If you love orange flavoured candy, you will love these lokuma! It isn’t so hard to make if you are familiar with candy making and or Turkish delights. Growing up I always watched my grandfather make Turkish delights, so I find it rather easy to do.
Depending on how naturally sweet or tart your oranges are will depend on how much sugar you will need to use. If your oranges are sweet, than 1 and 1/4 cup is enough; if your oranges are not so sweet, than you will need to use 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar.
You can taste it and decide if it needs more sugar or not.
What you will need:
- 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (from about 3-5 oranges)
- 2 cups water
- 1 and 1/4 up to 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 2 tbsp gelatin – such as Handi halal beef gelatin
- shredded coconut for garnish
- orange food colouring (optional)
In a large pot, whisk all ingredients together and cook on medium to low heat. If you have a gas burner, make sure it is really low as it will burn rather quickly. Stir constantly; you cannot leave it unintended, and if you don’t stir it often, it will stick to the bottom of the pot. This process takes about 20 minutes or so. Be patient! You can tell it is done when the consistency changes and it thickens and becomes goopy, is that even a word? Oh well, you know what I mean, right? It will become translucent and like a thick gel, add a little orange food colouring now if you are using it. This should happen at the soft boil near the end at around the 20 – 25 minute mark. Every stove top and pot is different so it may be done for you at 20 minutes or 25 minutes.
Transfer into a 13 x 9 inch glass pan lined with parchment paper and sprinkle the parchment with some coconut and powder sugar.
If you want thicker sqaures, use a 8 x 8 inch pan. Don’t worry if it doesn’t reach the ends of the 13 x 9 inch pan, mine usually doesn’t.
Allow to firm up for 2-4 hours before cutting into. I stick it in the fridge to speed up the process.
Cut into squares and toss them in shredded coconut. It takes a night to fully set in the fridge before serving, but you can sneak in bites here and there while you wait! Once we didn’t even bother waiting we just ate them as is haha!
Keep refrigerated.