Pişmaniye


Pişmaniye is a Turkish and Bosnian sweet in fine strands made by blending flour roasted in butter into pulled sugar. It is sometimes garnished with ground pistachio nuts. Although it is sometimes compared to cotton candy, both the ingredients and method of preparation are significantly different.
Until recently pişmaniye used to be made at home in most regions of Turkey, but this tradition is now rapidly disappearing. Today the manufacturing process is partially mechanised.

Alternative names

There are many different Turkish names, used in different provinces, the most common being tel helva, çekme helva, tel tel, tepme helva and keten helva.

Origin and etymology

The earliest Turkish reference to pişmaniye is a recipe by Şirvani, a physician writing during the 1430s. The Persian form pashmak, related to paşmīna and paşm, the origin of the Turkish name pişmaniye, occurs in the poetry of the Iranian poet Ebu Ishak, also known as Bushak. "Pashm" in Persian means wool, and "Pashmak" means wool-like.
Another theory is that it may be of a Coptic origin from :'ⲡⲏⲥ: pis": which means :" to mix flour with fat", and "ⲛⲏⲓⲛⲓ: nani or mani ": which means : "honey", this candy found in Egypt, known as "halawa shaar حلاوة شعر" which means : "hair candy".