How to cook churchkhela at home recipe. How to make churchkhela at home

How to cook churchkhela with walnuts and hazelnuts at home

1. Initially, you should prepare a place where the churchkhela will dry, for this, take a clothes hanger or some plank, hang it in the kitchen in a secluded corner that does not get sunlight, and put paper towels or a baking sheet below. It is absolutely impossible to dry churchkhela in the sun, otherwise it will crack and be very dry.

2. It is necessary to squeeze the juice from the grapes, for this I wash it in a colander and squeeze the juice well with our hands over a large saucepan.

3. Sugar should be added to taste, given the fact that when the grape juice is evaporated, the concentration of sugar will increase, therefore, the main thing is not to over-sugar, otherwise the taste of the churchkhela will be rather cloying.

4. Before putting all the grape juice on the fire, pour out one glass of juice to prepare a thickener for jelly.

5. Boil the rest of the juice over low heat for about two hours.

6. While the juice is boiling, we begin to prepare a thickener for jelly. To do this, in a container, mix 200 gr. flour and 1 cup grape juice, mix well so that there are no lumps.

7. The nuts need to be warmed up a little in a dry frying pan, this will reveal their smell and help get rid of the husk.

8. Walnuts should be cut into 4 parts to make a thin churchkhela.

9. Then, using a needle, we string the nuts onto a thread. One churchkhela should be about 25-30 cm, while leaving another 10-15 cm free. This is necessary in order to tie the churchkhela until completely dry.

10. After two hours, it is necessary to add a thickener for jelly to the juice and simmer for another 10-15 minutes until the jelly thickens well.

11. In the prepared jelly, one should lower the thread with nuts in turn and hang it on a hanger so that excess liquid is glassed. This procedure must be performed 2-3 times, at intervals of 15-20 minutes.

12. After the churchkhela with walnuts has been in jelly several times, it must be left to dry for at least 4-5 days. You will understand that the churchkhela is ready when it stops sticking to your hands. After that, it can be removed, wrapped in parchment and stored for several months.

As it turned out, the recipe for homemade churchkhela with walnuts and hazelnuts is very simple, we wish you good luck and bon appetit!

Churchkhela is a Georgian patented national delicacy, without which not a single feast is complete in Georgia. Moreover, this dessert is also loved in Armenia and Turkey. Armenia even tried to prove that it was the discoverer of churchkhela in wide circles. But still, whatever one may say, the disputes have ceased, because churchkhela, a primordially Georgian delicacy, there is even historical evidence for this. The sources speak of how Georgian warriors, fighting with the enemy, took churchkhela with them and could continue the campaign for a long period, eating this nourishing product. In dark clothes, they hid under the cover of night and ambushed the enemy, as soon as he lit a fire and exposed himself. The Georgian warriors themselves did without a fire and hot food.

But let's not go too far into history. Slavic people in our time fell in love with churchkhela when they met on sea beaches and markets. Most often, this oriental sweetness is found in the resort towns of the Black Sea coast.

Having tried once, no one remains indifferent. And when there is demand, then the supply grows. Therefore, churchkhela today can no longer be called a curiosity; you can buy it even in large supermarkets. Consequently, unscrupulous sellers also make themselves felt, using not pure grape juice as the basis for delicacy, but various artificial impurities, adding flavors, flavor enhancers and chemical thickeners. Therefore, it is very correct that you wondered how to cook churchkhela at home.

First, let's figure out what juices this so-called “Georgian Snickers” is made of. You have already noticed that the color of churchkhela is different, from white, yellow, green to red, burgundy and even black. It depends on the grape variety. It is the variety and color of the grapes that gives churchkhela its distinctive color and taste. At the origins of this national dish always used only ripe and sweet grapes. Now, pomegranate and other juices are often added to churchkhela. To begin with, we will consider the primitive recipe for churchkhela, which has been prepared by Georgian housewives for centuries.

Traditional Georgian churchkhela

So, how to make churchkhela at home, touching the origins of its appearance, having tried a truly traditional recipe? It is worth knowing that for this it is better to plan the preparation of churchkhela in two days and step by step. On the first day, Georgians always cook badags. Badagi is a concentrate of grape juice, which is obtained by boiling the juice. And the Georgians cook it on low heat for 5-6 hours, until the liquid is boiled down to half the original volume. Badagi becomes concentrated and cloyingly sweet. To prepare badaga, you can take any grapes, after squeezing or grinding the berries and straining the juice through cheesecloth or a fine sieve. Traditionally, churchkhela was always prepared in September, when the harvest season came. It is also important to prepare a “workplace” at home where ready-made churchkhelas will be dried. It can be a hanging bar or just a hanger, on which we will soon hang Georgian sneakers.

When we have a ready-made grape broth, we can start cooking the churchkhela itself. To do this, take a thread, preferably nylon, if not, you can use a regular one, but then we fold it in half. We decide on the length of the thread, given that the length of the churchkhela itself is approximately 20-25 cm + a margin for a loop, for which later we will hang a delicacy to dry. We thread the thread into a thin needle and string it like beads, nuts.

Mainly used for stuffing walnuts, but you can opt for hazelnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, raisins and even peach or apricot kernels. The latter, however, must first be soaked in water until the skin comes off and boil for several minutes in sugar syrup. Walnuts for the preparation of churchkhela must be well dried, otherwise the product will quickly begin to deteriorate. Do not fry the nuts in a pan, then the kernels will become brittle, and you simply will not be able to populate them on a thread. It is enough to slightly dry the nuts in the oven at a temperature of 20-30 degrees.

While you are making blanks, threading nuts on a thread, put the pre-prepared badagi on the fire. When the grape syrup begins to boil, you need to add flour to it. In western Georgia, corn flour has always been used, while eastern Georgia preferred to cook churchkhela from wheat flour. It does not matter which flour you choose, the main thing is the proportions - for 3 liters of badagi, about 1 kg of flour. You need to add the flour mixture little by little, stirring constantly so that lumps do not form. Adding sugar if the grapes are not worth it is not worth it, in Georgia it is considered bad form, besides, it should be borne in mind that when the badagi cools down, it becomes even sweeter. Grape jelly-like mass should be simmered over low heat for about 15-20 minutes. Next, dip the nut "beads" into the grape "jelly", helping yourself with a wooden spatula, so that each nut is covered with the mixture.

How to cook churchkhela so that it turns out thick (“fleshy”)? In fact, the whole relish of churchkhela is in the grape shell, so the rougher it is, the tastier. To do this, you need to re-dip the "beads" into the broth, after giving time to dry a little for the first layer. Hanging churchkhelas should dry out in a well-ventilated, dry place for about 5-7 days. Do not worry if it seems to you that the dessert turned out not as glossy as you saw it on the shelves. The fact is that, having dried, the churchkhela will acquire the shine you desire, while the finished Georgian snickers should stop sticking to your hands. That's the whole trick, now you can enjoy, perhaps, the most useful and nutritious delicacy, which contains a lot of organic acids, proteins, vitamins, vegetable fats and fructose. Moreover, churchkhela can be stored in a cool place for a very long time, since Georgians cannot do without it not a single New Year's feast.

Modern churchkhela

The recipe for churchkhela implies natural juice in its composition, but today not everyone has the opportunity to prepare it from natural grape juice, and then there is the fear of how they wanted to make Georgian Snickers outside of the grape harvest season. Don't be discouraged, it's not a problem. You can make churchkhela from purchased packaged juice, and the choice of flavors in front of you is huge.

So, you may be surprised, but home-made churchkhela from packaged juice is no different from a store-bought one. For cooking, we need all the same ingredients that were indicated in the previous recipe, only in different proportions and using a different technology. We put on gas 1 liter of juice, boil for 5-7 minutes. At this time, carefully dissolve 1 glass of flour in a glass of cold juice so that lumps do not form to the state of liquid sour cream. Next, gradually pour the flour mixture into the hot juice in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Cook for 7-10 minutes until the mixture loses the floury flavor. Add sugar to taste (still, purchased juices are not as sweet as natural), if desired, you can add more vanillin, cinnamon or cardamom. Subsequently, the technology of dipping and “drying” churchkhela does not differ from the previous recipe, you should succeed. A few days of patience and you can enjoy a delicious and healthy dessert.

Video how to cook churchkhela at home

Such a delicacy as churchkhela is probably familiar to every lover of Georgian cuisine, and of course to those who have visited the south at least once. By the way, these sweet nut treats with all kinds of juices are to the liking of both children and their parents. Such a passion for churchkhela can be explained not only by the fact that most of us have a terrible sweet tooth, but also by the fact that churchkhela has an extremely unique taste and simply does not let you pass by without buying it.

I would like to note that, despite the huge popularity of this sweet, few people know how to make churchkhela at home, although it is very easy to cook it at home. At the same time, in order to cook churchkhela, it is not necessary to be a resident of the Caucasus, since the main components of sweetness are all kinds of juices, nuts and sugar, which can be found and bought in any supermarket or market, and at any time of the year.

Recipe - how to make churchkhela at home:

Ingredients:

• Walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds - 500 gr;
• Grape, pomegranate, apple or apricot juice - 250 gr;
• Water - 1000 gr;
• Sugar - 8 tbsp. spoons;
• Flour - 250 gr.

So, for starters, I would like to dwell on the juice, it should be thick and preferably natural, freshly squeezed. Walnuts can be easily replaced with hazelnuts, almonds or even raisins. By the way, for the preparation of churchkhela, you will need thread blanks about twenty centimeters long (they will be needed for stringing nuts). Well, when all the ingredients are already cooked, you can proceed directly to the very process of making sweets - churchkhela.

Cooking:

First you need to string the pre-cooked walnut halves, almonds, hazelnuts or raisins on a thread, then we make a small loop on top of each thread, this is necessary for convenience, since the churchkhela will have to be hung.

Then you need to prepare the juice. To do this, mix the flour with the juice (but pour the juice not all, but only a small part of it) and stir until the flour is completely dissolved.

Next, add all the remaining juice, pour out the water and put the resulting mixture on low heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. This “juice” should boil for about ten minutes (until its color becomes saturated), then add sugar and syrup for dipping nuts on strings is ready.

We dip the nuts into it, dip it well and hang it by a loop to dry for a couple of days. After this time, you can enjoy plenty of freshly prepared churchkhela.

Churchkhela is a very tasty long Georgian candy made from nuts and nougat made from grape juice. Traditionally, they are prepared in August-September, when walnuts and grapes are harvested together - for dessert, it is best to use milk-ripe walnut kernels, as they are easier to plant on a needle. I cooked churchkhela in March - from the dried kernels that I had left, and I want to say that it is best to soak the dried kernels for 20 minutes in water before stringing on a needle - they will crumble less.

Since in our age it is very easy to find store-bought grape juice, but it is difficult to find freshly squeezed (like mine), you can buy such a drink in the supermarket. By the way, using light grape juice, it can be dyed with food dyes in various colors and at the same time get multi-colored long churchkhela sweets.

The most important point: remember that flour is not added to hot liquid, otherwise you will get thick jelly with flour lumps! Pour flour into cold liquid only! I made churchkhela for the first time, so I used 500 ml of grape juice for 3 long braids with nuts.

Prepare the indicated ingredients.

Using a thin needle, thread the walnut kernels onto the threads, leaving a little space on top, as the churchkhelas should hang. You can string both pieces of kernels and whole kernels.

Pour grape juice into a saucepan, stewpan or cauldron, pour flour into a container and immediately beat everything with a whisk, mixer or puree with an immersion blender until the liquid becomes homogeneous.

Place a container with a homogeneous liquid on the stove, turning on the minimum heat. I don’t see the point in evaporating grape juice for a long time so that it becomes concentrated - you can just add granulated sugar to taste.

Add sugar, mix thoroughly in the drink and cook until thick and thick. The mass should resemble thick jelly. Leave for 10-15 minutes to cool.

Hang walnut sausages on some fixture - I have a hanger for kitchen appliances.

There is also the option of pouring the jelly mass into a wide rectangular basin or shape - then sausages are dipped into it and hung up to drain the jelly mass.

It is more convenient for me to pour the mass on suspended walnut sausages. Use a tablespoon to scoop up some of the mass and pour it directly onto the top row of kernels. Pour very slowly, correcting and shaping it with your finger. Make one layer and leave for 20-30 minutes to cool, then apply the second layer in the same way. In the photo I have two layers of jelly grape mass on the kernels. The more layers of nougat, the longer the churchkhela will dry (so I settled on two). In this form, take out sausages-sweets to a ventilated room, preferably at room temperature. Usually in the warm autumn season, sweets are air-dried and slightly dried in the sun, but I left them in the kitchen near the radiator at +24.

The churchkhelas finally dried up and withered on the fourth day of drying. The readiness of sweets is determined by the fact that they do not stick to your hands - the nougat should become like rubber when squeezed. Now you can taste the sweetness - it's really incredibly tasty and not cloying!

Enjoy your tea party with sweets.

“Churchkhela, what is it?” - an involuntary question arises in my head. Everyone who has ever been to the Caucasus, the Krasnodar Territory or the Black Sea must have heard this mysterious word. Local merchants now and then offer to try an unknown dish. What is it, and is it possible to cook churchkhela at home?

Churchkhela is an oriental sweet, popular among the Caucasian peoples, also common in Armenia, Greece, and Turkey. In each country, this dish is assigned its own name, but its essence does not change from this.

Churchkhela is a nut thread covered with condensed grape juice, sweet in taste, and has a high nutritional value. Since the individual components are very useful in themselves and contain a large amount of substances necessary for the body, the dessert as a whole is replete with vitamins, minerals, natural sugars, unsaturated fatty acids and vegetable protein.

The origin of sweetness is controversial. Churchkhela is considered a Georgian national delicacy. However, there is evidence that at first a very similar dish appeared in Armenia. The prototype was called "shpot" and was a thick grape jelly mixed with nuts. The filling was not strung on a thread, but simply added to the caramel. The dessert was not allowed to dry out, it was eaten immediately after preparation.

But in 2011, Georgia registered its rights to churchkhela. And now the dish is considered truly Georgian. Despite this, it is prepared in many other countries.

Some are wondering: “which is correct: chuchkhela or churchkhela”? The answer is obvious. The Georgian word is pronounced "churchkhela" and there are no other variants.

Main Ingredients

Basically, churchkhela is made from walnuts and grape juice.

However, the use of other components is not prohibited. The filling can be hazelnuts, almonds, cashews or pecans, candied fruits, raisins, prunes, dried apricots, dried cherries, etc. Sweetness is also made on the basis of a mixture of different types of nuts and a mix of nuts and dried fruits.

Grape juice is thickened with corn flour, but this rule is not immutable. Instead, you can use the usual wheat flour. This does not affect the taste and usefulness of the dessert.

If desired, even grape juice can be replaced with pomegranate, apple, peach, plum, cherry and any other. There are no hard requirements here. Each component brings something different, changing the taste and appearance of the dessert.

Grape juice produces a red or chocolate-colored delicacy. Apple churchkhela becomes amber. Pomegranate juice very valuable in itself. It is rarely sent to the manufacture of churchkhela, as it greatly increases the cost of the product. At home, you can experiment with different flavors and make oriental sweets from the fruits that are at hand.

Contraindications to the use of churchkhela

In any article that deals with this delicacy, the section “churchkhela benefits and harms” takes up very little space. Oriental sweet made in the traditional way contains only natural ingredients. Therefore, for a healthy person, it is not dangerous, but very useful. However, people with some problems should beware of its excessive use.

So, due to the high sugar content, churchkhela becomes very high in calories. There are 400-500 energy units per 100 grams of product. Those who want to lose weight should not overdo it in eating. Overweight people should completely abandon the use of churchkhela.

Due to the same sugars, it is not suitable for diabetics suffering from a serious stage of the disease. There are a lot of both complex and simple carbohydrates in churchkhela, which quickly enter the bloodstream.

This dessert is rich in minerals, and their excess burdens the kidneys. Therefore, churchkhela should be limited to people with related problems, using it in moderation.

How to cook churchkhela at home

Learn recipes. Watch the video on how churchkhela is made, and then proceed to self-manufacturing. This process is not laborious, but long. Be patient, let the dessert ripen, and only then take samples.

Find a place in the kitchen where you hang walnut threads. For some time, juice will flow from the churchkhela. Think in advance what should be laid under it so that puddles of syrup can be easily removed.

Prepare a dry container in which to put the blanks. Churchkhela will need to be removed to a dark place where it will ripen in order to acquire a harmonious characteristic taste.

Classic churchkhela recipe

AT classic recipe walnuts are included. The raw and freshest fruits are used. We determine their condition by eye: we need light, uniform, straw-colored, without darkening and bitterness.

You can supplement them with cashews, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds. Raisins, dried apricots and prunes also do not hurt.

The walnut should be cut into halves. The larger the particles of the filling, the more elegant the churchkhela will look.

Prepare a dense cotton thread and a thick needle. We will also need a thimble, without which it will be quite difficult to pierce the nuts.

We string the stuffing. We make a sausage 15-20 cm long. We leave the end of the rope free. Subsequently, we will hang the churchkhela so that it dries on some basis. And we will attach to the base with the free end of the thread.

We cook pelamushi. This is a thick grape syrup that envelops strung nuts.

For 350 grams of filling, 2 liters of red juice or white grapes. It is better to take a fresh one, in extreme cases, buy it in a store. You can work hard and make it yourself. Juice is made by pressing berries in a juicer. Or grind the grapes with a blender and squeeze the resulting mass through gauze or a sieve.

Pour one half into a bowl and set the other half aside. Boil the part that is in the pan and continue to cook for 15 minutes.

In the second half of the juice, dissolve a glass of flour. It must be gradually poured and stirred so that no lumps form. Add this mixture to the boiling juice. We will cook until the mass decreases in volume by a quarter. In general, it should thicken and become like a viscous caramel in consistency.

In turn, lower the walnut sausages into grape jelly. Lightly push them with a wooden spatula so that they are saturated with juice on all sides. Hang the finished bundle to dry for half an hour.

Let's repeat the procedure. We will do it repeatedly until the nuts are covered with a crust of grape juice 1-1.5 cm thick. Then we hang the bundle to dry and leave it for two weeks.

Outside, the juice will harden and turn into a smooth, shiny glaze, inside the mass will remain soft. In this state, churchkhela is ready to eat, but you can be patient and let it ripen.

To do this, it should be wrapped in parchment or a waffle towel, put in a container and sent to a dark, dry place for 2-3 months. Churchkhela, like a good wine, in the process of maturation reveals its best properties: becomes harder, enriched with aromatic substances. Its surface is covered with a thin sugar coating.

The juice in a mature churchkhela becomes homogeneous, similar in consistency to a dense jelly. Dessert breaks off pleasantly, chews easily, does not knit and does not stick to the teeth.

Ready sweetness, subject to the conditions, is stored for a long time.

How to store churchkhela? It should be a dark, well-ventilated room with normal humidity.

Churchkhela with roasted nuts

Roasted walnuts become brittle and almost impossible to string. Therefore, for such a recipe, it is better to take red-hot hazelnuts.

You can buy nuts ready-made or roast them yourself. Place the hazelnuts in a dry, hot skillet. Fry over medium heat, stirring constantly until golden brown and fragrant.

If the nuts have become too dry, they will not be able to string them. They will split. Therefore, before further cooking, it is advisable to soak them in warm water. Swollen nuts will no longer crumble.

For churchkhela you will need:

• 200 grams of hazelnuts;
• 1 liter of grape juice;
• 130 grams of flour (about 2/3 cup).

The juice is divided in half. Boil one part, and boil for 15 minutes. In the other part, dissolve the flour and add this whole mixture to the boiled juice. Boil for another 10-15 minutes, turn off the heat.

We make beads from nuts, stringing them on a strong thread. Tie a knot at the bottom. From above we form a loop for which we will hang the sweetness.

Three times with a break of 30 seconds we dip the beads in turn into grape jelly. We hang the churchkhela. We give the excess juice to drain, and the workpiece to dry a little. Dip again in syrup and repeat until it reaches the desired thickness.

We hang the churchkhela in a dark place. The sweetness will dry out in one to two weeks. After that, it is ready for use, but for better fixing it can be sent for ripening.

Spicy churchkhela

The basis of spicy churchkhela is the same grape juice. We take any nuts, raw or hardened. Their total weight should be 300-350 grams. You will also need, as in the classic recipe, 2 liters of grape juice. Sweet lovers can add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar to it.

The taste becomes spicy due to the presence of cinnamon and cloves. Take a third of a teaspoon of the first seasoning and 4 pods of the second.

We divide the grape juice into two parts. We put half on fire. Boil on low heat for 15 minutes. In another container, mix cold juice with a glass of wheat or cornmeal.

Add flour mixture to boiling broth. Add sugar and seasonings to the common cauldron. We keep it on fire for literally another 10 minutes and proceed to the main action.

We lower the threads with nuts into the prepared mass. Let them dry a little and do it again. We hang the churchkhela to dry. We are waiting for 1-2 weeks when it hardens.

Armenian churchkhela

For Armenian churchkhela, let's take a liter of apple juice. We will thicken it with cornmeal (120 grams). We do everything as usual. Let's put one part on fire. In another, we will dilute the thickener. Combine both parts in a saucepan, add vanilla or cinnamon to taste. Boil the syrup to the consistency of thick jelly.

For the filling, combine your favorite nuts, prunes, dried cherries and grapes. Carefully string on a double thread. Dip all the charm in boiled juice.

Let's hang sweet threads in a secluded corner, after laying parchment paper under them. We will dry in the absence of direct sunlight for about two weeks. Do not forget that the room must be well ventilated.

Plum churchkhela recipe

We will cook churchkhela with natural plum juice. We will select 2.5 kg of ripe fruits. Let's free them from the seeds and peel. Scroll the pulp in a meat grinder or chop with a blender. Squeeze through a sieve and get juice.

Mix it with 120 grams of flour or potato starch. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar. Let's put it on fire. Let's boil a little. Let the mixture boil and thicken to the desired consistency.

Pre-prepare the filling of nuts, candied fruits and dried fruits. Let's make beautiful dense beads. Roll them several times in plum caramel. Let's hang to dry. We'll check it out in two weeks. If the surface of the churchkhela is no longer sticky, you can remove the oriental sweetness from the crossbar and use it for your own pleasure.

Now you have learned how to make churchkhela at home. It's not difficult at all. The main thing is to be patient, follow all the cooking conditions and not eat the delicacy until it is ready.