Ch urchkhela is an oriental delicacy. It is produced in the Russian Caucasus, Georgia, Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, as well as in Iran, Afghanistan and other countries.

They must have seen, and most likely, tried the one who at least once visited the bazaar in these regions. Gray, yellow, dark cherry sausages, reminiscent of strings of beads or long twisted candles. Sweet, sour, sweet and sour, with a hint of honey and always equally delicious. This is the churchkhela. It is made from condensed grape juice, nuts, dried grapes and flour.
Not all grapes can be used to make churchkhela. Varieties that accumulate extractive substances, carbohydrates, organic acids and vitamins in large quantities are optimally suited.
In a word, churchkhela is not only tasty, but also healthy and nutritious. That is why shepherds took with them sausages with nut filling, driving flocks of sheep to mountain pastures. However, the most important place of churchkhela is on the table when the meat is eaten, and in the arbor of vines there is a leisurely conversation over a glass of good dry wine.
The taste and appearance of churchkhela depends on the method of manufacture. Several of these methods are known, and they bear the names of the respective regions. Let's tell, for example, how churchkhela is cooked in Kakheti.

Some types of churchkhela. Kakhetian (1), Imeretian (2), Kartli (3), Gurian (4), Lechkhumi (5), Mingrelian (6), Abkhazian (7)

Long before the grape harvest, walnuts, hazelnuts, almond, apricot and peach pits are dried in the sun. Unshelled almond, apricot and peach kernels are soaked in water until the “peel” comes off, and then lightly boiled in sugar syrup. The kernels and nuts prepared in this way are strung on harsh threads 25–30 centimeters long.
The next step is flour preparation. Selected peeled wheat grains are thoroughly washed in cold water, dried in the sun, then ground. Flour must be sifted through the finest sieve.
Pre-condensed grape juice - "badagi" - is poured into a thoroughly washed tinned copper boiler and heated to about 30 degrees. This is where the flouring begins. The fire is gradually increased and the mass is continuously stirred with a wooden spoon so that lumps do not form. The readiness of the mass - "Tatars" - is determined empirically: one or two threads with strung nuts are lowered into it. If the mass sticks to the nuts well, the "tatara" is ready. Then the entire batch of prepared threads is immersed in it. After the first “dipping”, the churchkhela is hung on poles and dried for 2-3 hours, then dipped into the “tatara” a second time, and after that it is hung out for final drying. Drying lasts 15-17 days. Then the churchkhelas are removed and placed in boxes (shifting rows with cloth) for ripening.
In Kakhetian churchkhela, walnut predominates in the filling. Its color is brownish-brown with a white coating of sugar. The hazelnut filling makes the sausage tougher.
The Imeretian churchkhela is much thinner than the Kakhetian one. It has less sugar and is yellowish brown in color. Tasty sweet, slightly sour Kartli brown-brown churchkhela; its basis is a thread with strung dried grapes.

walnut churchkhela recipe
(from the book by V. V. Pokhlebkin “National cuisines of our peoples”)

2 liters of grape juice
200 g shelled walnuts
200 g wheat flour
100 g sugar

1. Peel the nuts, string large pieces (preferably whole halves) on a harsh thread 20–25 cm long, to one end of which (below) tie a piece of a match, and on the other (above) make a loop when the stringing is completed and a bunch is obtained .
2. Prepare the tatara: simmer the grape juice over low heat in a metal bowl for 2-3 hours, gradually adding sugar, stirring all the time and removing the foam. Then allow the liquid to cool slightly and gradually pour the flour into the still warm (below 45 ° C), stirring it immediately to prevent the formation of lumps. After obtaining a homogeneous mass, cook again over low heat, stirring, until a jelly-like state and boiling down by a quarter of the original volume.
3. Dip each bunch of nuts into the hot tatar three times for half a minute (with an interval of 5 minutes).
4. Hang the resulting churchkhela in the sun and dry until it stops sticking to your hands, but is still soft to the touch.
5. Wrap the dried churchkhela in a linen towel and leave to ripen in a dry, ventilated room with a moderate temperature for 2–3 months. Ripe churchkhela should not lose its softness. It should only be covered with the thinnest coating of powdered sugar, which appears as a result of aging and maturation.

Each country has its own national dishes. Churchkhela - what is it? Many are asking this question. Only in Georgia you can taste this outlandish sweetness. Everyone who has been to this unusual country could see strange-colored sausages in the bazaar. They are translucent, sparkling and eye-catching.

What is the benefit of this meal? Can you cook it yourself?

What is the uniqueness?

What is churchkhela, Wikipedia claims - this is a national Georgian delicacy, made from nuts and grape juice. The dish is also popular among the peoples of the Caucasus. The composition of churchkhela is simple - flour, grape juice and nuts. What is the benefit of eating such a delicacy?

• well satisfies hunger;
• nutritious;
• easy to digest;
• stored for a long time;
• contains many useful substances;
• high calorie;

All this already in ancient times made churchkhela in demand. Such sausages were popular with warriors. They were light, satisfied hunger well and could be stored for a long time. Now it can be found in any Georgian bazaar. It also goes to stores in other countries.

What is churchkhela? Is this only a Georgian dish?

This delicacy can be found in different versions in any eastern country: Armenia, Greece, etc. The modern spread of the dessert has led to the emergence of various modifications of the original composition. Churchkhela is not only sweets based on grape juice. Today, juice can be pomegranate, and apple, and any other. The color of the final product depends on the raw materials used:

• A bright red color is obtained by adding pomegranate juice.
• Amber color - when using apple juice.
• Orange color - when adding apricot juice.
• Light chocolate color is obtained by adding grape juice.

Today, more and more churchkhela is prepared with various unusual additives. As nuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts are added, you can find additives of dried fruits and candied fruits. In addition to the fact that there is a natural benefit of churchkhela and the harm of which is obvious, there is also a modification with the addition of artificial dyes. The latter negatively affects the quality of the product.

Recipes

Many are sure that cooking churchkhela is difficult and dreary. In fact, such a healthy dessert is easy to make on your own, you just need to follow the technology. What can you make oriental sweetness from? From a minimum of ingredients: sugar, grape juice, walnuts and flour. How much cooking time will it take? Approximately an hour to prepare and several days to dry the finished product.

First you need to prepare the nuts. Peel them from the shell, and then fry over low heat in a dry frying pan. This is necessary for skin cleansing. If you skip this step, skins will not spoil the taste of the dish, but make it difficult to eat. You can finely chop the nuts or just cut them in half. Pieces must be strung on a thread. A length of 30 cm is enough, after which the thread with nuts is tied into a loop. A match is tied at the end.

Grape juice must be boiled in a metal bowl. Need to do it for two hours over low heat. Due to this process, the juice will begin to thicken. It is important to constantly remove the foam from the surface. Sugar is poured in portions, carefully stirring the mixture and controlling its dissolution.

The resulting mixture is cooled to room temperature. After adding portions of flour, interfering and preventing the formation of lumps. Such a mixture is called Tatar. It is put back on a slow fire and heated. It should decrease by half in volume and thicken.. A thread with nuts is lowered into the Tatar. It gets out, dries a little and falls again. This should be done two or three times. Then the bundle must be hung in the sun or in any other dry room. Readiness was easily determined: as soon as the churchkhela stopped sticking to your hands, you can eat it.

From Tatars, you can cook an easy version of churchkhela - pour finely chopped nuts into the jelly and so it is. The taste of the final product directly depends on the grape variety used. The best churchkhela will come out of high-quality raw materials, it is not difficult to make it. Instead of grape juice, you can use any other. A small amount of chalk or marble flour will help reduce the acidity of the dessert.

As a variety, you can use many fillers: nuts of all kinds, dried fruits or candied fruits. The cooking technology is the same as in the classic recipe: juice is boiled with sugar and flour, cooled. The filler is strung on a thread and immersed in the mixture. The bundle should eventually be covered with a thick layer of juice (at least 2 cm!).

Churchkhela is a good sweet for those who can not use natural sugar. Only because of the combination of juice and nuts, this product cannot be called dietary. Therefore, you need to eat it in moderation, without abusing it, otherwise the extra pounds will not keep you waiting.

Those who visit the south of our country for the first time in their lives look with great bewilderment at the small multi-colored sausages sold in bazaars and beaches. They are especially surprised by their unusual name - churchkhela. What it is, and how it is prepared, we will try to find out now.

This is a national delicacy of oriental cuisine. Despite the fact that it is common in Armenia, and in Georgia, and in Azerbaijan, as well as in Greece, Georgians consider churchkhela to be their original “invention”, and even filed a patent for it. Now, along with khachapuri, chacha and suluguni, churchkhela is also a Georgian brand.

Walnut low, covered with dried boiled fruit juice. As the legends say, this delicacy appeared in ancient times, when warriors, going on campaigns, took with them tasty and nutritious sausages that did not require any hassle in cooking and perfectly restored strength. Since they often had to fight, they prepared churchkhela for future use, not being afraid that it would go bad. It will definitely last a year, and from the next harvest you can make new delicious sausages with nuts called churchkhela. What it is - you already have an idea. Now let's talk about how it is prepared.

How to cook churchkhela at home

To prepare this product, you will need to stock up on nuts, grape juice, sugar, flour and harsh cotton thread with a needle. You can take any nuts, although walnuts are traditionally used and are strung on a thread as a whole, and walnut kernels are divided into two halves. The optimal length of the walnut low is about 30 cm. This is just enough to ensure that a thick decoction of juice, called Tatara, can cover it with a dense layer. And it is best to choose the length of the thread depending on the depth of the pan in which the syrup will be boiled. The dependence here is this - low should be completely immersed in the Tatar without bends and kinks.

After all the nuts are tightly strung, you can start cooking Tatars. Three liters of freshly squeezed grape juice is poured into a saucepan (preferably not enameled), a glass of sugar is added to it, all this is put on a small fire. Cook the juice with constant stirring until its volume is reduced by half. Do not forget that the foam formed during the cooking process must be removed. What happened in the end, the Georgians call badagi.

Pour about a couple of glasses of badaga into a wide bowl and cool the contents. Dilute two cups of flour in the cooled syrup, carefully breaking up the resulting lumps. To ensure the homogeneity of the mass, it can be wiped through a sieve at the end. We combine both parts of the juice and again send it to the fire. Don't leave the stove. You must constantly stir the mass, otherwise it will burn. After the contents of the pan thicken and become shiny, you can turn off the fire and consider the process of preparing the tatar finished.

Letting it cool slightly, take the walnut low and dip it entirely into the hot mass. After waiting about 20 seconds, we take out the thread, let the last drops drain, and send it to dry. After two hours, repeat the entire sequence of actions. Ideally, the Tatar layer should reach one and a half centimeters.

Since it will take a long time to make churchkhela in this way, you can slightly reduce the total cooking time of the delicacy by tying several threads with nuts to the rail at once and dipping them into the tatar at the same time. After you consider that the thickness of the layer satisfies you, send the semi-finished churchkhela to dry in the sun for a couple of weeks. Readiness can be judged by touch - if it does not stick to your hands, then drying can be considered finished. Now you need to wrap the sausages in a cloth and leave to ripen. A month later, you can treat admiring loved ones with a delicacy called “churchkhela”.

What it is, you now know and, like a true culinary specialist, you can experiment by changing varieties of nuts and fruit juices. And you can also do without a thread, simply by mixing the finished tatar with nuts. It will, of course, not be a churchkhela in the classical sense, but no less tasty treat.

Churchkhela is a natural oriental sweet made from grape juice and nuts. Churchkhela is a traditional dish in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, but you can try it not only in the Caucasus: churchkhela is sold everywhere in the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory, as well as in many other cities of Russia. From this article you can find out what kind of churchkhela is and how to cook it.

What is churchkhela?

Churchkhela is a long thin sausage made of thick frozen juice. Inside the churchkhela are nuts strung on a thin thread. Walnuts are usually used, although other variations are possible. Traditionally, churchkhela is made from grape juice - in this case, it turns out to be dark brown. However, now, for a more attractive appearance, churchkhela has also been made from the juices of other fruits.

Churchkhela is an excellent dessert for those who follow their figure, because it is completely natural: juice and nuts are a completely dietary treat. In addition, nuts provide a lot of energy, so churchkhela is great for a quick snack during the day.

What is churchkhela?

Now churchkhela is prepared not only from grape juice. There are other varieties as well. Colors with the juice of other fruits are brighter and more attractive, and the taste is also different. The following varieties of churchkhela are now popular:

• Pomegranate churchkhela has a bright red color.
• Churchkhela with apple juice has a light amber color, sometimes with a green tint.
• Apricot churchkhela has a rich orange color.
• Classical grape churchkhela of light chocolate color.

Now more and more non-standard versions of churchkhela often appear. It uses a variety of nuts: cashews, almonds, peanuts or Brazil nuts, as well as candied fruits and dried fruits. Sometimes you can even find churchkhela of bright unnatural colors with the addition of dyes, but such a sweetness is traditionally Caucasian and not as useful as a natural product.

How is churchkhela prepared?

Cooking churchkhela is a rather long and laborious process. Nevertheless, it can be prepared even at home, the main thing is to be patient. Consider step-by-step instructions for making a national Caucasian dish - classic churchkhela with grape juice and walnuts.

So, to prepare this delicacy, you need to have the following products on hand:

• grape juice (2 l)
• walnuts (200 g)
• sifted wheat flour (200 g)
• sugar (100 g)

With just these four ingredients, you will make churchkhela. Follow this simple step by step guide:

• First you need to lightly fry the nuts over low heat to make it easier to separate them from the skin. Be sure to peel all the nuts well, as the skins will get stuck in your teeth and make the sweetness patchy.
• Large pieces of nuts are suitable - it is better to take whole or halves. With the help of a needle, they should be carefully strung on a thread. Tie a match to the bottom end of the thread. Make about 20-30 cm of nuts on the thread, and then tie the thread into a loop on top.
• Grape juice should be boiled over low heat in a metal bowl. In total, you need to cook for about two hours, periodically removing the foam.
• Then gradually pour the sugar into the juice, stirring it so that the sugar is evenly distributed.
• Let the juice cool to room temperature.
• Gradually pour flour into it, stirring the substance so that no lumps form. The texture of your mixture, which Caucasians call Tatar) should be homogeneous.
• Put the container back to simmer. Wait until the volume is reduced by half and the mixture is thick enough.
• In a hot thick mass, you need to dip a bunch of nuts, wait 5-7 minutes until it dries, and dip two or three more times at the same interval.
• Do the same for each bunch of nuts.
• Then the churchkhela must be dried in the sun. It should stop sticking to your hands.
• Wrap the churchkhela in a towel and leave it in a dry, ventilated place to ripen for a couple of months. After ripening, the churchkhela will be covered with a film of powdered sugar - this is a normal process. At the same time, it should remain the same soft.

Natural churchkhela is a tasty and healthy sweet that you can not only buy ready-made, but also easy to make at home on your own. Churchkhela can be a tasty and healthy dessert for those who follow their figure. It is also perfect as an addition to a hearty breakfast or a snack on the road, because nuts give a boost of energy, and the juice nourishes the body with vitamins.

Oriental cuisine has always been famous for its sweets. Among which one of the places of honor is occupied by churchkhela. This traditional Georgian delicacy is also widely distributed (under various names) in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and even Cyprus.

Product description

Churchkhela is a kind of stick 25-30 cm long made of an elastic but soft edible shell (thickened juice), inside of which there are nuts.

It tastes like fruit caramel or marshmallow with nuts. After prolonged storage, it acquires a taste similar to chocolate. It is often called "Georgian Snickers".

Each region has its own subtleties and technological methods for making sweets, so its appearance and taste can be different. For its preparation, not only nuts and grape juice can be used. You can use pumpkin seeds, apricot kernels, dried apricots, prunes, raisins and other dried fruits along with nuts or instead of them. Grape juice is replaced by other types of juice. Sweetness made from pomegranate juice is considered more refined and expensive.

Imeretian, Abkhazian, Mingrelian, Gurian and other varieties of churchkhela are known. But the most famous among them is the Kakhetian.

In Georgia, churchkhela is such a popular dessert that not a single celebration can do without it. And in 2011, the Georgian authorities received a patent for some traditional national dishes, including churchkhela.

How to cook churchkhela at home

The secret of making this oriental sweet has been passed down in the Caucasus from generation to generation for many hundreds of years. Now it, like many years ago, is more often made in a handicraft way. Prepare it in several stages:

1. Juice preparation. If necessary, the acidity of the juice is reduced by adding chalk to it. Then the juice is boiled for half an hour, settled for about 10 hours, filtered, evaporated in a special boiler until a sugar level of 30-40% is obtained. The boiled juice is again defended for 5-6 hours, then the sediment is drained.
2. Preparing nuts. Raw nuts are used to make sweets. But they must be ripe and dry. Roasted nuts can be slightly bitter and difficult to string. Sometimes the kernels are soaked in water to remove their skin or boiled a little in a sugar solution. Ready nuts are strung on threads.
3. Syrup preparation. The prepared juice is heated to 30 °, flour is added to it and boiled over low heat, stirring continuously until it thickens.
4. Coating nuts with syrup. A thread with strung nuts is dipped in thick syrup and hung up so that the syrup hardens a little. After a few hours, the procedure is repeated, and so on several times until the layer of juice on top of the nuts is 1.5-2 cm. It should be noted that a very hot mixture will quickly drain from the thread, and a cooled one will stick in lumps.
5. Drying. The resulting churchkhela is dried in the sun for 2-3 weeks until the outer layer hardens, while the product should remain soft.
6. Sugaring. The dried dessert is put in a box, laying each layer with parchment paper or cloth. The next 2-3 months, the sweetness matures and acquires its original taste and appearance.
   Adhering to the classical technology, churchkhela is easy to cook on your own at home.

Chemical composition and calorie content

Churchkhela is a delicacy that is quite high-calorie and satisfying. On average, its calorie content is about 400 kilocalories per 100 g. But all calories are easily absorbed by the body.

Churchkhela prepared according to the classic recipe (from walnuts and grape juice), contains:

• Fructose and glucose (from 30 to 50%);
• Vegetable fats (approximately 15% -25%);
• Proteins (about 5%);
• Organic acids (about 1%);
• Vitamins (B, C, E);
• Microelements.

There are many varieties of this sweet. They differ slightly in their chemical composition and calorie content.

Useful properties and contraindications

Churchkhela is a product not only tasty, but also healthy.

Grape juice, from which it is prepared, has many useful properties. It lowers cholesterol, improves metabolism, is useful for people with a sick stomach, lungs, liver, heart, and also serves as a prevention of cancer.

Nuts also have a beneficial effect on human health and well-being. After all, they contain useful vegetable fats, a complex of vitamins and microelements, as well as phytoncides (biologically active substances that inhibit the development of pathogenic bacteria).

In addition to all the useful properties, it has sweetness and contraindications. It is not recommended for people:

• suffering from excess weight;
• patients with diabetes;
• with disorders of the urinary system;
• having an advanced form of tuberculosis;
• suffering from cirrhosis of the liver;
• late pregnancy;
• who are allergic to the components of the product.

Churchkhela has a huge advantage over sweets and other sweets - it is made entirely from natural ingredients.