I know that making cezerye does not involve baking, so it doesn’t count as a part of the Baking Challenge. Therefore, I decided to change the name of my challenge to New Year Dessert Challenge (NYDC), which means I can make more truffles (especially chocolate truffles!) in the following days too.Remember my cezerye trial decades ago? Well, I decided to make cezerye again, but as in the form of a truffle. Also, I didn’t put any nuts inside my cezerye last time. This time, I added chopped hazelnuts, increased the amount of cinnamon and added some ground cloves. Result? Well, I don’t think I need to tell you that!

I also tried to go further and dipped some of the cezerye in chocolate, turning out be an epic fail!! Now you may think how it is possible to fail with something covered in chocolate, but it was really disgusting. I really don’t recommend it. In summary, you can make chocolate-covered cover everything (even chickpeas) but cezerye!

Cezerye Truffles

makes 20 truffles

Ingredients:

- 300 gr (10.6 oz). carrots, finely grated

- 150 gr (5.3 oz.) sugar (I used white sugar, but brown sugar can be better, since it increases the caramel flavor)

- 1 cup water

- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon ground cloves

- a pinch of salt

- 1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped hazelnuts or walnuts

- coconut flakes (to cover)

Directions:

Put the carrots, water, and spices to a large pan and cook over medium heat. When the mixture starts to boil, reduce the heat and let the mixture cook for 45 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed and you get a sticky mixture (for more instructions, see this post).

Take the pan from heat and mix in the nuts. Let the cezerye cool in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Take the cezerye from the refrigerator and using a spoon, shape 4 cm (2-inch) balls with your hands.

Cover the balls with coconut.

Well, I’ve decided to put some recipes from Turkish cuisine, and started with something I really love to eat: “cezerye”. Cezerye is like Turkish delight, but is made from carrot. It is not something you cook at your home, you usually buy these for the religious festivals. I’ve never made these jelly-candies before, and when I found this easy “cezerye” recipe today, I decided to try it.

Cezerye (Turkish Delight with Carrot)

adapted from a Turkish recipe

makes 9 pieces

Ingredients:

• 400 gr (14 oz) carrots, grated finely
• 200 gr (7 oz) brown or regular sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100 gr hazelnuts or walnuts, chopped coarsely (optional)
• water (about 1 cup)
• coconut flakes (to cover)

Directions:

Put the carrots and sugar into a pan. Add water, and cook in medium heat, until the carrots start to melt and the mixture is thickened. In the recipe I found, it is written that “thickened” here means; when you take a piece from the mixture and round it between your thumb and your forefinger, it stinks to one finger only. Complicated!

Add the optional nuts to the mixture at this point. By using a plastic spatula, spread the mixture in a tray with parchment paper (I used a little box with foil). The thickness of the mixture should be about 1 cm (~0.5 in).

Allow the mixture to thicken more in the refrigerator for an hour.

Using a wet knife (to avoid the cezerye stick to it), cut 1 x 2.5 cm (~0.5×1 in) rectangles, and cover them with coconut.

Store the cezerye in the refrigerator.