sugar is bad!
Could this be the secret behind the diabolic plan of the evil witch? Maybe they did know back then how bad sugar is, but they surely knew how addictive it is. You could get any information from children by offering them some sugar. Especially around the Second World War when sugar was used as a payment method in European countries! I remember stories and movies about American and British pilots and children in ex Yugoslavia that always included some sugar cubes in the bonding process.
Whatever the reason was, I want to Ketoniase Turkish Delight! Why – you might ask? Not only because Ketonians asked me to do it, but also to prove that the delight of chewing something soft, comforting, aromatic and inspiring can and should be made without sugar! Keto Turkish Delight or Greek loukoumi will bring a lot of joy, I promise you! Since in the land of Ketonia we don’t give up pleasure, here’s the ultimate recipe for all the foodies and romantics among you!
But have in mind, if your heart is not pure and brave, if you are not patient, you better don’t start! 😉 😉 😉
Keto Turkish Delight, Greek Loukoumi (Ketonian Delight)
4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalIngredients
60g (2,1 oz) grass-fed beef gelatine (powdered or granulated)
400 ml (13,5 fl oz) filtered water
Stevia or Monk fruit blend with Erythritol (You will decide how much)
2 sticks cinnamon
4 stripes orange peel
4 whole cloves
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp orange bloom water (or rose water)
1 tea bag rosehip and hibiscus tea
2/3 tsp citric acid of lemons
1/3 tsp sea salt
- Coating
6 tbsp coconut shavings or crumbs
Directions
- Place the powdered or granulated gelatin in a mixing bowl and cover it with 200ml (6.7 fl oz) of water. Start the mixer and let it mix slowly. It will create a foamy effect as the gelatine expands in the water.
- In a small saucepan, place the cinnamon stick, cloves, orange peel, vanilla extract, rosehip tea bag, citric acid, salt and sweetener… I used 4 tbsp stevia-erythritol blend, but I never make anything too sweet. If you want to resemble the real thing, add as much sweetener as you like. Cover with 200ml (6.7 fl oz) of water and start heating it. Stir occasionally.
- When the syrup is boiling, remove it from heat. Add orange bloom or rose water. Strain the syrup so that it’s easier to pour it slowly to the gelatine mixture.
- Now, through 40 minutes, while your mixer is mixing on a high speed, pour bit by bit of the syrup. First, the mixture will get liquid, but as the mixer is mixing, you will notice that it’s foaming and thickening. As soon as you notice it’s thickening, add more syrup. You can use a spoon and add syrup gradually.
- After 40 minutes, your mixture should be light, thick but pourable.
- Line a 30x20cm (12×8 inch) pan with parchment paper and sprinkle with coconut shavings or crumbs. You can also use coconut flour here.
- Pour in the gelatine mixture and let it sit. If your gelatine is too thick then you will not get the smooth and even top.
- Sprinkle some more coconut shavings on top and let it sit on room temperature for at least 4 hours.
- Run some hot water over a sharp knife and cut 4 stripes small cubes. Each time you cut a stripe, wash the knife with hot water. Then cut it in 10 horizontal lines to get 40 cubes.
- Serve as a Keto dessert after Keto meal or enjoy with coffee!
Recipe Video
Notes
- You can use powdered sweetener to coat the Ketonian delight, but in that case, use far less of the sweetener in the mixture. You will have zero carbs and zero fat per cube of Ketonian delight if you skip the coconut.
- You can play with the flavour and make different colours by utilising natural Keto-friendly ingredients.
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Lovely detail!
I quote: “If your gelatine is too thick then you will not get the smooth and even top”
How can this be fixed / how can it be prevented?
The obvious: Take less gelatine? ^^
Or to save it: Add more of everything else.
But frankly, I like it being gummy bear like. (Real gummy bears are literally just fruit juice with lots of gelatin. (Which was a cheap waste product.) At least they were. I live around the corner from the inventor.) Especially with a thin McDonalds-fry-shaped cut.
I know an even better variant: Make it with some form of dairy! Like Greek yogurt, German quark, etc. Frankly, I’d prefer a non-soured thick dairy, but it’s not available in its pure form here, and I haven’t dared playing with rennet yet.
I especially prefer a flavoring made out of super strong green tea¹, freeze-distilled fresh orange smoothie² with a dash of grapefruit smoothie (to reduce the sweetness), and tonka bean (vanilla’s exotic cousin). (Plus stevia, which suits this mix extremely well.)
You know: Caffeinated Morir Soñando cubes! Which really is a flavor to die for. Also, the protein-caffeine-tannin-coldness-mix *really* wakes you up and refreshes you, even in the hottest of climates! It’s like the fog in your brain clears up almost right away! … Just be aware that you may find yourself still feeling awake at 6 AM the next day (without being jittery!), if you consume too much. XD
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Regarding keto: It’s not actually all carbs that are harmful. It’s only short, acellular, non-branching ones. Aka: Processed crap. … Since they can be digested by a bad strain of bacteria in your digestive system, that then grows explosively, to the point of inflammation, and floods the body with waste products that trigger the Leptin receptors so much, they go numb. That’s why one then always feels hungry, and wants to eat. Stop it for two weeks (sometimes even a few days), and it’s gone. It goes quickest, when eating enough stuff that only the good bacteria can digest, so they dominate again. As in: long-chained branching carbs (usually called “prebiotics” in the pseudo-scientific community, not to be confused with probiotics), in their cellular form. (So not part of the cell is missing. Ergo, as always, avoid any white powders, goops, or clear liquids that aren’t water.)
Also, these bad bacteria cause a mis-digestion of fat, which is actually the only reason fat is “bad” in the first place! Otherwise, you’ll just feel full much quicker from fat, and you stop before it would be too much. Nice, how the body just works, if you let it, huh? 😀
¹ I just boil some water with as much green tea leaves in there as I possibly can. And I let it steep in there for quite some time, as I like the tannins. (They are basically nature’s retardation helper, making sure the caffeine gets released slowly.) This should be freeze-distillable too, if you want to concentrate it even more. But I never needed to.
² Make sure the fruit matter is kept at an almost frozen state all the way through. I chill the peeled oranges to 1°C, quickly blend, pour through a chilled cloth into a chilled isolated metal bowl, then funnel it into a plastic bottle of appropriate size (big surface area is ideal, and put both the pulp and the juice into the freezer separately, right away. When frozen hard, I put the juice bottle upside down over a small metal bowl, that sits on top of ice cubes in salt water, inside of a bigger isolated bowl, and cover the whole thing except for the bottle in a type of insulation material, with as little air inside as possible. Then I put the whole thing into the hot sun. The juice concentrate will drip down into the cold bowl, leaving behind a chunk of ice. (Make sure to not wait too long. When it turns clear, it’s done!) That way no enzymes or oxygen or anything can process the fruit material, and it will be the same as the whole fruit. That’s why a smoothie should never be more than a few minutes old!
You can repeat that a few times, but the only difference is how much gelatin you will need.
At the end I mix it with the solid parts from the freezer again, and keep in the freezer until I need it.