Turkish sweets

While traveling in Turkey, we tasted many sweets — here you can find a short description of each.

1. Pistachio baklava in a box: Edirne

We bought the pistachio baklava in the bazaar of Edirne; a box of baklava was not expensive, and we even managed to bargain down the price. It’s not packed with pistachios, but it was one of our favorite sweets. For those traveling to Turkey by car, Edirne, the first Turkish city after the border can be a great stop: you can explore its old town and bazaar in a short time. The city also has caravanserais that still function as hotels today, and you can visit their arcaded courtyards. Just pay attention to parking: it’s worth parking where prices are clearly written, otherwise tourists might be charged several times the normal rate.

The pistachio baklava of Edirne

2. Pastry baklava: Çanakkale

Now this one is full of pistachios! It’s almost made only of them. However, we should note that here we paid twice as much for half as many sweets. Because of the many pistachios, it tastes quite different from the boxed one. Although it’s also pistachio baklava, we liked the first one better.

3. Almond cookie (Kavala Kurabiyesi)

We bought this sweet in a shop called A101. The almond cookie is also inexpensive.

4. Hurma tatlısı: Bursa

Hurma tatlısı is a sweet from Bursa. We bought it from a street vendor next to the bazaar — it wasn’t expensive. You do not get a big box, but hurma tatlısı is very sweet. It’s a brown-colored doughnut soaked in sugar syrup, filled with coconut and semolina, and sprinkled with shredded coconut. This was one of my favorite Turkish desserts.

5. Chocolate-chestnut sweet: Bursa and surroundings

This sweet, sold along the roads around Bursa or even in other cities, is somewhat similar to Turkish delight, but it is actually made from chestnuts and coated in chocolate. For some reason, in Bursa they often sell it only in packs of three, but along the roads you can find it even stored in refrigerators. We liked the ones sold in boxes labeled “Osmanlı” the best.

6. Chocolate-covered dates filled with almonds: Konya

One of our favorite desserts. Dates filled with almonds or pistachios, coated in chocolate. We bought it by weight in a sweet shop in Konya. It’s not too expensive and comes in white, milk, and dark chocolate versions. We absolutely loved it!

The chocolate-almond date from Konya

7. Turkish delight (Lokum)

We bought Turkish delight in several places. Overall, everyone’s favorite was the lokum sold in the Kayseri bazaar. The loose lokum contained whole pistachios, which made it less sweet than other types. It’s available in raspberry, walnut, and coconut varieties. Not very cheap, but totally worth it!

I also really liked the walnut lokum bought in the Edirne bazaar, but it was much sweeter than the one from Kayseri. This lokum was sold in boxes — also inexpensive — and we bought it at the same place as the Edirne baklava.

We also tasted lokum in Konya, a coconut-pistachio version, also sold in boxes. It wasn’t expensive, but in the Konya bazaar shops, it was harder to bargain than in other bazaars.

The coconut-pistachio lokum from Konya

8. Pişmaniye: Cappadocia region

We bought this dessert, which at first tastes somewhat like halva, in a small shop in Ürgüp. It wasn’t expensive. It doesn’t contain sesame seeds, so it’s actually unrelated to halva, and it’s coated with chocolate. A typical Turkish sweet.