My favourite milk based desserts
Introducing sütlaç and muhallebi.
Hey there,
I’m almost there with the revisions to my website, where I’ll be integrating the membership for those of you who want access to all of my recipes and members only newsletters. It’ll also introduce a slight refresh of the design, though things will mostly be where they are now. I expect to have it live around the end of the month.
In the meantime, I’m continuing my weekly dives into mine and your favourites from the archives!
Of all the various types of desserts in Turkish cuisine, my favourites are the milk based ones. They're rarely overly sweet, and a great way to finish the meal.
My favourite among them is the Turkish rice pudding sütlaç (pronounced "sutt-latch", with u as in muse and a as in far).
There are two principal ways of serving sütlaç.
Fırın sütlaç ("Oven rice pudding"), where the top has been caramelised, is usually the favoured way. Or you can serve it plain, in which case additional flavourings like cinnamon or a more pungent helping of rose water is common.
My recipe is for fırın sütlaç, but to make a plain version, simply skip the oven bit. Everything else is the same.
In any case, I guarantee you'll be very happy when you see little pots of rice pudding when you open the fridge!
Not a fan of rice?
Then muhallebi is for you.
This milk pudding is very similar to sütlaç, but without rice, firmer in texture and never baked. It’s usually more strongly flavoured with rose water, but be as generous or skimpy on that as you wish.
With all best wishes from Istanbul,
Vidar 🧿
Nothing quite like the pudding desserts of Turkiye!