This candied pumpkin is a traditional Turkish dessert that needs a little patience to make. You need 4 ingredients, plus slaked lime to make this sweet and crispy pumpkin treat. The BEST sweet made with pumpkin ever!
The most popular pumpkin recipe in Turkey is baked sweet pumpkin, but there is another dessert recipe made with pumpkin which is less known: Pumpkin Candies. These are probably quite different from what you know as candy. These are wonderfully crispy thanks to slaked lime. You might not be familiar with the usage of slaked lime. In Turkey, it is mostly used in jam making to give the fruit that crispiness. We don’t put it in the jam, no. It is used only in the preparation step.
I was tidying the files on my computer this morning and found the photos of this pumpkin candies. I remember taking its pictures a few years ago when we bought it from a new dessert restaurant we discovered in Eskisehir. It is a special restaurant serving desserts of Antakya, Hatay (a city located on the South of Turkey). Antakya, which was first called Antiocheia in 300 BC , has a very large cuisine with several unique and scrumptious dishes. This pumpkin dessert is one of these unique dishes. It is the only pumpkin dessert served in Antakya, so when you order pumpkin dessert in a restaurant there, they bring this one. The pumpkin dessert I wrote about before here is the common one around the country, but it is not made in Antakya. They have this special candy like pumpkin dessert instead. Also, there are street vendors selling this pumpkin dessert in Antakya, and people can buy just one slice and eat it walking.
This pumpkin dessert is originally made from white pumpkin which is grown in Antakya. However, it can also be made with regular pumpkin if you can not find white pumpkin. It is not soft and it has rather a crispy texture unlike the common pumpkin dessert. What makes it crispy is slaked lime in its recipe. Lime is something that is commonly used in making jams of certain fruit or vegetables like eggplant or watermelon. You will read how it is used in the recipe card below.
More Sweet Recipes With Pumpkin
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PrintPumpkin Dessert Candy Version
A crispy dessert made with pumpkin.
- Prep Time: 15 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 16 hours
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients
- 1 kilo pumpkin, peeled and sliced thinly
- 1 kilo sugar
- 200 ml water
- ½ lemon
- To prepare pumpkin:
- 500g slaked lime
- 10 liter water
Instructions
- Mix water and lime. Wait it 7 or 8 hours. Lime will sink and you will use the water on its surface. Pour this water on pumpkin slices and wait it about 7 hours.
- Then wash them well. Wait them in clean water about 1 hour.
- Put them in a large pot, pout sugar and 200ml water on them.
- Cook about 1 hour until it has right consistency and pumpkin slices get golden.
- Add a few lemon drops and cook a few minutes more.
- Let it cold. Don’t put it in refrigerator.
- Serve it as it is, it doesn’t need any topping, you just grab one slice and eat it.
Notes
Waiting duration is included in the Prep Time.
Keywords: turkish pumpkin, candied pumpkin
These look delicious. How long do they keep if you can resist eating them straight away? I was thinking of making them in autumn when the pumpkins are fresh and giving them to friends and family for Christmas.
Thank you Dulcy! What a great idea to make Christmas gifts from these! It keeps for months in a dry place.
I’m in London but my sister in law from Syria made this for me when we stayed with family in Gaziantep.
I’m desperately trying to cook this too as it’s so delicious but I can’t find slaked lime anywhere – is there an alternative I could use please for your fabulous recipe
Thank you
Hi Natalie, you know what? We moved to Manchester, UK a month ago! Lots of places to discover here. Can’t wait the day when the lockdown is over.
This is a unique dessert, isn’t it? Unfortunately there is no alternative for slaked lime in this recipe. That’s the key ingredient that makes the pumpkin slices keep firm and crispy.
When I googled slacked lime it says it’s dangerous to consume. Please direct me on what exactly to buy.
Hi Angel,
Slacked lime is not for eating in the recipe. We mix it with water, wait for 7-8 hours until the lime sinks. Then we use the water on the surface to soak the pumpkin slices for 7 hours. Then we wash the pumpkin slices very well, wait them in water for an hour so that they are completely clean. This method is used for some jam recipes too to have a crunchy texture. Hope this helps.
Is it normal to get lots of water come out of pumpkins while cooking? it almost covers the whole thing. Should i wait for it to go down or what should i do?
Hi Nisrine! It is just normal. It reduces a bit while cooking but not fully absorbed.
The origin of this recipe is Armenian. West of Turkey once belonged to the Armenians before the genocide. The Turkish people weren’t familiar with pumpkins in those days.
My mother made this at least once a year. It was delicious. She was born in a lime mining village in Aegean Macedonia.
I remember eating these in North Cyprus when I was a little kid over 30 years ago. They did other types as well as pumpkin but not sure what vegetables they used, buthe can remember dark red ones and green ones. White pumpkin was always my favourite ones. Want to try this with regular pumpkins but was wondering when you use the slaked lime in the water, can you reuse the slaked lime again later or do you dispose of it?
Hi Ozan! I didn’t know this is made in North Cyprus too. Thanks for the info. As for your question about lime, as far as I know you should use it just once.
Thanks Zerrin
Antakya and North Cyprus are practically neighbours. Just a little swim away.
My Mom is making this right now, as jam not as candy. so she waits the pumpkin in the slaked rime only for one hour. We live in Easter Kurdistan( in Iran).
Also, is pickling lime the same as slaked lime?