Bal Kaymak (Honey & Clotted Cream)
Turkey's most indulgent breakfast in two ingredients: silky clotted cream drowned in golden honey, scooped up with warm simit. No cooking skills required, just good ingredients.
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Ingredients
180g kaymak or Turkish clotted cream, chilled
4-5 tbsp blossom honey (about 100g)
A piece of honeycomb, to crown the plate (optional)
2 fresh simit, warmed
30g walnut kernels, roughly broken
1 tsp pine forest honey, for a darker drizzle (optional)
Clotted yoghurt cream, as a lighter alternative to kaymak
Fresh strawberries or figs, sliced (optional, in season)
Turkish black tea, freshly brewed, to serve
Instructions
- 1
Take the kaymak out of the fridge 10 minutes before serving so it is spreadable but still cool.
- 2
Warm the simit in a 160C oven or dry frying pan for 4-5 minutes until the crust crisps up and the sesame smells toasty.
- 3
Spread or slice the kaymak onto a small plate in a thick, even layer, keeping its shape rustic rather than smoothing it flat.
- 4
Pour the blossom honey slowly over the centre so it pools and runs down the sides of the cream.
- 5
Top with the piece of honeycomb and scatter over the broken walnuts, adding a thin drizzle of pine honey if you like a darker note.
- 6
Serve immediately with the warm simit for tearing and scooping, sliced fruit if using, and hot black tea.
Bal kaymak is proof that the best Turkish breakfast dishes are barely recipes at all. Kaymak, the thick clotted cream traditionally made from rich buffalo milk, is spread across a plate and crowned with a generous pour of honey. That is it. The cool, faintly tangy cream against the floral sweetness of the honey is one of the great two-ingredient partnerships in world food, right up there with bread and butter.
Because there are only two main players, quality is everything. Look for a proper Turkish kaymak or clotted cream, and a characterful honey: blossom honey is the classic choice, pine forest honey brings a darker, almost caramel depth, and a slab of honeycomb on top turns the plate into a small celebration. British clotted cream from Cornwall is a surprisingly faithful stand-in if you are caught short, which tells you how at home this dish feels in the UK.
Serve it the Istanbul way: warm, sesame-crusted simit or crusty bread for scooping, a scatter of walnuts for crunch, and endless glasses of black tea to cut the richness. Everything on this plate, from the kaymak to the honeycomb, is available at Turkish Online Market with UK-wide delivery.
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