Kabak tatlısı
An autumn dessert from Turkish homes and pastry shops, made from two simple ingredients: pumpkin and sugar. Pieces of pumpkin are covered with sugar overnight — the sugar draws out their juice, in which the pumpkin later cooks slowly, usually with no added water. It turns glossy and translucent, soft inside but holding its shape. It is served chilled, drizzled with tahini and scattered with walnuts — the bitter sesame and nuts balance the sweetness. In Turkey a spoonful of kaymak is often added too.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Cutting the pumpkin 20 min
- Pumpkin in sugar overnight 480 min
- Cooking in syrup 50 min
- Cooling 60 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneCut the pumpkin
Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds together with the fibres and cut into large rectangles about 4 × 6 cm, 2–3 cm thick. Large pieces hold their shape better during cooking.
Ingredients: 1000 g butternut or Hokkaido squash (peeled and deseeded weight) · 250 g sugar · 3 pcs cloves (optional) · 100 ml water (only if needed)
Large pieces — they keep their shape.Cover with sugar
Pack the pumpkin tightly into a wide pot (about 26 cm across), ideally in a single layer, and sprinkle the sugar evenly over it. If the pieces do not fit, make two layers and sprinkle each with half the sugar. Add the cloves.
Ingredients: 1000 g butternut or Hokkaido squash (peeled and deseeded weight) · 250 g sugar · 3 pcs cloves (optional) · 100 ml water (only if needed)
Leave overnight
Cover the pot and leave somewhere cool overnight (about 8 hours). The sugar dissolves and draws juice from the pumpkin — by morning there will be a layer of orange syrup in the bottom of the pot.
Ingredients: 1000 g butternut or Hokkaido squash (peeled and deseeded weight) · 250 g sugar · 3 pcs cloves (optional) · 100 ml water (only if needed)
By morning the pumpkin sits in its own syrup.Cook covered
If there is only a little syrup and undissolved sugar is still sitting on top (this can happen with the drier Hokkaido), add 100 ml water so the sugar does not stick and burn. Set the pot over medium heat and, once the syrup bubbles, lower the heat and cook covered 30 minutes without stirring — at most, gently shake the pot. The pumpkin releases plenty more juice as it heats.
Ingredients: 1000 g butternut or Hokkaido squash (peeled and deseeded weight) · 250 g sugar · 3 pcs cloves (optional) · 100 ml water (only if needed)
Turn and finish
Turn the pieces with a spatula and cook uncovered another 10–15 minutes, basting with the syrup, until glossy and translucent and the syrup has thickened. A knife should slide in without resistance.
Ingredients: 1000 g butternut or Hokkaido squash (peeled and deseeded weight) · 250 g sugar · 3 pcs cloves (optional) · 100 ml water (only if needed)
Translucent and glossy — it is ready.Cool in the syrup
Cool the pumpkin in the pot, in its syrup, for about an hour, then chill in the fridge. Once cold the pieces firm up and slice neatly.
Ingredients: 1000 g butternut or Hokkaido squash (peeled and deseeded weight) · 250 g sugar · 3 pcs cloves (optional) · 100 ml water (only if needed)
Stir the tahini
Stir the tahini in its jar. If very thick, loosen it with a teaspoon of water so it can be drizzled.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp tahini · 50 g walnuts, chopped
Serve with tahini and walnuts
Arrange the pumpkin on small plates, spoon over a little syrup and tahini and scatter with walnuts. Serve chilled.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp tahini · 50 g walnuts, chopped
Before you start
Which pumpkin
You need a squash with firm, orange flesh — butternut, muscat or Hokkaido. Hokkaido has drier flesh and releases less juice, so it sometimes needs a splash of water. Pumpkins with pale, watery, stringy flesh give a bland, pale dessert.
With kaymak
In Turkey kabak tatlısı is also served with kaymak, a thick clotted cream skimmed from slowly heated milk. A spoonful of mascarpone or stiffly whipped double cream can replace it.
Storage
Pumpkin in syrup keeps 5 days in the fridge in a closed container. Add the tahini and walnuts just before serving.
