Among milk-based desserts, the most popular ones are muhallebi, su muhallebisi, sütlaç (rice pudding), kekül, kazandibi (meaning the bottom of "kazan" because of its burnt surface), and tavuk gösü (a sweet, gelatinous, milk pudding dessert quite similar to kazandibi, to which very thinly peeled chicken breast is added to give a chewy texture). A speciality from the Mediterranean region is haytal, which consists of pieces of starch pudding and ice cream (or crushed ice) put in rose water sweetened with syrup.
Helva (halva): un helvas (flour helva is usually cooked after someone has died), irmik helvas (cooked with semolina and pine nuts), yaz helvas (made from walnut or almond), tahin helvas (crushed sesame seeds), kos helva, pimaniye (floss halva).
Other popular desserts include; Revani (with semolina and starch), ekerpare, kalburabasma, dilber duda, vezir parma, hanm göbei, kemalpaa, tulumba, zerde, hömerim, paluze, irmik tatls/peltesi, lokma.
Güllaç is a "Ramadan" dessert which consists of very thin large dough layers put in the milk and rose water, served with pomegranate seeds and walnut. The story tells that in the cuisines of the Palace, those extra thin dough layers were prepared with "prayers" as it was believed that if one did not pray while opening phyllo dough, it would never be possible to obtain such thin layers.
Asure can be described as a sweet soup containing boiled beans, wheat and dried fruits. Sometimes cinnamon and rose water is added when being served. According to legend, it was first cooked on Noah's Ark and contained seven different ingredients in one dish. All the Anatolian peoples have cooked and are still cooking aure especially during the month of Muharrem.
Some traditional Turkish desserts are fruit-based: ayva tatls (quince), incir tatlisi (fig), kabak tatls (pumpkin), elma tatls(apple) and armut tatls(pear). Fruits are cooked in a pot or in the oven with sugar, carnation and cinnamon (without adding water). After being chilled, they are served with walnut or pistachio and kaymak.
Homemade cookies are commonly called kurabiye in Turkish. The most common types are acbadem kurabiyesi (prepared only with egg, sugar and almond), un kurabiyesi (flour kurabiye) and cevizli kurabiye (kurabiye with walnut). Another dough based dessert is ay çörei.