Sugar High Friday is a monthly food blogging event created by Jennifer, The Domestic Goddess and is hosted each month on a different food blog. This month’s host for the event is Palachinka, and the theme is “Copycat”, where you copy one of your favorite store bought candies.
I spent a good couple of weeks thinking of the best candy I could copy. Would it be Snickers, my favorite bar candy? Pecan Divinity? Nutella? (I was seriously considering Nutella, until I realized that it would completely ruin any semblance of a healthy diet if I made it and then ate the entire concoction in two days.)
Finally I turned to Turkish candies, because Turkey happens to have some of the best confections: Lokum (Turkish Delight), Dragees (chocolate covered nuts and orange peels), Pişmaniye (a type of wispy candy floss that I can’t describe with any justice). My mother happens to be in Turkey this week, and now that I live across the country from her, I know that I’m going to be depressed when she returns and I get calls of what wonderful things she has brought home. Maybe she will send me a care package (hint).
And so, after thinking of all the candies that I wouldn’t be getting, I decided – why not create one of my favorites here at home? I finally settled on cezerye, a Turkish candy made of carrots! Now, although they have a lot of vitamin A and B from the carrots, they also have enough sugar to fully sweeten your blood, so I wouldn’t exactly qualify them as health food, but they certainly are delicious.
Home-Made Cezerye
makes about twenty five candies
Ingredients
2 cups grated carrots
3/4 cups loosely packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
about 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1/2 cup ground petit beurre biscuits
1/2 cup shredded dried (unsweetened) coconut
Method
1. Grate a few medium carrots and put into a medium saucepan with the sugar. I simply took my cup measure, loosely packed it three quarters of the way with brown sugar, topped it with the white sugar, and added water to wet the sugar (as much fit in the cup).
2. Simmer on low heat for a half hour or more, covered. Add the ground nuts and petit beurre cookies, and continue to cook uncovered for a few minutes. Take off the stove, and let cool enough to handle the mixture.
3. To make the carrot balls, roll the dough balls in some shredded coconut, as you would if you were making truffles. Place in the fridge for at least an hour, and eat!
These come out a little bit moist, but they should dry as they sit.
Yum, yum, yum! I love these sweets but I have never attempted them at home. Your photo makes them look so delicious that now I want some immediately! I actually like them on the moist side, so your recipe sounds perfect.
Anyways, I just wanted to let you know the announcement for the March theme for Sugar High Fridays has been posted:
http://inmybox.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/announcing-sugar-high-fridays-53-the-test-of-time/
Hope to see you there this month!
I’m just surprised right now by this cezerye recipe. I’m so delighted to find a recipe of Cezerye in a non Turkish foodblog. Cezerye is famous in especially the Southern region of Turkey, in the cities Mersin, Tarsus. I’m from Tarsus, but now living away from it. Luckily mom came last weekend and brought cezerye for us, so delicious.
And your homemade version looks fabulous! You are very good at creating a new version of cezerye at home.
I was just in Mersin and tried Cezerye for the first time. I fell in love, and brought 3 boxes for friends and family. Thanks for the recipe! I am going to do some research about the confection and then hopefully blog about it on Kitchen Caravan. I will link back here for the recipe for our readers! It looks much easier than I thought!
.-= Sophia from Kitchen Caravan´s last blog ..Kitchen Caravan’s Squash & Pomegranate Salad =-.
A colleague of mine just gave me cezerye and I fell in love with it. It is wonderful – thank you for publishing your recipe online.
I am from India and we have something similar to this but milk based – This is pure sugar – and your recipe recommends dark brown sugar. Can I substitute jaggery (from sugar cane) for the dark brown sugar?
Also where in Northern VA will I be able to find a turkish store that sells Cezerye?
Thanks.
Hi Latha!
Hmm… I think it would have to be trial and error. I’m assuming you could use jaggery, but you might have to fiddle with the recipe a few times as I’m not sure how replacing one-to-one would work.
You might try Amity in Fairfax (or see if they will order it for you.)
You can order them here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I077VM?ie=UTF8&tag=theseclun-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000I077VM
The ones from Hazer baba aren’t bad.