Churchkhela; what is this anyway?

Churchkhela - what is it anyway?

Churchkhela is an ancient Georgian delicacy, the composition of which is quite common. It consists of nuts strung on a thread, filled with natural juice. The Georgians invented it many thousands of years ago, archaeological finds testify to this. Scientists say that this national dish once saved the Georgian army from hunger. The title still causes some controversy, but in Georgian it is correctly pronounced “churchkhela”, not chuchkhela. You can see what this dessert looks like in photos and videos on the Internet.

Is churchkhela healthy?

What are the benefits and harms of Georgian churchkhela? Here almost everything depends on the components, how fresh and natural they are, as well as how the product was dried. If the manufacturing process is followed correctly, the sweetness is very beneficial for the body. The dessert is very nutritious (400 kcal) and can quickly cope with the feeling of hunger.

It is necessary to exclude or limit the consumption of churchkhela for those people who suffer from food allergies, excess weight, diabetes, liver diseases and tuberculosis.

How to prepare churchkhela

In the classic version, the ingredients of true churchkhela in Georgia are only walnuts and grape juice. In this case, the sweetness will have a dark brown color. Churchkhela is easy to create at home, because no special equipment is required. You can choose the filling and juice according to your own taste or give preference to an ordinary traditional treat. It takes about an hour to make and is fairly common.

2 methods on how to create a churchkhela:

freshly squeezed grape juice is taken;
To obtain a thick mixture, corn flour is added to it;
the nuts are strung on a strong, not very long thread;
dip the nut thread into the thick juice a couple of times at short intervals;
the resulting narrow sausage is dried in a black, dry place for 5-10 days.

fry 200 grams of walnuts over a fire, and then peel them;
string them onto a thread (approximately 25-30 cm), having previously tied a match to its lower end:
squeeze 2 liters of juice from grapes;
Boil the grape juice for about 2 hours, skimming off any foam that forms;
add 100 grams of sugar to the juice and mix;
cool the juice;
stirring evenly, add 200 grams of flour;
cook the resulting mass over low heat until it becomes thick and its size decreases by 2 times.
Dip the stuffed animal into the hot mixture, take it out and wait 5 minutes so that it dries a little.
repeat this process 2-3 times until a layer of 1-2 cm is formed.
dry the churchkhela in the sun so that it does not become sticky (about 2 weeks).
wrap the treat in a towel and leave it in a dry, ventilated place for final ripening for 1-2 months (it will be covered with sweet powder on top).

Prepare this national oriental treat with your own hands and pamper your family and friends.

Secrets of making churchkhela:

The use of various artificial thickeners simplifies the production of churchkhela, but reduces the beneficial characteristics of the product and can be harmful to health.
It is very important to dry churchkhela in natural conditions to preserve the necessary parameters of the components included.
To make churchkhela, it is more convenient to use raw (whole or halved), well-dried nuts. Roasted or crushed nuts are difficult to thread and they fall apart.
Threading nuts onto a needle greatly simplifies the use of an ordinary thimble for sewing.

Modern versions of churchkhela

The nut-fruit interior and outer layer of this popular oriental treat can be very different. Nowadays it is made not only from grape juice, but also from other fruits (pomegranates, apples, apricots), so it comes in various colors, there is even a greenish churchkhela. They differ not only in colors, but also in taste. In the photo or with your own eyes you can see that such a multi-colored Caucasian delicacy looks very beautiful and appetizing.

Instead of ordinary walnuts, the famous delicacy often consists of other types of nuts (cashews, hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds) or the whole nut mixture, from time to time there are candied fruits and dried fruits. Due to the inside and the addition of a huge amount of sugar, the dish comes out quite sweet. To give the most special taste, various fragrant spices (vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom) can be used. Any culinary specialist experiments as he wants, which is why there is such a tremendous contrast of this extraordinary product in the markets.

Stuffed animals of unnatural colors are usually prepared with the use of artificial dyes, therefore, when consuming it, you need to be careful, and even better, choose a natural and absolutely necessary product.

Conclusion

Southern peoples highly revere this oriental sweet and eat it simply like candy; children especially like it. It is often used for a quick snack, because it is very high in calories. This delicacy can be consumed even during religious Lent. Not a single New Year's feast in Georgia is complete without churchkhela; the country even received a patent for this product.

The sweet dessert can always be found in Black Sea resort towns in local markets. Colorful “braids” have become a specific attraction of the southern regions and never cease to amuse visiting gourmets. Now this tasty and necessary delicacy is popular not only in Georgia, but also in Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Crimea, Greece, Turkey and other countries. And even if it is called differently everywhere, the composition is very similar.

“Churchkhela: what is it anyway? Calorie content, usefulness and step-by-step recipe”

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Any visitor to a crowded eastern market has probably seen multi-colored long lows, reminiscent of a kebab, a pod or an icicle, hanging along the walls or above the heads of the sellers. When asked what it is, they say with aspiration, as if a magic spell, “Churchkhela.” Translated from Georgian, this term means dried, seedless berries. Turks often call churchkhela sujuk, and Abkhazians – adjinjukhua.

The sweetness contains two main components - nut kernels strung on a thread and grape juice, thickened by evaporation and the addition of flour. Typically, walnut and hazelnut kernels (hazel, hazelnut) are used from nuts, and juice is squeezed from grapes or lemon, but there are possible options for producing churchkhela from other types of nuts, various dried fruits, peach, almond and apricot kernels, juice from all fruits with pulp and without her.

It is believed that the birthplace of sweets is Georgia. The first mentions of churchkhela in cookbooks date back to the Middle Ages. According to legend, in the era of David the Builder, warriors took with them on a long campaign nutritious and high-calorie food that could quickly saturate the body and charge it with a portion of life-giving energy, which was also suitable for long-term conservation.

One of such products is the delicious churchkhela. Until now, the savory product is sure to be on the New Year's table in any Georgian family. It is believed that the delicacy brings satisfaction, well-being, prosperity, harmony and happiness to any home, which is why all household members certainly eat it.

Churchkhela made using this technology can be stored for quite a long time. The products preserve their taste and beneficial properties, but their soft part hardens over time. The same thing happens if the dessert is over-dried in the sun without properly packing the “icicles” into wooden boxes for long-term storage. Most often, home-made sweets are sold in the Caucasus, Crimea, and at resorts on the Black Sea coast and the Mediterranean.

Useful characteristics and calorie content of churchkhela

Even after heat treatment, the juices of the fruits from which churchkhela is prepared contain a huge amount of necessary compounds - fiber, natural sugars - fructose, sucrose (up to 52%), vitamins (a group of low-molecular organic compounds of relatively simple structure and varied chemical nature) and vitamin-like compounds , pectins, organic acids.

Both pomegranate and grapes are natural antioxidants that protect the human body from oxidative stress (antioxidants neutralize the destructive effect of free radicals on cells).

Unroasted walnuts and other nuts are a valuable source of fats and essential fatty acids (omega-3, omega-6, omega-9), which have a beneficial effect on brain function, nervous and digestive systems. Nuts contain in a biologically accessible form easily digestible proteins and amino acids necessary for building muscle tissue (The structure of tissues of living organisms is studied by the science of histology) .

In addition, churchkhela is a storehouse of mineral salts and trace elements (iron, magnesium, selenium, zinc, calcium, potassium, sulfur, chlorine, molybdenum, manganese, fluorine, boron, iodine, etc.), without which the harmonious functioning of all organs and systems and on which the condition of the dermatological integument, nail plates and hairstyle depends.

The unique dessert contains phenols and nitrogenous substances, without food coloring, flavoring or refined sugar. The calorie content of churchkhela, the usefulness of which for the human body is undeniable, is quite high - 100 g contains up to 450 kcal. The nutritional value depends on the ingredients from which it is prepared.

Constant inclusion of churchkhela in the diet in an amount not exceeding 100 g per day for an adult healthy person can improve memory, increase concentration, cleanse the body of toxins, increase the performance and energy level of the body, strengthen the nervous system, prevent the destructive effects of stress, get rid of from apathy (from the Greek dispassion, a state of detachment) and depression, strengthen the immune system.

Types of goods for churchkhela

To prepare churchkhela, you will need the freshest nut kernels. They use both traditional types of nuts - walnuts or hazel, as well as any others, for example, almonds, Brazilian, peanuts, cashews, and even kernels extracted from apricot or peach kernels (the skin is removed from them by soaking in cool water, and then briefly boiled in sweet syrup).

Roasted nuts are not suitable for sweetness, because after heat treatment the kernels dry out and become brittle, which makes the process of stringing them on a thread impossible. Well, most of the necessary fatty acids are destroyed after heating in a frying pan. From time to time, unroasted peeled pumpkin seeds are added to the product, adding piquancy and uniqueness.

With all this, the color of the finished product, as well as the taste, depends on the type of juice, as well as on the type of fruit. In addition to the usual grape and pomegranate juice, you can use plum, apricot, cherry, apple, pineapple, orange, grapefruit, raspberry and even carrot juice to make sweets.

Cooking without the help of others - step-by-step recipe

step-by-step recipe for making churchkhela

When buying churchkhela at the market or the beach, you cannot be convinced of the integrity of the manufacturer, because the dessert for sale is usually made at home. From time to time, synthetic additives are used as thickeners, juices are taken not natural, but canned or from concentrates, and the properties of nuts leave much to be desired (everyone understands that rancid old kernels, in which the oxidation process has destroyed PUFAs, only bring harm).

But a sweet prepared with your own hands, and even with creativity and imagination, will allow you to fully enjoy the taste and therapeutic qualities of the finished product. Almost all readers are worried about the question of how to create a churchkhela at home? You will only need patience, time and perseverance, because the delicacy must not only be prepared, but also properly dried in the sun, and for quite a long time.

We present to your attention a unique product called churchkhela, a step-by-step recipe at home for which we learned from the chef of one of the most recognizable Georgian restaurants. The main advantage of this recipe is its simplicity, so even a novice housewife can master it. Experiments with ingredients and process modernization are welcome!

You will need 10 low churchkhelas:

freshly squeezed grape juice, reddish (all sweet varieties are suitable, for example, Isabella) - 2 l;
a mixture of sifted wheat flour, grade 2, and corn flour, finely ground, 3:1 - 0.65 kg;
shelled nuts and/or seeds of your choice (hazel, walnuts, almonds, Brazilian, pumpkin seeds) – 0.65 kg;
formidable thread - 1.5-2 meters;
a cauldron for evaporating juice with thick walls or a saucepan.

Manufacturing

First, peel the nuts and seeds. Walnut kernels are divided into halves, other varieties are used entirely. They are strung on a thread, making each product about 0.25-0.3 m long. A knot is made on one side of the thread, and a loop is tied at the other end, from which the “icicles” will be hung for drying.

Nut dipping syrup

A viscous mass of evaporated juice with the addition of flour is called tatara or pelamushi. Freshly squeezed grape juice is poured into a thick-walled saucepan or cauldron, brought to a boil, reduced to a minimum, and skimmed off the foam.

When bubbles almost stop forming on the surface of the juice, pour 1/3 of the size and cool. The previously sifted flour is diluted in warm juice, adding it in small portions so that there are no lumps. It is more convenient to do this with your fingers.

While constantly stirring with a wooden spatula on a long handle, pour the diluted flour mixture into the cauldron with the bubbling juice in a narrow stream. A thick mass comes out, reminiscent of pancake dough in its mixture. The tatara is simmered on the fire for some more time so that the floury taste and smell completely disappears.

Drying

Dip loafs with nuts into the juice prepared in this way. Make at least 3 approaches, each time allowing the remaining pelamushi to flow freely from the suspended products. To do this, place containers under the “icicles” in which the tatara is collected. The greater the number of dips, the thicker the layer of fruit mass is formed on the nuts, and the tastier your churchkhela will turn out, so don’t be lazy!

The finished churchkhela is hung in the sun for at least 15 days to truly dry. The products should not touch, and air should pass freely between them. At the same time, watch the condition of the delicacy so as not to dry out the “icicles”.

Then the delicacy is wrapped in parchment and stored in wooden boxes in a cold place, for example, in a cellar or basement. Most often, churchkhela is prepared during the grape harvest season, and served on the New Year's table if the kids do not get to the mind-blowingly delicious sweetness earlier.

Be careful, contraindications!

In order for the use of churchkhela to bring only positive emotions (Emotions are distinguished from other types of emotional processes: affects, feelings and moods) , you should take into account the personal characteristics of the body and follow the advice of experienced nutritionists.

The product is not included in the diet of patients with obesity and metabolic disorders due to its high calorie content. The high hypoglycemic index of the dessert does not allow diabetics to eat it once a day.

Nuts are a rather languid food, so they should not be eaten if you have cirrhosis of the liver. Allergy to any components of churchkhela (nuts, dried fruits, fruits from which it is made) is a taboo for people prone to allergic reactions.

Excessive indulgence in sweets leads to gaining extra pounds, and in record time. Children who have eaten too much churchkhela may refuse to eat because the product is highly nutritious.

What is churchkhela made from?

What kind of churchkhela is there?

In ancient times, Georgian warriors or travelers always took churchkhela with them on the road - it is light, satisfying and will last for a long time without spoiling).
And now almost everyone calls it Georgian Snickers for these properties. Churchkhela is usually prepared in the autumn, when the nuts, which are its main ingredient, are ripe.

Making sweets is a real old tradition that is passed down through generations. The cooking process is very long and thorough, so you need to be patient - all stages are completed by the New Year, and churchkhela always occupies a venerable space on the New Year's table.

A fascinating fact is that churchkhela is made differently, depending on the region of Georgia, although the manufacturing process itself does not actually differ. Small differences only in composition.

Its most famous types:

Imereti - the base can contain hazelnuts, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds or dried fruits, which are dipped in reddish wine, as well as pomegranate, cherry, plum or raspberry juice.

Benefits for the body

Prepared from natural ingredients, the delicacy is very beneficial for the body of adults and children:

Easy to digest
Churchkhela is rich in potassium and helps in the functioning of the heart muscle,
Walnuts have a beneficial effect on the bone marrow (the central part of the nervous system of animals, usually located in the head part of the body and which is a compact accumulation of nerve cells and their processes) and the spleen - scientists have recognized the walnut as the best remedy for stimulating the brain (the central part of the nervous system of animals and humans ) . That’s why Georgian grandmothers always put this delicacy in their grandchildren’s bags before exams.
Syrup made from grape juice is a natural remedy for insomnia.

How to make churchkhela

The manufacturing process is long:

The syrup is boiled with the addition of wheat or corn flour over very low heat until it is boiled to a certain thickness (at least 40 percent boiling).

Next, the walnut garland is dipped three times in thick syrup and hung to dry in the sun. If the churchkhela is made correctly, then in 10, or even 5 days you can taste it. But that is not all. Regular cooking is much more difficult.

3-4 days later, the syrup is boiled again, with only one difference - increasing its quantity.
And again the slightly dried sweet sticks are dipped into it and again taken out into the sun for 3-4 days. The process can be repeated a couple more times.

A thin layer of sugar will appear on the surface of the cooked sausage - it is natural and very tasty.
The delicacy can be stored for up to three months.

How to spot a fake

But there are still a huge number of varieties of Caucasian sweets. The entire above process can be called home-made manufacturing. But for implementation it most likely differs little:

Natural juice is expensive and it is easier to replace it with a preservative.
Drying in the sun, especially here in the autumn, is something out of fantasy. It is difficult to predict several months of Indian summer, so isn’t it easier to use various types of drying cabinets?

Now there are many options on the market or in stores, but, unfortunately, most of them are fake, i.e.
the syrup on which the product is made is not grape or any other juice, but burnt sugar and flavored liquid. This kind of churchkhela, unlike natural one, is not as tasty and necessary. It’s hard to distinguish a fake from the real one, but we have a few tips from real connoisseurs of the usual recipes for this Georgian dessert:

A forelock made of natural grapes simply breaks and it cannot be faked - only the real one has it.
Over time, real churchkhela becomes covered with a snow-white coating, which is the result of the release of glucose and is much more airy than flour. But careless traders often sprinkle it on the delicacy in order to deceive buyers.
Tough doesn't mean fake.
Vivid colors are a consequence of the addition of dyes.

What is churchkhela and how is it useful?

What is churchkhela? While relaxing on the seashore in the summer, you have heard this word “Churchkhela” more than once. It evoked strange associations among those people who did not know the real meaning.

After all, it is unlikely that anyone will guess at first that this pretentious word has been used to describe the most delicious oriental sweetness. Yes, specifically sweetness.

This delicacy belongs to classic Georgian cuisine. The recipe for making churchkhela is easy , which is why it has moved into the kitchens of other countries, where it has successfully gained authority and is one of the favorite sweets.

In our country, you can buy churchkhela at the market or prepare it yourself at home. It so happened with age that, for some reason, they sell it in markets, in street trading places.

So, let’s try to figure out the recipe for the popularity of this Georgian delicacy. What is it, how to prepare it, and is it useful for the human body?

Churchkhela began to be prepared in ancient times. Then they took nuts and grape juice as the base . They constantly took the prepared yummy food with them on long hikes, going to war or on long journeys. The thing is that churchkhela is quite filling and can easily satisfy your hunger.

In addition, it can be stored for quite a long time . And with all this, it does not lose its own taste and other fundamental properties. For long-term storage, all you need to do is avoid keeping the product in direct sunlight. Then, even after a few weeks, you can enjoy this food.

As for the manufacturing recipe, the standard is walnuts and the freshest grape juice. The first recipe for making it looked like this. During the grape harvest, rich juice was brewed. The mixture is naturally watery. Therefore, corn flour was added to it, which thickened it.

While the juice was boiling, the kernels of a ripe walnut were strung onto a thread using an ordinary needle. An indispensable condition is that they must be fresh. Afterwards, such a nut necklace was moistened in the thickened juice a couple of times, so that it covered the kernels with a dense layer.

As a result, the sweet threads were suspended in a black place until they finally thickened.

This may require at least 5 days. But it is best to keep the churchkhela in this state for about 10 days. If there was a need, then after a couple of hours we could do the function again. Then the layer of juice was thickest, and, accordingly, the sweetness was much more bulky.

Nowadays, not only grape juice is used to make churchkhela. It comes out no less tasty with pomegranate . But with all this, you can also use apple , plum , orange , cherry , apricot or some other type of juice. This is at your discretion.

For the base you can take peanuts, hazelnuts, cashews, for example, in other words, not only walnuts, which are common everywhere in our country. Why limit yourself to just nuts? It has long been the practice to include all dried fruits as a base - dried apricots , raisins , prunes , pumpkin seeds or sunflowers . Combining various entrails and juices, the manufacturing process itself remains the same.

But the manufacturing recipe has a couple of features. Before all this, it is important to know that there is no need to toast the nuts for stringing. They just need to be ripe and fairly dry. At the moment, they give recipes with fried or crushed foods.

Do not prepare your churchkhela in the same way. The fact is that the fried nuts simply crumble and it will be difficult for you to string them on a thread, in the process they may completely break.

Regarding the crushed base, it is not discussed at all. How can you string a homogeneous mass onto a thread? Unless you put it on glue or use some harmful chemicals. But this is unacceptable.

Another manufacturing secret is that the juice must be quite thick so that it clings well to the base and does not flow down. For this, it is best to use corn flour.

Alternatively, you can take some other type of flour; it’s not as scary as introducing starch or similar artificial thickeners. They can also thicken the juice with sugar, but this is also not worth doing. Using unnatural thickeners will only harm yourself.

Due to the fact that the ingredients for churchkhela are nuts (or dried fruits) and natural juice, it brings significant benefits. also contains , which is the main advantage . Good substitutes for natural sugar, which varies in calorie content.

But because the juice is consumed natural, the calorie content of churchkhela is still quite high. It can range from 500 to 800 calories per 100 grams. Therefore, you should not lean on it. If you eat churchkhela every day, you will soon be running around the gym to get rid of extra pounds.

Churchkhela also contains tartaric and malic acids and several groups of vitamins. All these nutrients, which are useful and necessary for the human body, qualify this product as a necessary and nutritious dish.

To cheer up , banish boredom and laziness , it will be enough to eat one stick of this sweet. It will not only give you a charge of vivacity and positivity, but will also lift your spirits, energize you, and increase your performance .

Almost all studies have shown that churchkhela also improves memory and increases the performance of the body and mind. And all this thanks to the nuts, which form the base of the dish.

Taken as a whole, eating this Georgian sweet has a beneficial effect on the well-being of the body as a whole, and also significantly improves mental and spiritual balance. Just look at its appearance. When you look at these colorful lumpy sticks, a mood arises by itself.

When buying churchkhela on the market, you need to be careful. After all, almost all manufacturers, in order to save money and speed up production (the real recipe requires patience and a lot of time), use artificial thickeners, unnatural juices, crushed residues from whole kernels.

Finding the naturalness of churchkhela is not so difficult. If it is made from high-quality products , it will look shiny and quite elastic . If you used unnatural ingredients, then the colored stick will be faded, translucent, and the kernels of nuts (or dried fruits) will be visible. If you find something similar, don't buy it.

To experience real Churchkhela, you don’t have to go to the Caucasus. Prepare this delicious sweetness yourself, it is very easy. The main thing is to be patient and have the right products. And in just a week or two you will delight your family with this delicacy.