Oriental sweets- this is a tasty name that combines a huge number of a wide variety of sweets that have been created in the countries of the East for more than one millennium. They are confectionery products, completely different in composition and preparation technology. It is believed that Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran have the largest selection of delicacies. Nuts, dried fruits, sunflower, sesame seeds, candied fruits, spices, raisins, honey, etc. are often used to make oriental sweets. Today we have prepared for you an overview of the most popular and interesting recipes sweets of the East, which include various nuts.
In ancient times, such a product as sugar was practically inaccessible, and therefore all foods acquired sweetness through fruit juices and honey. The preparation of this type of dessert was considered a real art. Sweets had a rather high price and were available only to wealthy people.
The hot climate also played a role in the history of oriental delicacies. The technology of their preparation is such that they can be stored for quite a long time without any cooling facilities. It is known that our favorite marshmallows, marshmallows, marmalade were first created in the East. Everyone knows the names of such delicacies as kozinaki, nougat, halva, baklava, sherbet and churchkhela. Let's figure out what oriental sweets with nuts are called and how they can be prepared.
If you want to steal a girl's heart, comfort a crying child, or earn the respect of a gray-haired old man, just treat them to their favorite sweets.
An old Arabic proverb.
Turkish delight pomegranate
Translated from Turkish, the name of this dessert sounds like “Turkish delight”. The delicacy can be made from starch, molasses (honey, sugar), water, sometimes coconut flakes - this is the so-called white delight. Walnut delight is widespread when whole or crushed nuts are added to such a mass.
To prepare oriental sweets with nuts for 5 people, we need:
We put sugar in a small saucepan, ½ part of the total amount of citric acid, pour in a glass of water. Heat until thickened for half an hour. In another container, mix starch, 400 ml of water, juice and the remaining citric acid bring to a boil and cook for 3-5 minutes. We combine the starch mass and sugar syrup, keep the mixture on low heat for 30-35 minutes, it should turn into a homogeneous, smooth mass. Add sesame seeds and nuts to the pan, mix and spread the mass into a mold. We cover the product with a film and put it in the refrigerator for one night. In the morning we cut the oriental sweetness with nuts into cubes. By the way, the calorie content of such a dessert is quite high and amounts to 510 kcal / 100 g. It will take you about 10 hours to prepare.
Inchmish
We offer to cook oriental sweetness with walnuts with the addition of sultanas. Dessert belongs to Uzbek cuisine and looks like a kind of candy. Let's cook:
- 1 st. walnuts and sultanas;
- 20-30 g of cookies;
- powdered sugar for sprinkling.
Black sultanas are best for delicacy, which has a slightly sour taste, and besides, it is healthier. We sort out the ingredients (nuts and sultanas), rinse and dry, grind in a blender at high speed. We spread the mass in a container, if the mass is too liquid, add cookies to it. With wet hands, form small balls the size of a walnut and roll well in powdered sugar. The treat is ready!
Nougat - oriental white sweet with nuts
Traditionally, this delicacy, beloved by many, is made from honey or sugar, various types of roasted nuts and egg white. For cooking, take:
- 300 g of sugar;
- 100 ml of water;
- 100 grams of pistachios;
- 80 g of honey;
- one egg white.
How to cook?
Fry pistachios and other nuts intended for making nougat in a dry frying pan. Separate one article. l. sugar from the total amount and put aside. Pour the remaining sugar into a saucepan and pour water into it. We put it on the stove and turn on the burner.
Please note: before the syrup boils, it is necessary that the sugar is completely dissolved.
After the syrup boils, you should choose such a thermal regime so that the minimum bubbling of the syrup is maintained.
Cook until a temperature of 110 ° C, then add honey and mix gently. After that, the syrup is boiled to a temperature of 135-137 ° C. Beat the protein with a spoonful of sugar and pour the finished syrup (130 ° C) into it in a thin stream with continuous beating. Continue beating until the mixture thickens. Add the nuts to the mixture. We line the form with parchment and put the nougat into it. Remove to a cool place and let cool completely.
Kozinaki
An oriental sweet with nuts called kozinaki has an unusual taste. Children especially like its taste. Let's start cooking treats.
- Pour a glass of sugar into the pan, send four glasses of water to it and boil until it thickens.
- Pour two cups of pre-roasted nuts (almonds, peanuts) into the syrup, mix, remove from heat and cool slightly.
- Spread the still warm mixture in an even layer on the film, then roll it out and leave it to cool completely.
- Cut the cooled mass into triangles or give any other shape.
Nut sweets
These desserts are made from fruit juices, butter, condensed milk, flour, sugar with the addition of almonds, peanuts, walnuts, hazelnuts and cashews. Oriental sweets with nuts include roasting, churchkhela, gozinaki, nougat and various cookies.
- 1 cup of any nuts (peanuts, hazelnuts, etc.);
- 100 g cl. oils;
- a bank of condensed milk;
- sesame.
Note that before preparing a dessert that includes any nuts, they must first be fried. This procedure will make them taste better and enhance the aroma.
Cooking technology
We fry the nuts, and after they have cooled, we separate the husks from them. Dissolve the butter in a deep saucepan and combine it with condensed milk, cook until the mixture thickens. Make sure that the mass is not digested, otherwise the confectionery will turn out to be very hard. ready mix remove from heat, add nuts to it and mix very quickly. Immediately pour into the form, which was previously covered with foil. Level the surface and allow the mass to cool thoroughly. When this happens, cut the dessert into pieces and roll in sesame seeds.
Baklava with peanuts and pistachios
This delicacy is a multi-layer cake, which consists of sheets the thinnest dough oiled. They are laid out in a baking dish in layers, between which are chopped nuts soaked in a syrup consisting of sugar, lemon, rose water. Consider how to cook such an oriental sweet with nuts and honey.
Nuts, separately, grind in a blender, combine peanuts with powdered sugar. Melt the butter in a frying pan and grease the mold with it. We lay out a sheet of dough in it, soak it abundantly with oil and sprinkle with chopped peanuts. Alternate layers until the form is completely filled. Lubricate the last sheet well with oil and sprinkle with pistachios and peanuts, cut into squares. Bake at 180°C for about 35 minutes. We put honey in a saucepan, pour it with 100 milliliters of water, bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Pour the baked products with honey syrup, cover with foil and leave overnight. The calorie content of such baklava is 665 kcal / 100 g.
For a Westerner, the East is exotic, manifested in everything: religion, worldview, customs, cuisine. The Eastern world is very different from ours, perhaps that is why it is so interesting to us. Lovers of delicious East are primarily attracted by their oriental desserts, sweets and pastries. This will be discussed in this article.
Oriental sweets are confectionery products of the Central Asian, Transcaucasian and Arab cuisines, a distinctive feature of which is the addition of spices, nuts, raisins, candied fruits, spices and honey.
Oriental confectionery products are varied, tasty and nutritious, making them popular all over the world. There are about 200 different varieties of oriental sweets. It is quite difficult to list and describe everything in one article, so we will try to classify them and highlight only the most popular ones. Let's see what oriental sweets are.
Types of oriental sweets
1) Halva- the name of a group of oriental sweets made from sugar, flour and nuts. Additional ingredients of halva can be honey, cinnamon, vanillin or fruit essence and others. As a rule, halvah is prepared as follows: syrup is boiled from sugar or honey to which nuts are added, in parallel with this, flour is fried in a frying pan, then everything is mixed and allowed to cool. Sometimes flour is added immediately to the syrup, after readiness, the resulting thick mass is poured onto a greased baking sheet. After the halva has cooled, it is cut and served at the table.
There are a lot of varieties of halva and each has its own recipe and method of preparation. Here are some names of this oriental sweet: "Sesame halva", "Azerbaijani Reshid-halva", "Gris-halva", "Turkmenistan Ak-halva", "Arishta-Armenian halva", "Liquid halva", "Halva-lavz in Tajik", "Halva walnut in Arabic", "Halva with vanilla", " pistachio halva", "Halva with milk in Uzbek".
2) Baklava- this is a pie nut filling rhomboid shape. Baklava is a very tasty oriental sweet that almost everyone likes. This dish is cooked in a low frying pan or on a baking sheet, before cooking, the blanks are cut into pieces in the shape of diamonds, during baking they take a break to add oil, after cooking, baklava is poured with honey or sugar syrup with spices, which gives the dish a unique taste.
There are many varieties of baklava that differ in the ingredients and proportions in which they are used. Here are some of the varieties of this oriental sweet: Baklava Arishta, Sheki Baklava, Baku Baklava, Rich Baklava.
3) Cookies- oriental sweetness on a flour basis with the addition of various ingredients such as vanilla, figs, dried apricots, raisins, nuts, honey and others. The dough, as a rule, is prepared traditionally from flour, eggs, butter, sugar with the addition of soda.
The most famous oriental sweet such as biscuits is Kurabye. But besides it, there are many other varieties of this oriental dessert for tea, such as: "Chereks", "Yugatert", "Schaker-Puri", "Shirvari-Nan", "Peach cookies", "Nazuk with shavran in Armenian" , "Mutaki", "Kyata of Yerevan", "Kada", "Zemelakh", "Beshkito", "Vanilla Oriental Cookies" and others.
4) Fried sweet oriental products- a group of oriental sweets that are deep-fried. The culinary product is immersed entirely in oil heated to a temperature of 160-180 degrees Celsius. Used for deep frying vegetable oils, since creamy ones do not withstand high temperatures and acquire a bitter taste.
Before immersing in oil, excess flour is shaken off from the culinary product to prevent it from burning, during the frying process, the product must be periodically turned over with a spatula to evenly fry it, and after cooking, remove it from the deep-fryer and put it on a mesh in order to allow the fat to drain. After that, the product is glazed and decorated in every possible way.
The most famous deep-fried oriental sweets are "Khvorost" and "Chak-chak". They are so tasty - you will lick your fingers. But besides them, deep-fried "Samsa with almond filling", cookies "Eastern shavings", Strips "Honey fingers", "Pilita in Tajik" and other sweets are cooked.
5) Cakes and pastries- Oriental sweets on biscuit, curd and other bases, traditionally used in the preparation of cakes, pastries and rolls. A distinctive feature of oriental cakes is the use of nuts and southern fruits as fillings. In addition, the combination of certain ingredients in the right proportions and a special method of preparation give these sweets an oriental flavor.
Having traveled to the East, you can meet oriental cakes, rolls and pastries of the following names: "Metlouf with whipped cream", "Almond roll", "Nut roll", "Oriental marshmallow" cake, "Shakerbura" cake and others. There are a lot of varieties of oriental cakes.
6) Baking from sweet dough - Oriental sweetness on a flour basis with the addition of nuts, dried and fresh fruits. The composition of oriental pastries does not differ much from European ones. What gives it originality is unusual shape, some types of pastries are served in the form of balls, which is not typical for European rich confectionery.
There are the following varieties of oriental pastries: "Nan Barda", "Nan Bukhara", "Turkmen persimmon pies", "Shaker-Chuker", "Gata Artsakh", "Gata Yerevan" and others.
7) Caramel- Oriental sweet, made on a sugar basis with the addition of nuts, dried fruits, flavorings. Oriental caramel is very tasty, nutritious and high-calorie. The most famous oriental sweets such as caramel are kozinak, roasted almonds, almonds in sugar, navat.
Kozinak- Oriental sweet with a high content of nuts: almonds, sesame seeds, cashews, etc. It is a rectangular piece of nuts in caramel. Grillage similar to kozinak, with the only difference that much less nuts are added to it. Nogul- oriental culinary product of white color like caramel containing cilantro seed. Nawat representing the smooth, transparent crystals of sucrose extended on threads. Kangalak- a product of a round shape, resembling a dragee, with the addition of an apricot pit.
9) Soft candies- oriental culinary products made from sugar and flour with the addition of nuts or dried fruits. The most popular: nougat, Turkish delight, sherbet, candied fruits.
Lokum- the sweetness of a gelatinous consistency, made from flour and sugar with the addition of various nuts. Nougat - pastry based on syrup, sugar, honey and molasses with the addition of nuts. Nougat is stretchy, soft and hard. Sherbet- a product on a fruit and creamy base in the form of colored fudge with nuts. Candied fruit- boiled in sugar syrup pieces of fruit.
8) Other desserts- other sweets for tea on a milk, curd, fruit basis. For their preparation, fruits such as peaches, quince, apricots, apples are used. And nuts like peanuts, almonds. In addition, other ingredients are sometimes used: melons, raisins, and so on.
Oriental desserts include "Apples stuffed with raisins", "Melon balls", "Peanut balls", "Almond balls", "Quince sweets", "Peaches with curd filling"," Dessert quince and others".
As you can see, there are a lot of varieties of oriental sweets and they are all tasty and unusual. They want to try everything at once. But they are made mainly from sugar and flour with the addition of nuts, that is, very high-calorie ingredients, so if you want to keep your figure, it is better to limit yourself to their consumption. A few pieces a day are enough to appreciate their amazing taste and eat up. Bon Appetit!
Oriental sweets is a generic name for confectionery products of the Transcaucasian, Arab, and Central Asian cuisines. Nuts, sesame seeds, raisins, candied fruits, vanilla, ginger, licorice, rose water and many other ingredients are widely used in the preparation of oriental sweets in combinations unusual for Western confectioners. Oriental sweets can be made in the form of caramel and montpensier (for example: roasting, kozinaki), sweets (lokum, halva, nougat), flour products (baklava, kyata). In the East, all kinds of sweets are called “halyaua”, which in Arabic means “sweets” (hence, by the way, the word “halvah” came from).
Once upon a time, only healers and pharmacists were engaged in the manufacture of oriental sweets. “Sweets are a sign of joy. They heal the soul, nourish the brain and fill with happiness!” - said from time immemorial in the East. Healers claimed that sweet has amazing properties. With the help of delicious medicines, you can quickly improve your health! Sweets were attributed magical powers and healing properties. Actually sweet taste helped to mask the unpleasant taste of the medicine, which was placed inside the turkish delight or a piece of nougat. And sweets without a medicinal filling were prepared for the padishahs and noble people. In Europe, delicacies from the far East appeared around the 17th and 18th centuries, served in the richest houses as gourmet delicacies.
The range of oriental sweets is very wide. All sweets are divided into three groups: products such as soft candy or caramel, various fruit or milk desserts and flour products. Caramel-type sweets are made by melting honey, molasses or sugar. Crushed or whole kernels of nuts are added to the hot caramel mass - peanuts, pistachios, cashews, walnuts or sesame (sunflower) seeds. The resulting mass is given the desired shape, cooled and packaged. Finished products have a solid texture, differ in the recipe of the caramel mass, finish, shape and size (almond kozinaki, cashew kozinaki, walnut, sesame seeds, roasted nuts, nuts in chocolate or caramelized oech). Shaker-pendyr is prepared from the drawn caramel mass in the form of slanting pads, it is made vanilla, mint, lemon, ginger, and parvadu - sweet pads sprinkled with flour. The caramel-based sweets are also popular in different countries halva.
Halva in Arabic means "sweetness". This is a product that consists of thin caramel fibers and lightly fried grated oilseed kernels between us. not only very tasty, but also nutritious, thanks to the content of fats and proteins, in addition to sugar. There are the following types of halva: tahini, peanut, sunflower, walnut and combined - when several types of oil seeds or nuts are used simultaneously.
Oriental sweets such as soft candies are most often made from sugar-treacle syrup with egg whites and the addition of nuts, dried fruits or candied fruits. However, syrup for this type of sweets is boiled less than for ordinary sweets, so the resulting products have a softer texture. Oriental sweets such as sweets, depending on the recipe and method of manufacture, are divided into: nougat, whipped delight, Turkish delight, oilu, ala, cream log, chuch-hela and sherbet.
Obtained by boiling sugar-treacle syrup, agar, starch with the addition of flavoring and aromatic substances. This is a soft and delicate marmalade type product, its surface is densely sprinkled with powdered sugar. Initially, Turkish delight was made from fruits, rose water, honey, crushed almonds and starch, but over time, more and more new recipes began to appear. So for the preparation of Turkish delight they began to use walnuts and pistachios, colorful fruit juices, fresh fruit and chocolate. And at the beginning of the 18th century, another variety of Turkish delight appeared, which was called “white splendor,” confectioners from the Turkish city of Afyon came up with the idea of diluting the sweet mass with melted cream.
Today, Turkish Delight is made from syrup, agar (a natural gelling agent made from red algae), starch, and fruit juice, fruits, or nuts. Turkish delight is sprinkled with powdered sugar on top, or - these are the trends of the new time - coconut flakes. Lokum differs in shape and size. In the shops of oriental sweets, you can see the following types of lokum: cubic, rolled, whole, sliced, two-layer and children's (in the form of animal figures). The closest relative of the eastern Turkish delight is marmalade.
Another popular "candy" oriental dish- . Sweets made from a sweet viscous mass are, perhaps, the most popular delicacy in European countries. The exact origin of Nuga is unknown, but most likely she appeared in Persia and was initially available only to the padishahs. For its preparation, egg whites, starch, as well as roasted nuts, raisins, dried apricots, cinnamon, cocoa or fruit pieces. Nougat can be anything - creamy, lemon, tangerine, chocolate, almond - everything is limited only by the confectioner's imagination. The only exception is that real nougat cannot be made from peanuts. There are two types of nougat - white and brown. Caramelized sugar is added to brown nougat, and it turns out to be more dense and even crunchy in texture. white nougat obtained from sugar-treacle syrup, whipped with egg whites, with the addition of nuts, raisins, dried apricots and other additives. The finished mass is cooled and cut into rectangles or squares.
Flour oriental sweets are all kinds of combinations of honey, sugar, nuts and dried fruits. These products are made from sand, yeast or unleavened dough With different fillings, and in finished form they are often soaked in syrup or honey. Flour oriental sweets are cookies, cakes, pies with sweet stuffing and rolls. But, the most famous flour sweetness is baklava or baklava. The famous multi-layered dessert made of the finest dough and nut filling, soaked in spiced syrup is very common in the cuisines of the peoples of the former Ottoman Empire. And each baklava has its own secrets and "zest".
Baklava is a multi-layered dessert made from sheets of paper-thick dough that are smeared with oil and laid out in layers in a rectangular baking dish or rolled into cylinders. Traditional baklava is made from 8-12 thin layers (in some types, the number of layers reaches 40) of dough with a nut filling between them. Ground and finely chopped walnuts or pistachios are laid out between layers of dough, the cake is cut into pieces, sprinkled with honey and put in the oven. There are baklava recipes in Spain, Great Britain and the USA, although the baklava recipe has some differences here. So, the British prepare baklava with chocolate, and the Americans add maple syrup to it.
The famous oriental sweets include sherbet - a chilled dish of fruit juice and puree and very similar to popsicles. Sherbet is a dessert of Iranian origin, popular in Central Asia and the Caucasus. However, for example, in Azerbaijan, light, liquid sherbets, used mainly as soft drinks, have come into use, while in Tajikistan, heavy, thick sherbets are common, used more like jam. Sherbet can be very different - from fragrant colored fudge with crushed nuts to a soft drink. Traditional oriental sherbet was made from rose hips, dogwood, rose, licorice and various spices. In Europe, sherbet was transformed into sorbet - delicious dessert fruit and ice cream.
Unfortunately, in our time it is difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to find high-quality oriental sweets. Replete with preservatives, dyes and other achievements of the chemical industry, they often turn out to be unpleasant in taste. Not to mention the fact that recently the number of people suffering from food colorings or . So The best way guaranteed to get tasty, high-quality and useful product is to make it yourself.
Oriental sweets eaten with a cup of coffee or tea, along with your story about an amazing trip, what could be better. This is the most ideal end of the working week and pleasant memories of your tourist trip to Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia and other eastern countries.
In the East, the first sweets appeared long ago, but Europe got to know them only in the 17th - 18th centuries. These were delicacies for wealthy people.
Oriental sweets have always been made in Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran. In Europe, they are produced in Bulgaria, Bosnia, Greece, Macedonia and Romania.
Oriental sweets contain the following ingredients: eggs, sugar, cocoa, molasses, butter, flour, vanillin, fats (for making dough).
but original taste these confectionery products are given with spices and additives such as poppy seeds, nuts, starch in interesting and varied combinations.
There are only about 170 types of oriental sweets. Consider the most popular of them.
Grillage- Oriental sweetness from roasted nuts with sugar. Ideally it should be crumbly.
Jeserie- an oriental dessert prepared with the addition of juices and nuts. Traditionally, this confectionery was made from pomegranate juice (pomegranate is the fruit of kings), boiled in sugar syrup, with the addition of dates and nuts.
Kozinaki- sweetness from walnuts (or seeds) with the addition of honey. First, honey is melted together with sugar. Then chopped and roasted walnuts are poured into the resulting dense mass. The finished mass is rolled out and cut into rhombuses.
Lokum is a dessert made from sugar (Turkish delight) or flour (Shaker delight), where nuts (almonds, coconut, pistachios), chocolate or cocoa and starch are added.
Nougat- This is a confectionery product, which is traditionally based on egg white, honey (or sugar) and roasted nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds). Dessert can be hard or soft. Cinnamon, candied fruits, dried fruits, chocolate, lemon zest, vanilla are added to the product to give the nougat original aromatic and flavoring shades.
Baklava- This is a popular oriental dessert made from puff pastry in syrup, with the addition of nuts. Most often it is a multi-layered sweetness made from thin sheets of dough; they are smeared with oil and rolled into cylinders or laid out in layers in a rectangular baking dish.
Tulumba- a confectionery product made from unleavened dough, which is cut into small pieces up to 5 cm. Then they are rolled into cylinders or tubes and fried until a beautiful golden color; Drizzle with delicious syrup on top. Before serving, the dish must be cooled down.
Halva- Oriental sweet, which is made from sugar with the addition of seeds or nuts.
Chak-chak- an oriental dessert made from deep-fried pieces of dough filled with hot honey. Dried fruits and nuts may also be added. Different types chak-chaka can differ in the way the dough is cut (thin strips, squares, in the form of vermicelli or balls) and the form of laying out on the dish (in the form of a slide, small and large cones, balls and hearts.).
churchkhela- a confection made from nuts (traditionally, walnuts, but now hazelnuts, almonds, peach kernels, apricots are also used) in a thickened syrup, the basis of which is grape juice. It is boiled, added wheat flour. Nuts are dipped into the resulting mass, which are strung on threads. A thick sweet layer is formed; churchkhela is dried in the sun for 15 days, then in a cool place for 2-3 months for sugaring.
Sherbet- Oriental sweetness, creamy fondant with raisins, vanilla, nuts.
