Churchkhela - “Georgian Snickers”. How to prepare it and how is it useful?

In 2011, churchkhela was registered as an original Georgian dish, although similar delicacies are prepared in both Armenia and the Krasnodar region of Russia. The dessert consists of nuts (usually walnuts) strung on a string, covered with a sweet coating made from thickened juice, usually grape juice. The main difference between Georgian churchkhela and Armenian sharots, according to Pokhlebkin, author of the famous “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food,” is the use of herbs and spices by Armenians, which give the sweets a special aroma. Anyone who has vacationed on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus knows well that churchkhela is made from any nuts and juice, sometimes with the addition of dried fruits, so even residents of regions where grapes do not grow can prepare this healthy delicacy, using the juice of berries and fruits that the corresponding area is rich in. .

Cooking features

The process of preparing churchkhela is lengthy, but does not require great culinary skill. Even a novice cook can cope with the task if he is familiar with the technology for preparing this healthy nut delicacy.

Churchkhela will taste more delicate if the nuts used for its preparation are first peeled. It is easier to do this if you heat them in a dry frying pan, but then they become brittle and brittle, which makes further work with them difficult. Experienced housewives soak the peeled nuts in water for 20 minutes and only after that they start preparing churchkhela. If you avoid peeling the nuts and calcining them, making churchkhela will be much easier.
To prepare churchkhela, it is recommended to use freshly squeezed juice, then the delicacy will be not only tasty, but also aromatic.
When stringing nuts onto a thread, it is recommended to tie a piece of a match to it from below, and secure it with a knot on top and make a loop. Then the nuts will not jump off the thread and the bunch will be easy to hang.
It is recommended to make the nut bundles not too long, stopping at 15–20 cm. Then it will be easier to cover them with thickened juice. It is easier to find a place where you can hang a short churchkhela to dry it than to dry a long one.
Fruit or berry juice intended for preparing churchkhela is boiled and thickened with flour. To prevent flour from forming lumps, it is not recommended to add it to too cold or hot liquid. The optimal temperature is from 25 to 45 degrees. When adding flour, the mixture must be whisked, otherwise it will still be impossible to avoid the formation of lumps.
If you want churchkhela to have a sweeter taste, you can add a little sugar or honey to the juice.
Having covered the churchkhela with thickened juice, it is left to dry hanging. The duration of drying depends on the number of layers of fruit and berry mass covering the churchkhela. Most often, the nuts are covered with juice in three layers; it dries from 5 to 7 days, depending on the air temperature in the room. If the weather permits, you can dry churchkhela in the open air; this is even more consistent with the tradition of its preparation.
After drying, churchkhela is ready to eat, but often it is wrapped in cloth and left for 1–2 months until fully ripe. It is considered ripe when it becomes covered with powdered sugar that has come to the surface.

Churchkhela has a long shelf life - up to 4 months. It is usually stored sprinkled with flour and wrapped in cloth in a cool place. It is best to place it in the refrigerator, but it will not spoil in the kitchen cabinet.

Classic recipe for churchkhela made from grape juice and walnuts

Compound:

grape juice – 2 l;
wheat flour – 0.2 kg;
sugar – 60–100 g;
walnut kernels – 0.2 kg.

Cooking method:

Divide the nut kernels into 2–4 parts and peel them.
Thread the needle and tie a piece of match (without the head) at the end.
Thread pieces of nuts onto a thread. The length of the nut bundle should be 15–20 cm. Secure with a knot and make a loop on the remaining part of the thread.
Prepare nut bundles from the remaining kernels in the same way.
Heat grape juice in a saucepan. When it boils, add sugar and reduce by about half.
Let the juice cool to approximately 40 degrees.
Whisk in the flour.
Place the grape syrup mixed with flour on the stove. Heat it, stirring, until it resembles the consistency of thick jelly.
Pour the condensed grape juice into a container large enough to accommodate the strings of nuts.
Place one bunch of nuts in the container. The nuts should be completely immersed in the juice. When there is little juice left, you can pour the nuts with a spoon.
Remove the nuts from the juice, let them dry slightly, “bathe” them 1-3 more times, giving them time to dry.
Process the remaining nut bunches in the same way.
Hang the nuts. Initially, it would not hurt to place a plate or other container under them into which the juice that has not had time to harden will drip. Some housewives hang nuts on a stand for kitchen utensils (spatulas, ladles).
Dry the churchkhela until it stops sticking to your hands.

After this, the treat can be eaten or stored, lightly sprinkled with flour and wrapped in a kitchen towel. It is believed that the most aromatic and dark dessert is obtained from the juice of Isabella grapes, but you can use grapes of any variety, even light ones.

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Published on November 29, 2014 by Anna Danilova Dessert

Churchkhela is a traditional Georgian sweet made from nuts and grape juice, thickened with flour. This kind of dessert is very healthy, as it contains easily digestible sugars, vitamins and tannins. And the preparation of such a delicious dish consists of several stages that even a novice cook can master.

As a rule, in traditional recipes it is customary to use white grape varieties: Rkatsiteli, Tsolikouri, Chinuri or Krakhuna. However, now there are many technological methods used in the production of churchkhela, due to which the taste of these sweets changes.

Churchkhela ingredients.

Grape juice - 1 l Wheat flour - 0.5 tbsp. Nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts) - 500 g

How to cook churchkhela.

1. First, it is worth noting that when preparing churchkhela you will need a thick needle and thick cotton thread. So, take a long thread (about 30 cm) and string peeled nuts onto it. For convenience, you can use a thimble, since the nuts are quite hard. We string it in such a way that the upper end of the thread is 5 cm free - you will need to hold the churchkhela by it. Having strung the nuts, we secure the end of the thread with an ordinary match (we wrap the thread around the match and tie it). 2. Now take 1.5 tbsp. grape juice and mix with flour with constant stirring so that no lumps form. 3. Pour the remaining juice into a suitable saucepan and place on the stove, setting the heat to low. We wait for the juice to boil, remembering to stir periodically. Then add the previously prepared mixture of flour and grape juice. Boil the juice until it thickens and looks like the consistency of thick jelly. Then remove from heat and let cool to 50°C. 4. Take a string with strung nuts and lower it into the pan for a couple of minutes so that all the nuts are evenly covered with juice. Then take out the thread and let it dry for another 5 minutes. We do this with all the threads with nuts. We repeat this procedure several times until a thick layer of juice 1.5-2 cm thick is formed. Now we dry the churchkhela. Ideally, the drying process lasts several weeks to allow the top layer of juice to naturally harden while the inner layer remains softer. But you can try this sweetness the day it is prepared. Here it should be added that drying of churchkhela takes place on a rope suspended in the kitchen, under which paper should be placed.

Churchkhela is also very popular due to the fact that it can be stored for a long time and does not spoil. In addition, instead of grape juice, many housewives use pomegranate, cherry, apple or apricot juice. Well, for lovers of nut desserts, I suggest making lemon oatmeal cookies with nuts, banana muffins with nuts and chocolate, or ginger cake with rum and caramelized nuts. Try it and you will get a lot of positive emotions from these unusual desserts.

Bon appetit!

Material belongs to the site Recipe author Anna Danilova

Tags: Caucasian cuisine

Churchkhela made from roasted nuts

Compound:

grape juice – 1 l;
hazelnuts – 0.2 kg;
flour – 130 g;
sugar (optional) - to taste.

Cooking method:

Let the juice warm up. When its temperature rises to about 30 degrees, pour out a glass of juice, combine it with flour, whisk to obtain a homogeneous composition, without lumps.
Continue heating the remaining juice over low heat until it boils. Add sugar and cook until the juice is reduced by half.
Mix the mixture of juice and flour again. Pour it in a thin stream into a container with hot juice, stirring at the same time. Continue cooking for 10-15 minutes.
While the juice is boiling, prepare the nuts. To do this, fry them in a dry frying pan until a characteristic aroma appears, cool, peel, soak for 20 minutes in water and scatter on a towel so that they dry quickly.
Carefully thread the nuts onto the thread, creating bundles that are about 15cm long or slightly longer.
Hang the bunches of nuts over a plate or other container. The ligaments should not touch each other.
Use a spoon to coat the nut strands with the viscous juice, pouring it onto the top nut until it covers all the nuts. After a while, repeat the procedure and cover the hazelnuts with another layer of thickened juice.
Leave the churchkhela to dry for 4-5 days until it is no longer sticky.

When they want to make churchkhela from roasted nuts, they most often choose hazelnuts, since their kernels do not crumble as much as the kernels of other nuts.

Other cooking recipes

Walnuts can be replaced with hazelnuts; for this, they are first fried in a hot dry frying pan. The heat should be low, the nuts should be stirred periodically until they acquire a golden color. To prevent the hazelnuts from splitting when stringing, they should be soaked a little in warm water. The preparation method is the same as with walnuts; for 200 g of hazelnuts you will need 1 liter of juice and 2/3 cup of flour.

For lovers of spicy churchkhela, add cinnamon and cloves to the juice. For 2 liters of juice you will need 2 tbsp. l. sugar, 4 cloves and 1/3 tsp. cinnamon powder. For the Armenian dessert, apple or apricot juice is used instead of grape juice. You can string nuts, prunes and dried cherries in turn on the thread. The preparation method is the same as with grape juice. An original delicacy can be prepared from plum juice; nuts can be combined with dried fruits as a filling.

Spicy churchkhela

Compound:

grape juice – 2 l;
walnuts – 0.3 kg;
cinnamon – 5 g;
ground cloves - a large pinch;
sugar (optional) – 40–60 g;
flour – 0.2 kg.

Cooking method:

After peeling the nuts, string them onto a coarse thread.
Pour out half a liter of juice, mix with flour.
Bring the remaining juice to a boil and reduce by half.
Add sugar, spices, cook for another 5 minutes.
Add flour mixture and continue cooking for 10 minutes.
Dip the nuts into the boiled juice and let them dry for 2-3 minutes. Repeat the manipulation 2-3 more times.
Leave the churchkhela to hang dry for 1-2 weeks.

Armenian churchkhela. Homemade recipe

To prepare you will need:

half a glass of flour (wheat or corn);
liter of apricot juice;
walnuts, dried fruits and almonds.

How to prepare an Armenian delicacy? We will now look at the recipe for churchkhela at home with photos in detail.

First, thread the nuts and dried fruits through the threads.
Now make a decoction. Pour juice into a saucepan and place over medium heat. When it boils, slowly add the sifted flour, stirring a little with a spoon. As soon as the mixture becomes thick (like jelly), remove from heat.
After it has cooled, dip the threads with nuts in there for a minute.
Then remove and dry (for five minutes), then repeat the procedure two or three times. The recipe for churchkhela at home requires the presence of a thick layer of tatara.
After fastening the products on a thread, hang them to dry for two weeks in a well-ventilated place. Don't forget to lay down the paper.