Pastila is a great alternative to sweets

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Even parents trying to raise a healthy child rarely manage to avoid factory sweets. Personally, I have not met a single little person in my life who does not like sweets.

The question of the usefulness-harmfulness of those very sweets arose in our family very acutely when the granddaughter was born. What alternatives were not offered! And honey, and jam, and homemade yoghurts, and dried fruits … And the child persistently asked for chocolates and sweets.

But grandmother Lena (my matchmaker) made a marshmallow, and I heard from my daughter that my granddaughter eats it more readily than dried fruits. I also decided to try to cook this yummy.

How to make a marshmallow

I did not have any recipes for marshmallow at hand, I got all the experience by trial and error. Started with strawberry. The preparation of the marshmallow took place in the following sequence: chopping berries, adding honey, drying on a tray greased with homemade cream. I liked it, but the smell of cream still interfered with enjoying the aroma of strawberries. I realized that in the preparation of marshmallows, a very important role is played by the fat with which the trays are lubricated.

Important note: if honey is used in the preparation, then the pastille must be dried at a temperature not exceeding 45 °.

After the strawberries, it was the turn of the apricots.

The composition of the marshmallow is similar: fruits are crushed, honey is added to taste, and everything is dried on a special tray, oiled so that no streaks are visible. I do it with a cotton swab. This time it turned out so well that, while tasting these goodies, I became like a small child who reaches into a jar of jam with his palm. It was impossible to break away from “trying”.

I liked such sweets so much that I arranged a whole conveyor for the production of marshmallows from all kinds of combinations of fruits and vegetables.

Experiments and findings

It is best to take rapeseed honey. It crystallizes very well and does not have a strong odor. By the way, with sugar, they say, the marshmallow is not so tasty. And it never even occurred to me to make it with sugar. If you take acacia honey, then the pastille may not even work: it will not dry out, it will be soft and sticky. And if, for example, buckwheat, then it can kill the smell of fruit.

According to my observations, fruits are sticky and brittle. This is very important for the marshmallow. From viscous fruits and berries (mulberries, cherries, cherries, plums, currants, gooseberries, grapes), it dries for a very long time, but it still sticks and the pieces stick together in the jar. But the vegetables are almost all fragile and dry quickly - it turns out not candy, but "chips". Only the tomatoes are viscous, of which the marshmallow is delicious. I cook it without adding sweets, I just grind the tomatoes in a blender and dry it like a marshmallow.

I have adapted to combine fruits in such a way as to compensate for the excessive viscosity of some by the fragility of others: apples-plums, pears-grapes, apples-cherries, apples-cherries-pears, apricots-cherries, apricots-plums. By the way, apple candy is generally one of the most delicious.

I do the same with zucchini. But more about them. For a long time I was solving the problem of where to adapt these vegetables, which are always in abundance. You can cook zucchini jam, but where is so much of it? And I came up with the idea of making a marshmallow. The experiments were not all successful, but after a creative search, I can share my find with you. When I give this marshmallow to taste with a mysterious look, no one guesses that it is based on zucchini. And everything is very simple.

Knowing that the zucchini is very fragile and dries up quickly, I add gooseberries, cherries or grapes to them (about 1 part cherries and 3 parts zucchini). For some reason, raspberries “didn't go” with zucchini. To remove the pumpkin smell, I add mint, a little hyssop and always canufer (a little bit, it tastes bitter). Kanufer, by the way, relieves children of parasites. "Candy" with such properties will not hurt anyone.

You can change the herbs to your liking. Very often I read that lemon is added to zucchini. Peppermint remarkably prevents colds (menthol lozenges are strongly advertised in the off-season) and even helps a child to avoid motion sickness in transport.

So: zucchini, fruits, berries, herbs, a little bit of purified water and honey. I don't like to write proportions to leave room for creativity. I believe that any food is created in alignment with food. You just need to make the crushed mass of such a density that it is convenient to pour it onto the pallet. And so that it was delicious!

By analogy with zucchini, I make pumpkin marshmallow: I combine apricots, grapes or nightshade with pumpkin. Actually, black nightshade is a poisonous plant, but ripe dried berries can be consumed. In this case, dried apricots are used. I pre-soak them in warm water for 12 hours, and then grind them together with water, pumpkin and honey in a blender.

Another find of mine: I sprinkle pieces of marshmallow made of viscous fruits and berries with herbal powder (the herbs are dried and then ground with an iron strainer).

If you only knew how delicious it is: cherry candy in cherry leaves, plum candy in plum leaves, raspberry candy in raspberry, and grape candy in a powder of grape leaves, mustache and flowers! This is not only tasty and healthy, but also solves the problem of overgrowth of raspberries, plums, cherries. In addition, it is now very easy to regulate the load of grape bushes: all the extra bunches are sent for drying just before flowering. And everyone is happy!