Milk-based Desserts

Fırın Sütlaç
Baked Rice Pudding

Ingredients
17 oz. Milk
3 tbsp. Rice
½ cup Sugar
1 tbsp. Corn starch
1 tbsp. Rice flour
1 pinch Vanilla with sugar
1 each Mastic

Instructions
Soak the rice for 6 hours (or overnight). On the next day, cook the rice in a small amount of water. In a pot add milk, sugar, vanilla, and mastic, and cook over low heat. In a small bowl, make a paste out of rice flour, corn starch, and little bit of water. Once the milk boils, add the starch mixture while stirring constantly. When the pudding has reached a desired consistency, divide into bowls. Place the bowls in a deep oven tray and put water halfway up the bowls. Preheat the oven to 300C (approximately 575F), place the tray in the oven, and bake for 5-6 minutes until the top of the pudding browns.

Milk Desserts

Muhallebi
Milk Pudding

Ingredients
8 cups Milk
½ lbs. Sugar
2 tbsp. Wheat starch
¼ cup Rice flour
1 ¼ cup Water
½ tsp. Salt

Instructions
Bring the milk, sugar and salt to boil in a saucepan. Meanwhile put the corn starch and rice flours in a bowl and mix in 1 ¼ c water. Pour this mixture into the hot liquid, beating with a whisk to prevent lumps. Simmer until the mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Pour into serving bowls, cool. Serve cold.

Tavuk Göğsü
Milk Pudding with Chicken Breast

Ingredients
8 cups Milk
½ lbs. Sugar
2 tbsp. Wheat starch
¼ cup Rice flour
1 ½ cup Water
½ tsp. Salt
½ Chicken breast, as fresh as possible

Instructions
Simmer a chicken in 8 cups water until done. Take half the breast meat, and cut it into pieces. Let these pieces sit in a cup of water in a large bowl, and with the thumb and forefinger, rub until they come apart into individual fine fibers. (If the chicken is not fresh, this will be difficult and the fibers will be thick and stringy.) Set aside. Combine 1750 gr milk, salt and sugar into a heavy pan, and bring to a boil. Mix 1 ½ c water, wheat starch and rice flour, and whisk into the hot milk, and simmer, stirring constantly, until this begins to thicken. When the milk has begun thicken, take two ladles of this and add to the rubbed chicken breast and mix with a fork, then pour this mixture back into the large pot and continue stirring until well thickened. Pour the finished tavuk göğsü into serving dishes with a dry ladle, or pour into a square pan and when cold, cut into square pieces for serving.

Güllaç
This is a typical sweet prepared during the month of Ramadan. The name is a shortening of “güllü aş,” or “food with roses,” a reference to the rosewater. It is made from ready-made starch wafers, the making of which is a complex process and not feasible for the home cook. However they are generally available in Turkish food stores and online.

Ingredients
10 Güllaç sheets
4 cups Milk
2 cups Sugar
5 tbsp. Rose water
¼ cups Almonds, unsalted, blanched, sliced

Instructions
Bring the milk to a boil, reduce heat to a bare simmer and stir in 2 c sugar. Place a sheet of güllaç in a wide pan and pour a ladle of hot milk over it and let it soften and absorb milk, then place in a pan to fit. It will wrinkle and expand. Repeat with four more of the sheets, then spread the nuts over the güllaç. Finish off with the remaining five sheets and pour more milk over. There will be some unabsorbed milk, this is fine.  Pouring on very hot milk will give the dish a better consistency as it cooks the starch; otherwise the dessert will be mushy. To serve, cut into squares and garnish each square with nuts, slices of fruit, pomegranate kernels or ground pistachio, or any combination you like. Sprinkle with rose water and serve.

A more traditional but more time-consuming way is to soak each sheet and then cut it in half, and wrap the filling inside and arrange in a pan, and pour the rest of the milk over and garnish as desired. Alternate fillings can be hazelnut, walnut, marzipan, coconut or any combination you like.