History, benefits and calorie content of marshmallow - home and industrial

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

Buying white sweet sticks sprinkled with powdered sugar in the store, it's hard to believe that this is an original Russian delicacy. After all, store-bought marshmallow tastes like oriental sweets - marshmallows or Turkish delight. But, despite the Latin name (pastillus means “cake”), this dessert was invented in Kolomna, back in the 14th century. The fact is that for the manufacture of marshmallows, a Russian oven is required, which has the effect of slow cooling. Homemade marshmallow was previously made from whipped sour applesauce with the addition of various berries - lingonberries, mountain ash, raspberries or currants. Honey was used to add sweetness.

Since the 15th century, another component has been included in the manufacturing process - egg whites. They gave the product a beautiful creamy shade and helped to maintain the desired consistency during long-term storage. But the calorie content of marshmallow has increased. Before the revolution, three types of this dessert were known:Kolomna - traditional, with a homogeneous structure, Rzhev - with thin lingonberry or rowan layers - and Belevsky, in which layers of baked apples and protein bize alternated. Russian pastila was so popular that it was exported from the 19th century.

Considering the calorie content of marshmallow, we should immediately make a reservation: what kind of product do we mean - homemade or store-bought? After all, now the food industry produces sticks using a simplified technology. It is clear that it is expensive to beat applesauce thoroughly, and therefore emulsifiers and stabilizers are used. The sweetness of the dessert is no longer given by honey, but by ordinary sugar. In addition, to give the product a marketable appearance, food colorings and perfume fragrances are added to it. All this chemistry in the most deplorable way affects not only the calorie content of marshmallow, increasing its nutritional value, but also its beneficial properties.

How to be? Based on the foregoing, you involuntarily think: is it possible to make marshmallow at home? Easily! Take a kilogram of berries (for example, raspberries), rinse, dry, tightly close the dish with a lid and send it to a warm oven. Pass hot berries through a sieve. Put the puree on a small fire, add a glass of sweet fruit juice and boil until the volume is reduced by one and a half to two times. After that, spread the marshmallow on lined with paper molds and dry in the oven at 60 ° C. Roll the finished product in powdered sugar. The calorie content of homemade marshmallows should not exceed 300 kcal per 100 g.

However, you can find a quality purchased product. It costs more, but its useful properties are much higher. If agar-agar and pectin are added to fruit and berry puree and egg whites to form a gelatinous consistency, this is a good, he althy marshmallow. Calorie 1 pc. so low that it won't hurt your figure. After all, 100 g of the product contains only 323 kcal. Agar-agar is a gelatin derived from algae. It is rich in iodine, calcium, iron and phosphorus. Pectin lowers cholesterol levels, cleanses the body of toxins, improves intestinal motility. Therefore, this pastille is considered a dietary product and is recommended by the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences for baby food.