Nevzine

Nevzine is a Turkish sweet made by baking a dough mixed with sesame paste and soaking it with a sweet syrup made with pekmez. Known in Kayseri, it combines the toasty aroma of a dough containing walnuts with a rich sweetness derived from grapes.

Grape Syrup on a Sesame Dough

In one example from Kayseri, flour is combined with butter, tahini, olive oil, eggs, yogurt and other ingredients, and chopped walnuts are kneaded in. The dough is spread by hand on a baking tray and scored, and after baking, a syrup made from sugar, water, lemon and pekmez is poured over it. The sweet liquid soaks into the baked dough, which is then cut into pieces and served.

Nevzine as registered in Kayseri is made by baking a dough containing walnuts, tahini, vinegar and a leavening agent, then pouring over a syrup containing grape pekmez. The firm dough holds its shape even after absorbing the syrup, and it crumbles gently in the mouth. The local specification describes it being cooled and cut into squares.

Tahini is a paste of ground sesame seeds that gives the dough sesame flavor and fat. Pekmez is fruit juice that has been boiled down, and the grape kind is used for this sweet. With the fat from sesame in the dough and the sweetness of fruit in the syrup, their flavors are layered together.

Neighborhood Ovens and Celebrations

Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism also presents another method, in which flour and tahini are mixed into fat and baked, and grape pekmez is poured over the warm sweet. The version made with walnuts and a syrup containing sugar is not the only form; this sweet has been handed down not only in Kayseri but also in Nevşehir, Niğde and the former İçel region. It is served on celebration days and holidays.

In Kayseri, the dough is kneaded in the baking tray and pressed out by hand, so people say not only “to make nevzine” but also “to press nevzine.” In the days when homes had no ovens, it was baked in a shared neighborhood oven and prepared for important guests and celebrations. It was served at marriage proposals, weddings and gatherings to break the Ramadan fast, and a custom of giving it to a bride who has given birth has also been handed down.

Glossary