Traditional Greek sweets: recipes with photos

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

Greeks are considered one of the biggest sweet tooth in the world. On the territory of the country, there is, perhaps, not a single person who would not be happy to go to zacharoplastio (confectionery shop). Sweets in the country are an invariable attribute of the table set for a holiday or an everyday meal.

During the long years of the rule of the Byzantine Empire, which harmoniously combined the traditions of dozens of different peoples, a wide variety of oriental dishes were brought to Hellas, which eventually became national. Further in the article you will find a description of the most diverse, unusually delicious Greek sweets, recipes and photos of which are waiting for you in this material.

About desserts

In Greece, nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios) and honey (most often thyme) serve as the main ingredients for sweets. For some Greek sweets, semolina (for halva), vegetable oil, dried fruits, cream, milk, and cheese are used in cooking. BUThandmade puff pastry sheet is one of the main ingredients in cooking.

Among the popular Greek sweets are quince marshmallow, galaktoboureko, Turkish delight. Greek jam is also famous, which is made from quince, oranges, figs, cherries and peaches. Sweets in sugar syrup or molasses can also be called traditional desserts - these are most often bones (nuts, pistachios, hazelnuts and almonds) and dried fruits.

Dessert groups

All oriental sweets, including Greek ones, can be divided into three groups:

1. Sugar confectionery - nishallo (sugar vermicelli), crystal sugar, nogul (spiced amphora sugar).
2. Products like soft sweets - Turkish delight, nougat, sherbet, whipped delight, kos-halva, chuch-hela, etc.
3. Flour products - baklava (baklavas), mutaki, kourabiedes cookies, kyata and various other cookies and pies based on butter, biscuit, shortcrust, puff pastry.

Kurabiedes

This is one of the most delicious traditional Greek sweets. It is prepared during the period of Epiphany and Christmas. Kourabiedes differs from other types of shortbread cookies in that it contains almonds and immediately after baking is rolled in powdered sugar. In the manufacture of cognac, vanilla or mastic are added to it for flavoring. You will need:

• 200g sl. oil;
• 1 egg;
• 200g chopped almonds;
• 1 ½ tbsp powdered sugar;
• 300 g flour(better in/from);
• 2 tbsp. l. vanilla sugar;
• 30g almonds;
• 13g baking powder.

How to cook

1. Combine dry ingredients: almonds, flour, vanilla sugar, baking powder.
2. Softened butter is ground until white, pour sugar into it, beat well and add the yolk during the process, and then combine the dry ingredients with the egg-butter mixture, knead the dough. It should be elastic and not stick to your hands.
3. Shape the pieces of dough into balls.
4. In the middle of each put a whole almond nut (1-2 pcs.) And put it on a sheet covered with baking paper.
5. Bake for 20 minutes at 180°C.
6. Sprinkle the finished cookies with powdered sugar (you can see the Greek sweet - kurabiedes in the photo).

Loukoumades

This dish is airy, very tender donuts wrapped in sweet syrup. In order to prepare 1 kg of sweets, take:

• 500 g flour;
• 32g dry yeast;
• 27g s alt and sugar;
• 500ml very cold water;
• 600 ml vegetable oil for deep frying.

For syrup:

• 1.5 tsp honey;
• 200ml water;
• 20g lemon;
• 250 g sugar.

Cooking technology

1. Pour yeast, s alt and sugar into flour. Flour must be sifted to give the dough a more tender and airy structure.
2. Bgradually pour in the resulting mixture with ice water and knead the dough for a quarter of an hour, after which we cover the container with the product with a napkin or cling film and put it in a warm place for one hour to ferment.
3. 20 minutes before the dough rises, start preparing the syrup. Pour sugar into a small bowl, fill it with water, add honey and put on the stove.
4. After the oil boils, boil it for 5 minutes, add a slice of lemon and continue to cook for the same amount.
5. At the same time, heat up the oil in a saucepan.
6. Use a spoon to form balls and release into hot oil.
7. After they are well reddened, take them out and dip them in hot syrup for 20 seconds.

We place the finished Greek sweet on a beautiful plate. Dessert should be eaten immediately after preparation, because after a short storage it can soften and lose its attractive appearance.

By the way, only when hot it has a delicate airy core and a crispy honey-caramel crust.

Baklavas (baklava)

Among Greek desserts and sweets, the popular confectionery baklavas occupies a special place. It is made from stretched unleavened filo dough, as thin as papyrus paper (translated from Greek, “filo” means “leaf”). The preparation of such a test is a real art and is passed down in every family from mother to daughter.

Ingredients needed for the test:

• half a kilo of flour;
• 200-250g warm water(depending on flour quality);
• ½ tsp s alt;
• 30 ml olive oil;
• 1 tsp sugar;
• a little corn starch.

For stuffing:

• 100 g each of pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts;
• 3 tbsp. l. sugar;
• 1 tsp each chopped cloves and cinnamon;
• 1 cracker (blended in a blender).

For syrup:

• 200ml water;
• 250g sugar;
• under Art. l. lemon juice and honey;
• 2-3 cloves;
• cinnamon stick.

For spreading dough:

• 50ml olive oil;
• 100 g each of margarine and butter;
• egg.

Filling and dough

First, let's prepare the nuts. It should be remembered that they must be fresh. Almonds are recommended to be soaked in water for a quarter of an hour, and then peeled.

1. Crush all the nuts mentioned in the recipe in a mortar and mortar. Please note: since nuts have different hardness, they should be processed separately. Crushed nuts should not be too small, but not large. They can be fried in a pan, but also separately.
2. Combine the prepared nut with sugar, cloves, cinnamon, crushed crackers and mix.
3. Sift the flour together with sugar and s alt in a slide, make a well and pour in the oil and vinegar, stirring gently.
4. Add warm water and knead the dough. It should be tender but not sticky.

Preparing dessert

• The dough rolled into bundles is divided into 10 identical parts, we form balls.
• Put them in a deep bowl and cover with a damp cotton napkin. The dough should rest for an hour at a temperature of 20 ° C.

• Alternately take out 1 ball and roll out the dough, it is not recommended to take everything at once, because it can dry out.
• In order for the dough not to stick to the table and to the rolling pin, sprinkle them with cornmeal.
• Roll out into very thin sheets, the size of a baking sheet.
• For Greek sweets, spread the first sheet well with a mixture of oils (olive and cream), margarine and eggs. Definitely warm. This is necessary in order for the baklava to be crispy.
• We coat each subsequent sheet in the same way and stack it on the previous one.
• Spread 1/3 of the filling on 4 and cover with the fifth sheet, oil the dough again and sprinkle with ½ of the remaining nut filling.
• Cover with a clean sheet, grease again and lay out the rest of the nuts.
• After that, we lay the rest of the sheets one by one, oiling them well.
• Let the baklava stand for about 10 minutes, and then carefully cut into diamonds. We use carnation buds as a decoration, one bud per portion.
• Bake baklava (covered with foil) in the oven for about half an hour at 180 ° C.
• After that, remove the foil and reduce the temperature to 140 ° C.

We give the finished productcool for 1 hour.

Syrup

At this time, prepare the syrup. For this you need:

1. Boil water with honey, cinnamon, cloves and sugar.
2. Remove from heat and add lemon juice.

Warm baklava is poured with syrup while still hot and served better the next day when it is well soaked.