Baklava: calories, composition, diet recipes, Turkish honey dessert

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The first version of baklava, or baklava, appeared back in 1453, but even centuries later its recipe has changed little and traditionally consists of flour, eggs, ghee and honey or milk filling. Baklava, which has a caloric content of 400-415 kcal, which 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 fragrant oriental sweetness is actually something between a multi-layered 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.

Bakhlava: calories and properties of ingredients

Baklava certainly has a high nutritional value. But not all of its componentsadversely affect 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, responsible for the normal functioning of the thyroid gland, which in turn affects the uniform distribution and breakdown fat cells in the body. They are completely cholesterol-free.
• As 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 has been proven that eating 1-2 egg yolks a day significantly lowers cholesterol levels, and the predominant mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids that are not produced by the body on their own are indispensable nutraceuticals in the nutrition of athletes.
• It would seem, how can it be dietary if it is replete with fast carbohydrates and simple sugars? In fact, only water can compare with the speed of digestibility of honey, passing through all the stages of splitting in only 20 minutes. So, without causing stagnation and other negative phenomena characteristic of high-calorie foods, it enhances the production of bile, helping to eliminate toxins. By consuming it in small quantities, you can increase the tone of the body and allow yourself to give up more high-calorie and much less useful sugar.

As for other products, their interchangeability is worth mentioning separately. For example, you can make yeast-free dough from oatmeal, flaxseed or cornmeal, andreplace butter with fat-free dry cottage cheese.

If we talk about radical diet recipes without flour, butter and sugar, then such baklava, whose calorie content per 100 grams is ~130 kcal, is used mainly with strict dietary restrictions.

Traditional Turkish recipe

In general, Turkish baklava, with a calorie content of no more than 140 kcal, does not differ much from ordinary home-made, widely used recipes. But it is still recommended to fulfill some conventions.

For cooking you will need:

• 300g whole wheat flour (2 faceted glasses);
• 8 art. l. milk;
• 200g ghee;
• 1 chicken egg white and 2 yolks;
• 2 tbsp. l. pressed yeast;
• one and a half cups of crushed walnuts or hazelnuts;
• 7 art. l. powdered sugar;
• 3 tbsp. l. honey;
• a pinch of ground cardamom seeds and s alt.

Cooking steps

First you need to dissolve the yeast in warm milk and add a little s alt. After adding beaten eggs and flour, in the process of stirring which add oil. Next, you should put the dough in a saucepan and wrap it with a warm blanket or put it in a basin with preheated water, but not higher than +30 ° C. In winter, you can simply put it closer to the batteries, making sure that the dough does not cool down or overheat.

When it rises, you need to divide it into 45 even parts and roll it into very thin cakes, grease them with oil. Spreading outcakes on a baking sheet, place them on top of each other, adding for every second, except for the first and last, the prepared filling of ground nuts, sugar, honey and cardamom. Next, carefully cut the resulting stack into oblong cubes and grease with egg yolk.

The average baking time is half an hour, the temperature is 180 °C. At the end, baklava can be poured with butter.

A delicious oriental dessert is ready!