Turkish Desserts Beyond Baklava: A Field Guide

Turkish desserts divide into two families that almost never meet on the same plate. There are the şerbetli ones, soaked in sugar syrup, which are intense and eaten in small quantities. And there are the sütlü ones, milk-based, which are gentle and eaten in bowls.

Baklava is the famous member of the first family. It is also, honestly, the least surprising thing on this list.

The syrup family

Künefe

Shredded pastry packed around unsalted stretchy cheese, baked until the outside is crisp, soaked in syrup and served hot with crushed pistachio. The cheese pulls when you lift a piece.

It is from Hatay, it must be eaten immediately, and a künefe that has been sitting is a different and much worse dessert. If you order one thing from this article, order this.

Baklava, briefly

Gaziantep is the place, pistachio is the filling, and the test of a good one is the layers: forty or so sheets, each brushed individually, shattering rather than bending. Pistachio baklava from Antep has protected status for a reason.

A good shop sells by weight and lets you order a hundred grams. Do that rather than a plate of six.

Katmer

Also from Gaziantep and barely known abroad. Paper-thin dough folded around clotted cream and pistachio, cooked on a griddle, served for breakfast. Yes, breakfast.

Tulumba and lokma

Fried dough in syrup, in ridged fingers and in small round balls respectively. Street food more than restaurant food, sold hot from carts, and very hard to stop eating.

Revani and şekerpare

Semolina cake and small syrup-soaked biscuits. These are the ones that appear at the end of a restaurant meal and are rarely the best thing available.

The milk family

Sütlaç

Rice pudding. Ask for fırın sütlaç, the oven-baked version with a scorched brown skin on top, which is a different experience from the cold one in a cup.

Kazandibi

Literally "bottom of the pot". A milk pudding deliberately caramelised on its underside, then rolled so the burnt layer is on the outside. Smoky, chewy and much better than it sounds.

Tavuk göğsü

The one that stops conversations: a white milk pudding made with finely shredded chicken breast, pounded until it disappears into fibres. You cannot taste chicken. You can feel it, in a stringy texture nothing else has.

It is an Ottoman palace dessert and it is still on menus. Order it at least once, ideally before anyone tells you what is in it.

Güllaç

Thin starch wafers layered with milk, rosewater and walnuts, with pomegranate on top. Light, barely sweet, and eaten almost exclusively during Ramadan.

The regional ones worth travelling for

Two more, which are not quite desserts

• Kabak tatlısı, candied pumpkin served with tahini and crushed walnut. Autumn and winter, often homemade, and the tahini is what makes it.
• Salep, a hot thick drink made from orchid root, dusted with cinnamon. Winter only. Note that real salep is expensive and much of what is sold is flavoured powder.

How to order well

• Go to a specialist. A baklavacı does syrup pastries, a muhallebici does milk puddings. Restaurants do neither well.
• Buy by weight, not by plate. Hundred grams of something excellent beats a large portion of something ordinary.
• Dessert is not after dinner here. It is mid-afternoon, or late evening as its own outing. Turks go out specifically for dessert.
• Order unsweetened coffee with it. Sade Turkish coffee against a syrup dessert is the intended pairing, and we go through how coffee is ordered in our guide to tea and coffee.

Gaziantep is the serious destination for all of this: baklava, katmer and a pastry culture nowhere else matches. It sits on our Southeastern Anatolia tour, which is the practical way to reach it alongside the rest of the region.