The sweets most commonly associated with Turkish cuisine are Turkish delight (lokum) and baklava, which gives the impression that these are the typical desserts eaten after meals. This, of course, is not the whole picture. The family of Turkish desserts is far richer than these two alone, and neither is a typical after-dinner dessert in the traditional sense. Baklava and its relatives, for example, are usually eaten with coffee, as an afternoon snack, or after a kebap meal.
By far the most common dessert after a meal is fresh seasonal fruit, which acquires its remarkable flavor from abundant sunshine and traditional methods of cultivation. Spring begins with strawberries, followed by cherries and apricots. Summer brings peaches, watermelons, and melons. All kinds of grapes ripen in late summer, followed by green and purple figs, plums, apples, pears, and quince. Oranges, mandarins, and bananas are among the winter fruits.
For most of spring and summer, fruit is eaten fresh. Later in the year, it may be served fresh or dried, in compotes, or made into jams and preserves. Among the preserves, a few stand out as uniquely Turkish: quince marmalade, sour cherry preserve, and rose petal preserve—which, as the name suggests, is made not from a fruit but from rose petals.
Perhaps the most wonderful contribution of Turkish cuisine to the world of desserts—and one easily overlooked by casual visitors—is the family of milk puddings known as muhallebi. These are among the rare types of virtually guilt-free puddings, made with starch and rice flour, and traditionally without eggs or butter. When the occasion calls for an even lighter dessert, the milk itself can be omitted, with the pudding flavored instead with citrus such as lemon or orange.
The milk desserts include a wide range of puddings, from the very light and subtle variety perfumed with rose water to the remarkable tavuk göğsü—a milk pudding made with fine strands of chicken breast, whose delicate texture surprises anyone tasting it for the first time.
The baked pastries are the baklava family. Paper-thin sheets of pastry are brushed with butter and folded, layered, or rolled after being filled with ground pistachios, walnuts, or kaymak (clotted cream), then baked. Rich syrup is poured over the finished pastries. The many varieties—such as Sultan, Nightingale’s Nest, and Twisted Turban—differ in the amount and placement of nuts, the size and shape of each piece, and the dryness of the final product.
The lokma family is made by frying soft pieces of yeast dough in oil and then dipping them in syrup. Lady’s Lips, Lady’s Navel, and Vizier’s Finger are fine examples.
Helva is made by pan-sautéing flour or semolina and pine nuts in butter before adding sugar and water, then cooking briefly until the liquid is absorbed. The preparation of helva lends itself to communal cooking: friends and neighbors are invited for “helva conversations” (helva sohbeti) to pass the long winter nights. The more familiar tahini helva, sold in blocks at corner grocery shops, is a different preparation altogether.
One dessert that deserves special mention is ekmek kadayıfı—a special bread soaked in sweet syrup, topped generously with walnuts and a thick layer of kaymak. This is arguably the queen of all Turkish desserts. If you find yourself on the Ankara–İzmir highway, plan a stop at the historic İkbal Lokantası in Afyon (Afyonkarahisar)—a restaurant founded in 1922 and famous across Türkiye for its version of this dish, made with local water buffalo kaymak.