The first version of baklava, or baklava, appeared back in 1453, but even after a century its recipe has not changed much and traditionally consists of flour, eggs, ghee and honey or milk filling. Baklava, whose calorie content is 400-415 kcal, and this is 1/5 of the usual daily intake for women, is a fairly satisfying product, consisting mainly of fats and simple carbohydrates.
It is unattractive for those who carefully monitor their figure, because the fragrant oriental sweetness is actually something in between a multilayer cookie and a honey cake. But in order not to deny ourselves small pleasures, we will consider compromise solutions that would satisfy both true gourmets and avid athletes.
Baklava: calorie content and properties of ingredients
Baklava, of course, has a high nutritional value. But not all of its components have such a detrimental effect on the waist, as it seems at first glance. For example:
- Walnuts are rich in fiber (6.8 g / 100 g), essential fatty acids (6.1 g / 100 g) and potassium iodide, which is responsible for the normal functioning of the thyroid gland, which, in turn, affects the uniform distribution and breakdown of fat cells in the body. They completely lack cholesterol.
- Paradoxical as it sounds, egg yolks do not provoke weight gain, because they do not contain simple fats that create a stable fat layer. On the contrary, in the course of numerous experiments it was proved that the use of 1-2 egg yolks per day significantly lowers cholesterol, and the predominant mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids that are not produced by the body on their own are indispensable nutraceuticals in the diet of athletes.
- It would seem, how can it be dietary if it is replete with fast carbohydrates and simple sugars? In fact, only water passing through all stages of splitting in only 20 minutes can be compared with the speed of digestibility of honey. So, without causing stagnation and other negative phenomena inherent in high-calorie foods, it enhances the production of bile, helping to eliminate toxins. By consuming it in a small amount, you can increase the tone of the body and allow yourself to abandon more high-calorie and much less healthy sugar.
As for the other products, their interchangeability is worth mentioning separately. For example, yeast dough can be made from oat, linseed or corn flour, and butter can be replaced with low-fat dry cottage cheese.
If we talk about radical diet recipes without flour, butter and sugar, then such a baklava, the calorie content per 100 grams of which is ~ 130 kcal, is used mainly under strict dietary restrictions.
Traditional turkish recipe
In general, Turkish baklava, whose caloric content does not exceed 140 kcal, is not very different from ordinary homemade, widely used recipes. But still it is recommended to fulfill some conventions.
For cooking you will need:
- 300 g of premium wheat flour (2 faceted glasses);
- 8 tbsp. l milk;
- 200 g ghee;
- 1 chicken egg white and 2 yolks;
- 2 tbsp. l pressed yeast;
- one and a half glasses of crushed walnuts or hazelnuts;
- 7 tbsp. l powdered sugar;
- 3 tbsp. l honey;
- a pinch of ground cardamom seeds and salt.
Cooking stages
First you need to dissolve the yeast in warm milk and add a little salt. Then add beaten eggs and flour, during the mixing of which add oil. Next, put the dough in a pan and wrap it in a warm blanket or put in a basin with pre-heated, but not higher than +30 ° C water. In winter, you can put it just closer to the batteries, making sure that the dough does not cool or overheat.
When it rises, you need to divide it into 45 flat parts and roll it into very thin cakes, grease them with oil. Laying cakes on a baking sheet, place them on top of each other, adding to each second, except the first and last, prepared filling from ground nuts, sugar, honey and cardamom. Next, the resulting stack is carefully cut into oblong cubes and greased with egg yolk.
The baking time on average is half an hour, the temperature is 180 ° C. At the end, baklava can be poured with butter.
Appetizing oriental dessert is ready!