Greeks are considered one of the largest sweet tooth in the world. There is, perhaps, not a single person on the territory of the country who would not be happy about going to zakharoplasto (a pastry shop). Sweets in the country are an invariable attribute of a table set for a holiday or everyday meal.
Over the long years of the rule of the Byzantine Empire, which harmoniously combined the traditions of dozens of different peoples, a wide variety of oriental dishes were brought to Hellas, which became national over time. Further in the article you will find a description of the most diverse, unusually delicious Greek sweets, recipes and photos of which are waiting for you in this material.
About desserts
In Greece, the main components for sweets are nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios) and honey (most often thyme). For some Greek sweets, semolina (for halva), vegetable oil, dried fruits, cream, milk, cheese are used in the preparation. A do-it-yourself puff pastry sheet is one of the main ingredients in cooking.
Among the popular Greek sweets are quince, galactobureko, turkish delight pastille. Greek jam, which is prepared from quince, oranges, figs, cherries and peaches, is also famous. Sweets in sugar syrup or molasses can also be called traditional desserts - these are most often seeds (nuts, pistachios, hazelnuts and almonds) and dried fruits.
Dessert groups
All oriental sweets, including Greek, can be divided into three groups:
- Sugar confectionery - nishallo (sugar vermicelli), crystalline sugar, nogul (amorphous sugar with spices).
- Products like soft sweets - Turkish delight, nougat, sorbet, whipped delight, braid halva, chuch-hela, etc.
- Flour products - baklava (baklava), mutaki, curabiesdes cookies, kyat and other various cookies and pies based on butter, biscuit, shortbread, puff pastry.
Curabiedes
This is one of the most delicious traditional Greek sweets. It is prepared during the baptism and Christmas. Kurabiesdes differs from other types of shortbread cookies in that it contains almonds and falls off in icing sugar immediately after baking. In the manufacture of cognac, vanilla or mastic are added to it for flavoring. You will need:
- 200 g oils;
- 1 egg
- 200 g minced almonds;
- 1 ½ tbsp. powdered sugar;
- 300 g of flour (preferably premium);
- 2 tbsp. l vanilla sugar;
- 30 g almonds;
- 13 g of baking powder.
How to cook
- Combine dry ingredients: almonds, flour, vanilla sugar, baking powder.
- We soften the softened butter until white, pour sugar into it, beat well and add the yolk during the process, and then combine the dry ingredients with the egg-oil mixture, knead the dough. It should turn out elastic and not stick to your hands.
- From the pieces of dough we form balls.
- In the middle of each we put a whole almond nut (1-2 pcs.) And put it on a sheet covered with baking paper.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 180 ° C.
- Sprinkle the finished cookies with icing sugar (you can see the Greek sweetness - kurabiesdes in the photo).
Lucumades
This dish is an airy, very tender donuts wrapped in sweet syrup. In order to prepare 1 kg of sweets, take:
- 500 g flour;
- 32 g dry yeast;
- 27 g of salt and sugar;
- 500 ml of very cold water;
- 600 ml of vegetable oil for deep fat.
For syrup:
- 1.5 tsp honey;
- 200 ml of water;
- 20 g of lemon;
- 250 g of sugar.
Cooking technology
- Pour yeast, salt and sugar into the flour. The flour must be sieved to give the dough a more delicate and airy structure.
- Ice water is gradually poured into the mixture and knead the dough for a quarter of an hour, after which we cover the container with the product with a napkin or cling film and put in a warm place for one hour for fermentation.
- 20 minutes before the dough comes up, we’ll start making the syrup. Pour sugar into a small bowl, fill it with water, add honey and put on the stove.
- After the oil boils, boil it for 5 minutes, add a slice of lemon and continue to cook the same amount.
- At the same time, heat the oil in a saucepan.
- Using a spoon, form balls and release into hot oil.
- After they are well browned, we take them out and dip them in hot syrup for 20 seconds.
Ready Greek sweets are placed on a beautiful plate. You should eat dessert immediately after preparation, because after a short storage it can become soft and lose its attractive appearance.
By the way, only in hot form does it have a tender airy core and a crispy honey-caramel crust.
Baklava (baklava)
Among Greek desserts and sweets, a popular place is occupied by the popular baklava confectionery. It is prepared from a fresh unclean filo dough, thin as papyrus paper (translated from Greek, “filo” means “sheet”). The preparation of such a test is a real art and is transmitted in every family from mother to daughter.
Ingredients required for the test:
- a pound of flour;
- 200-250 g of warm water (depends on the quality of the flour);
- ½ tsp salts;
- 30 ml of olive oil;
- 1 tsp Sahara;
- some corn starch.
For filling:
- 100 g of pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts;
- 3 tbsp. l Sahara;
- 1 tsp. chopped cloves and cinnamon;
- 1 cracker (crushed in a blender).
For syrup:
- 200 ml of water;
- 250 g of sugar;
- according to Art. l lemon juice and honey;
- 2-3 cloves;
- cinnamon stick.
To smear the dough:
- 50 ml of olive oil;
- 100 g of margarine and butter;
- egg.
Stuffing and Dough
First, let's prepare the nuts. It should be remembered that they must be fresh. At the same time, it is recommended to soak the almonds in water for a quarter of an hour, and then peel them.
- Grind all the nuts indicated in the recipe in a mortar. Please note: since nuts have different hardness, they should be processed separately. Chopped nuts should not be too small, but not large. They can be fried in a pan, but also separately.
- Combine the prepared nut with sugar, cloves, cinnamon, chopped cracker and mix.
- Sift flour together with sugar and salt with a slide, make a deepening and pour oil with vinegar, gently mixing.
- Add warm water and knead the dough. It should be tender, but not sticky.
Making dessert
- Divided dough into bundles into 10 identical parts, we form balls.
- We put them in a deep bowl and cover them with a damp cotton towel. The dough should rest for an hour at a temperature of 20 ° C.
- Each time we take out 1 ball and roll out the dough, it is not recommended to take everything at once, because it can dry out.
- So that the dough does not stick to the table and to the rolling pin, sprinkle them with corn flour.
- Roll into very thin sheets the size of a baking sheet.
- For Greek sweetness, we first coat the first sheet with a mixture of oils (olive and cream), margarine and eggs. Be sure to warm. This is necessary to make the baklava crispy.
- We coat each subsequent sheet in the same way and stack on the previous one.
- On 4, lay out 1/3 of the filling and cover with the fifth sheet, oil the dough again and sprinkle ½ part of the remaining nut filling.
- Cover with a clean sheet, grease again and spread the rest of the nuts.
- After that, we stack the remaining sheets alternately, oiling them well.
- Let the baklava stand for about 10 minutes, and then gently cut into rhombs. As a decoration, we use clove buds, for one portion piece - one bud.
- Bake the baklava (covering it with foil) in the oven for about half an hour at 180 ° C.
- After that, remove the foil and lower the temperature to 140 ° C.
The finished product is allowed to cool for 1 hour.
Syrup
At this time, prepare the syrup. To do this, you need:
- Boil water with honey, cinnamon, cloves and sugar.
- Remove from heat and introduce lemon juice.
Warm baklava is poured with still hot syrup and served better the next day, when it is well soaked.