Güllüoğlu’s founders hail from baklava capital Gaziantep, and the family name is synonymous with the dessert. But anyone in Istanbul can tell you that no branch of the large family tree surpasses the long-standing operation in Karaköy, now close to Galataport. Perfect pistachio & walnut baklavas (plus chocolate, gluten-free & diabetic ones) are waiting to be dolloped with clotted cream. For something a little different, we indulge in the soğuk baklava (cold, milky baklava) or baklava ice cream.

Nestled in Beyoğlu’s historic fish market, this pastry and sweets shop with its Old World charm is one of our favorites for ayva tatlısı, the seasonal fall specialty of quince in syrup. Every other time of year, their baklava and other traditional desserts are equally stellar. Although most people breeze into the shop and get their dessert to go, we prefer to sit down at one of Sakarya’s two tables, order a tea with our dessert and take in the atmosphere of the fish market.

At this tiny place, just a block or two from the Hippodrome in Sultanahmet, the baklava is crispy on top and overstuffed with walnuts, and the syrup-soaked layers on the bottom never have time to turn into the chewy wad that one sometimes gets with mass-produced baklava. Rumeli baklava is so special that it is accepted currency among many in the nearby Grand Bazaar (especially for payment of debts incurred over backgammon or pişti).

The pastries at this storefront on one of the arcaded stretches of Moda Caddesi is worth a trip on the ferry and up the hill to Kadıköy (not to mention experiencing the neighborhood itself). The baklava is excellent, but you won’t regret branching out for a Laz böreği: layers of yufka (phyllo), buttery and moist, dusted with confectioner’s sugar, in a symbiotic balance with a custard that is neither too sweet, nor too eggy, neither too runny, nor too stiff. Just right.

Along with a glimpse of yesteryear, people come to Kadıköy’s nostalgic Baylan for its old-school desserts. Classy Kup griye is the most popular, a vanilla ice cream riddled with slivers of toffee and swimming in caramel sauce. The wacky Adisababa is another story: chocolate-coated ice cream fruitcake. Our favorite: the vanilla macaroons.

Though Inci was forced to move homes after decades in business, it is still spooning out its famous profiteroles at its new location off of Istiklal. Here, balls of choux pastry filled with a delicate cream are bathed in a chocolate sauce so dense, it’s like pudding. While this nostalgic dessert had its heyday in the mid-century, it is still beloved by old cosmopolitan Istanbulus.

Beyond the Spice Bazaar is Küçük Pazarı, a warren of Ottoman-era caravanserais and scissor sharpeners, saddle shops and vendors of every imaginable bric-a-brac. From this potpourri, one storefront, decorated with homemade candy canes and Turkish delight stacked in psychedelic pyramids, beckons like an 1800s-era Candy Land. If lokum doesn’t interest you, the tahin helvası (sesame dessert) and classic akide hard candies are also worthy temptations.

At this local Kurtuluş haunt, three generations often sit in the same room enjoying something from the short menu that hasn’t changed in half a century. All desserts shine here, but our favorite is more strange. The chicken in tavuk göğsü – chicken breast pudding, a classic Turkish dessert – doesn’t taste like fowl (or foul) at all. The chicken is merely an agent of texture in this thick, milky pudding roll. We like ours kazandibi – with a caramelized crust.

With the unfortunate closing of the classic Pando’s in Beşiktaş, which first started serving breakfast in 1895, Karaköy Özsüt—open since 1915—has become Istanbul’s kaymak veteran. With its new name (Karaköy Muhallebicisi) and location on Istiklal after many decades down by the Galata waterfront, Karaköy serves up very good kaymak and puddings, made from milk that comes from their own herd of water buffaloes, whose pictures grace the walls.

While not technically a dessert, for our money, the classic Turkish combo of kaymak – rich, pure clotted cream made from water buffalo’s milk – served with honey is one of the heavenliest dishes anywhere. At Boris’in Yeri in Sultanahmet, it is sublime. It has been keeping Kumkapı’s restaurants and residents stocked with bal-kaymak for over a century. Theirs is glorious, but simple – rolled up into little logs that have a consistency that hovers somewhere in between liquid and solid.