Nevzine (Turkish walnut and tahini cake)

It seems that when I have things on my mind, or am distracted I cook. That is my coping mechanism, and as life has been rather chaotic recently (a house move, and possibly another move on the horizon) my response is to make food. I'm not really big on comfort eating, but I find the preparation of meals to be the ultimate in relaxation. I guess with cooking it is one of those things that is seen either as a pleasure or a chore. My grandmother worked as a cook for a living, and when she wasn't working she would be always found in the kitchen cooking for pleasure. My mother on the other hand, while a good cook sees food preparation to be something that has to be endured between doing far more interesting things like gardening! So the love of cooking obviously skipped a generation. 

I’ve been trying to use up odds and ends left in my store cupboards, and had some ground walnuts and half used bags of flour and a quarter of a jar of tahini. In addition I’d unearthed a jar of pekmez, that thick gooey Turkish spread made from grape must. Ingredients that spoke to me of their desire to be made into a cake. And what better way to use them up than to make nevzine, a rich and utterly delicious Turkish cake that is lovingly soaked in pekmez until it is oozingly delicious. It's very similar to basbousa or revani, though more commonly made with regular flour. I didn't have enough flour for the recipe, so substituted fine semolina. The cake may not have been quite as dense as the traditional variety, but I think the semolina gave it a nice texture. Feel free to use all flour if you prefer. I also substituted yoghurt for milk, again I don't think that the flavour or texture suffered for this addition. 

Ingredients

2 cups of flour (either regular white flour or use half semolina and half flour)

50g ground walnuts

100g melted margarine

3 tablespoons yoghurt

3 tablespoons tahini

For the syrup

Make a 1:1 sugar syrup (i.e. 100g sugar to 100ml water with a squeeze of lemon juice)

3 tablespoons pekmez

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the melted margarine and mix until you have the consistency of wet sand. Then stir in the yoghurt and tahini. The dough should be thick batter-like consistency

2. Spoon it into an oven proof dish. Smooth down the surface and cut it into squares, placing a walnut half in the middle of each portion

3. Cook for around 40 minutes, a little bit vague, but my oven doesn't have set temperatures and my method is to light the fire, put in whatever I’m baking and then check it after 30 minutes! It's a method that seems to work (I'm guessing you should heat it to around 175C if you have an oven with settings). You want the cake to be firm and the top lightly golden

4. While the cake is cooking make the sugar/pekmez syrup and leave to cool

5. Once the cake is cooked, reinforce the score marks, and then pour over the syrup until all the cake is covered. Allow to cool and ideally refrigerate overnight so the syrup can completely soak in

The cake is delicious with coffee, and if it needs any further accompaniment a spoonful of ice cream or strained yoghurt complements it beautifully!