MESİR MACUNU

Sometimes just called “macun,” this is a traditional Turkish candy that is usually wrapped around a stick and then eaten like a softish lollypop. The western province of Manisa is famous for it. Street vendors would, especially in Ramadan, serve up this sweet and spicy treat after breaking their fast and you could choose from different flavors – I personally love tangy lemon. While it’s purely considered a candy nowadays, in the Ottoman era it was used for medicinal purposes. With all the healthy and anti-inflammatory ingredients in it, like ginger, allspice and turmeric, the original “mesir macunu” was almost pure spice but with time it was sweetened to make it more “interesting.” Mary Poppins had it right with “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” in that regard. The recipe below is not quite what the street vendors sell but rather a more healthy version, sometimes called “kış macunu,” meaning winter paste in Turkish.

INGREDIENTS

70 grams sugar 50 milliliters water 2 tablespoons honey 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground ginger 7-8 cloves

2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon starch 1 teaspoon powdered sugar vanilla extract (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Grind the cloves into a powder and transfer all the ingredients except the starch and powdered sugar into a small pot of your choice. Bring them all to a boil and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the mixture turns a deep caramel-like color. If you want to add vanilla, you should do that at the very end. Put the powdered sugar and starch into a small bowl and pour the macun mix onto that to prevent it from being too sticky. Let it cool off for a bit. Get a skewer or popsicle stick, wrap the sugary goodness around it and enjoy!

TIPS

You can also make these into little drops. To do this, lay out a wider dish and cover it with starch and powdered sugar before dripping the macun onto it. Let them cool off enough before you roll them into balls.

You can enhance this recipe with more spices such as cardamom.