PISMANIYE - CANDY FLOSS HELVA
History
Confectioner Bekir Effendi, to be widely known as Hacı Bekir after his pilgrimage to Mecca, moved from Araç, Kastamonu to İstanbul in 1777. He opened a small confectionery shop in Bahçekapı and began to personally produce and sell varieties of candies and “lokum”s (Turkish Delights). Hacı Bekir confections, with their history of four different centuries, appeal to tastes in five continents today.
In the production of confectionery in Turkey dating back to the 16th century, honey and molasses were used as sweeteners, and water and flour as binding agents. In the beginning of the 19th century, sugar produced in European refineries began to appear in Turkey under the name 'kelle şekeri', and Hacı Bekir started to produce “akide”s (hard candies) of various colors and tastes using pounded and melted sugar and adding ingredients such as rose, cinnamon, mastic, orange and lemon.
After the discovery of starch by German scientist Kirchhoff in 1811, Hacı Bekir began to use this instead of flour and created his unique “lokum” with the combination of sugar and starch. His ‘lokums’ are still unparalleled and impossible to be reproduced in any other country, although efforts to imitate the texture of Turkish lokums have conduced to the invention of jelly candies in the western world.
In addition to developing various kinds of Turkish candies and lokums through his meticulous personal work, Hacı Bekir also became a legend with his almond candies made in swinging cauldrons and various almond pastes made by kneading and shaping boiled and peeled almonds with sugar and sherbet.
When the fame of Hacı Bekir’s candies and lokums reached the Ottoman Palace, Sultan Mahmud II, the reformist sovereign who was the founder of the modern Ottoman, appointed him as Chief Confectioner to the Palace and also rewarded him with “Nişan-ı Ali Osmani”, a medal of honor of the first degree.
It is rumored that while these were happening in İstanbul, an English tourist bought some lokums from Hacı Bekir and began to offer them around in England as “Turkish Delights”, with the name he himself had invented. Lokum has ever since been known as “Turkish Delight” in general, particularly in English-speaking countries, and as “Lokoum” in France and the Balkans.
Ingrained in our culture and tradition as a significant element of Turkish-Ottoman history, Hacı Bekir has also featured in novels and articles
documenting the lifestyle of the times, been penned by foreigners who were components of the İstanbul mosaic of the 19th and 20th centuries, and even been portrayed by the Maltese artist Amadeo Preziosi, one of the most famous of his era. The original painting of 43x58 cm, showing Hacı Bekir in his shop with details hinting to the lifestyle of the times now hangs in the Louvre Museum. A lithographic reproduction of the painting is exhibited as item number 214 in the Topkapı Palace.
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