How did my Turkish Delights/lokum end up tasting like orange?
I made lokum, or Turkish Delights yesterday. I used the more traditional ingredients - cornstach, cream of tartar, sugar. From what I've researched of the dish, you can have flavors of lokum different than the traditional one (rosewater), usually using some form of flavor extract. But, I didn't have any extracts laying around my house.
So, instead... I used coffee. I figured it would probably end up tasting lightly of coffee, given all the sweeteners. But, instead, it ended up tasting... acidic, citrus-like. It tastes like candied orange peel. I figure I must have done something wrong, but I don't understand how I got to this flavor. Should I have used espresso? Stronger coffee? The grounds? A coffee extract?
Here are the ingredients:
4 cups sugar
4 1/2 cups water
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp medium roast coffee, liquid
Red + green food coloring
1:1 powdered sugar & cornstarch coating
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I strongly suspect that your food coloring may have had something to do with it if you were using liquid food coloring as these often have flavors you wouldn't expect. That plus the acidity from the coffee (yes, coffee is acidic) and the cream of tartar (powdered acid) could simulate an orange flavor.
Gel colorings are much better as they give much more color without flavors, I'd suggest those in the future, just remember a very little bit goes a long way.
It may be the type of coffee (probably is the coffee) or the amount of tartar (gives that taste your talking about if too much is added), though many Turkish delights have lemon or orange zest, juice or flavoring in addition so the taste of orange isn't a bad thing.
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