Palouze is the Cypriot grape-must pudding — fresh grape juice (must) thickened with flour and scented with rose water, served cold in bowls with a dusting of cinnamon and chopped walnuts. Made in autumn during the grape harvest and wine-making season, it is the dessert of the Cypriot vineyard, the way every household used up the year's grape must.
Palouze (and its thicker cousin moustalevria, and its candy cousin soutzoukos which is already in this database) are the Cypriot grape-must desserts, made during the autumn grape harvest when fresh must (the juice of crushed grapes, before fermentation) is abundant. Before modern preservation, every Cypriot household with vines would convert some of its must into palouze — thickened with flour, perfumed with rose water, and eaten within days. The dessert is tied to the wine-making villages of the Troodos foothills, whereCommandaria (the ancient Cypriot dessert wine) is also made. It is the sweet of the grape harvest.
A bowl of cold, smooth, deep-purple pudding, glossy, with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a scatter of chopped walnuts. The taste is intensely grape — sweet, fruity, with the floral lift of rose water. The texture is silky, spoonable, like a cross between pudding and jelly. Eat it cold, on an autumn afternoon, after the grapes are pressed.
The must (fresh grape juice, unfermented) must be used within hours of pressing (or it starts to ferment). It is boiled to sterilize it (stopping fermentation) and concentrated. The flour (usually wheat or cornstarch) is the thickener — whisked in gradually to avoid lumps. Rose water is the Cypriot-Middle Eastern floral note. The pudding sets as it cools (the starch gelatinizes), becoming spoonable but not stiff. Walnuts and cinnamon are the classic garnish.
Variations
Some add a little Commandaria wine; some use cornstarch instead of flour; the thickness varies; some add almonds.
On the Palate
Where Palouze sits in the Cypriot flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
8 steps · 30 min active + 30 min waiting
- 15 min
Take 1 liter fresh grape must (or substitute 800 ml unfiltered red grape juice + 200 ml honey).
- 23 min
Strain through a fine cloth; pour into a pot.
- 33 min
Whisk 100 g flour (or cornstarch) into 200 ml cold water until smooth.
- 48 min
Bring the must to a boil; stream in the flour slurry, whisking constantly.
Watch outStream the flour slurry into the boiling must while whisking hard — dump it in and it clumps into lumps you can't smooth out.
- 52 min
Add 2 tbsp rose water.
- 68 min
Cook, whisking, 8 minutes until thickened to a pudding consistency.
Watch outCook it whisking until it thickens to a soft pudding that mounds on the spoon — it firms more as it cools, so stop while still spoonable.
- 760 min
Pour into individual bowls; cool to room temperature; chill.
- 82 min
Serve cold, dusted with cinnamon and scattered with chopped walnuts.