My Top Three Favorite Desserts From Turkey

Confession: I have a sweet tooth. I love desserts and trying new desserts the world over is one of my favorite pastimes. Thankfully Turkey has plenty to offer by way of confection and those with a sweet tooth will not be in want while visiting this dessert-filled land. Here is my best effort at narrowing down my favorite desserts in Turkey to three.

3 —The Waffle

In America waffles are usually found on the breakfast menu served with butter and syrup. Not so in Turkey! These fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside perfections of a waffle are found on the dessert menu served with chocolate spread, fruit, ice cream, and nuts. Let me just tell you, it’s a great idea. You have to try the waffle while you are in Turkey.

2 — Künefe

Künefe is a crispy, cheese-filled dessert covered in sugar syrup served with either pistachios or clotted cream. That may sound like the worst thing in the world to you, but you’re going to have to trust me on this one. Actually, I was not a fan the first time I tried this dessert but with time and much practice (I mean, I just had to keep eating künefe over and over again. What a hard life!) this dessert has worked its way into the number two spot in my heart.

1 — Baklava

Baklava was love at first taste for me, and I actually had a hard time giving any other sweets the time of day after first arriving in Turkey. It is made of many thin layers of phyllo dough, nuts, and butter and covered with sugar syrup after baking. The Turkish varieties of baklava consist of either walnuts or pistachios. At first, it was all walnuts for me. Then with time I started exploring the pistachio variety and I can now say I am in the pistachio camp. But as not to show favoritism to either the walnut or the pistachio, I will eat both. (We all make some sacrifices.) I prefer my baklava served with a side of ice cream.

Honorable Mention — Krispy Kreme

I also feel it my duty to make an expat public service announcement: Turkey has Krispy Kreme. Now, if you are visiting for a short amount of time and you go to Krispy Kreme, professionally I should chastise you for not eating something local, but in my humanity I understand that forgoing Krispy Kreme when the opportunity presents itself is just not a reasonable thing to do. So the best solution is to eat Krispy Kreme AND something local. Last time I checked there were 26 Krispy Kreme locations in Istanbul. For the rest of us who do not live in Istanbul, Krispy Kreme is only one click away. You can order a box of doughnuts online and have it delivered in two days. You may be thinking that a two-day old Krispy Kreme doughnut doesn’t sound very good, but eight seconds in the microwave later that round sugar-coated fried dough of goodness will nearly be standing at its former "Hot Now" glory.