Composition and useful properties of nuts in chocolate. How a delicacy is eaten, recipes for its preparation. Who Should Avoid Chocolate Covered Nuts?
Nuts in chocolate are not only tasty, but also a very nutritious delicacy, rich in vitamins and microelements useful for humans. Such a dessert is popularly called a chocolate dragee. Nuts can be used as a separate dessert or used to decorate ice cream, cakes and other pastries.
Composition and calorie content of nuts in chocolate
The original composition of nuts in chocolate contains only two components: whole walnuts and exceptionally dark chocolate. Modern manufacturers are constantly making adjustments to the standard recipe and produce dragees from almost all types of nuts and chocolate, adding butter, vanilla and other components to the glaze.
The calorie content of nuts in chocolate per 100 g is 518 kcal, of which:
- Proteins - 10 g;
- Fat - 32 g;
- Carbohydrates - 59 g.
The energy ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates is 8%, 56%, 46%, respectively.
Vitamins per 100 g of product:
- Vitamin A - 0.3 mg;
- Vitamin B1 - 0.3 mg;
- Vitamin B2 - 0.3 mg;
- Vitamin B3 - 0.3 mg;
- Vitamin B6 - 0.3 mg;
- Vitamin B9 - 0.3 mg;
- Vitamin C - 0.3 mg;
- Vitamin E - 0.3 mg;
- Vitamin PP - 0.3 mg;
- Vitamin B5 - 0.3 mg
Minerals in 100 g of chocolate covered nuts:
- Iron, Fe - 3 mg;
- Potassium, K - 3 mg;
- Calcium, Ca - 3 mg;
- Magnesium, Mg - 3 mg;
- Sodium, Na - 3 mg;
- Phosphorus, P - 3 mg.
On a note! The chocolate dragee must be stored in the right conditions, it must not be left in a warm place for a long time, but it is also forbidden to put it in the refrigerator - this can lead to the formation of a white coating on the chocolate. Also, the chocolate with which the dragee is coated quickly absorbs the surrounding odors, so it is better to store the treat in an airtight package.
Useful properties of nuts in chocolate
The benefits of nuts in chocolate are higher calorie levels and, as a consequence, nutritional value. Dessert is able to increase a person's performance and endurance for regular physical or mental work due to the content of an extensive multivitamin complex.
It is difficult to list all the useful properties of this dessert, because products that are completely different in their chemical composition can be used for its preparation. For example, if a person eats almonds in chocolate, he gets a powerful charge of vitamin E, various antioxidants and protein. Glazed cashews are rich in fatty acids, vitamins and bactericidal substances. It is known that this type of nut has a beneficial effect on human tooth enamel. Walnuts contain a lot of fiber, which has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the human stomach. They also contain a lot of organic acids, essential oils and healthy fats (70% of the weight of the nut).
The main beneficial properties of nuts in chocolate:
- Improve vision - nuts contain a large amount of carotene and other nutrients that improve visual acuity and focus. Vitamin E, which is found in almost all types of nuts, prevents the development of cataracts.
- They enrich the body with natural protein; nuts are useful for those who have given up meat.
- They cheer up, help to overcome depression - this is facilitated by chocolate, which stimulates the production of appropriate hormones of pleasure in the body.
- They improve the work of the cardiovascular system - they dilate blood vessels and thereby normalize blood pressure, stimulate the work of the heart, cleanse the blood of excess cholesterol, saturating it with useful minerals.
- They rejuvenate the body, restore the structure of damaged cells - in some types of nuts, a substance called polyphenol is formed during heat treatment, it is this element that has a beneficial effect on human health.
Note to the buyer! When choosing dragees in a store, pay attention not only to the release date of the product, but also to its condition. Shake the package with nuts and listen to the noise they make - the pills should knock, if you can't hear the knock, then their icing has melted.
Contraindications and harm of nuts in chocolate
Scientists talk about the dangers of nuts in chocolate for women who are breastfeeding, or rather for their babies. This category of consumers is recommended to eat no more than 20 g of delicacies per day.
It is forbidden to give chocolate dessert to children under the age of 3. Older children can be pampered with sweetness, but in limited quantities and not before bedtime. Sweetness energizes, because of this, the child may have trouble sleeping - he simply does not want to go to bed.
Both adults and children, after eating dessert, need to brush their teeth, use a mouthwash or a toothpick. Otherwise, your tooth enamel can be damaged and caries can appear.
It is also necessary to give up nuts in chocolate for people suffering from hemophilia (they can provoke blood thickening), with nervous overexcitation, heart palpitations, allergies to nuts, sugar, chocolate and other components of the product.
How to cook chocolate covered nuts?
Modern manufacturers often neglect the GOST standards and add various synthetic substances to the chocolate coating for nuts: flavors, dyes, taste stimulants, thickeners and many other chemicals that are hazardous to the health of consumers. If such a semi-natural dessert is consumed regularly and in large quantities, a person may develop an allergy to the product. Therefore, if you are an adherent of natural and healthy food, learn how to make chocolate covered nuts in your home kitchen.
For the preparation of this dessert, you can use completely different nuts: walnuts, almonds, etc. Choose chocolate according to your taste.
Step-by-step recipe for walnuts in chocolate:
- Chop and peel 6 nuts so as not to damage the kernel.
- Prepare the icing by melting 7 g butter and half a chocolate bar (about 50 g) in the steam bath.
- Dip the kernels into the liquid chocolate so that they are completely covered with the icing.
- Ready-made pills must be laid out on foil and left in the refrigerator until the glaze has completely solidified (this will take about 30 minutes).
Add prunes to the nut dragee to make it even tastier. The recipe for such a delicacy is practically no different from the previous one; you just need to devote a little extra time to preparing prunes.
Stages of making a chocolate dragee with prunes:
- Buy 150 g of prunes, wash and make sure there are no pits inside.
- Soak the prunes in water for a while, or steam them (this can even be done with a multicooker).
- Grind it with a blender or meat grinder.
- Form balls from the resulting mass and crush them into cakes.
- Prepare the nuts: peel them and chop them a little.
- Put the nuts on the prepared tortillas and roll them into the prunes, so that you end up with round candies.
- Melt the chocolate (to speed up the process, this can be done in the microwave, defrosting mode).
- Dip prepared candies in chocolate. It is more convenient to do this using two forks.
- Cool the finished sweets in the refrigerator. Typically, chocolate hardens after 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle the finished dessert with chopped nuts, coconut, or any other treat of your choice. Bon Appetit!
If you have a lot of free time and you want to surprise your loved ones with something original, try making a dessert with assorted nuts and dried fruits.
To do this, follow a simple dessert preparation algorithm:
- Chop dried fruits: 100 g each prune with dried apricots and 50 g each figs with dried cranberries.
- Grind three types of your favorite nuts, 100 g each.
- Combine dried fruits with nuts and roll them into balls for future sweets. To make the mass more pliable, moisten it with cognac or any kind of liqueur (50 g).
- Send the candy blanks to the refrigerator. Cooling time - 2 hours.
- Melt 1 bar each of black, milk and white chocolate.
- Dip the chilled dried fruit and nut balls into the chocolate.
- Put the finished candies on parchment paper and put in the refrigerator to cool.
Chocolate Covered Nut Recipes
Nuts in chocolate are an absolutely independent dish, so there are few recipes with their participation as an ingredient. Confectioners use such dragees most often for desserts.
Several recipes for confectionery products using chocolate covered nuts:
- Brownie with nut dragees … Whisk 100 g of butter with 300 g of granulated sugar (preferably brown). Add 2 chicken eggs to the resulting mass. In a separate bowl, combine 140 g of sifted wheat flour with 30 g of cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp. baking powder. Combine the liquid and dry mixture, mix thoroughly and add a few chocolate-covered nuts. Place the dough in a baking dish. Sprinkle the glazed nuts over the top of the dessert. Bake for 25 minutes. Let the dessert cool before slicing.
- Shortbread cookies with chocolate dragee … Prepare the dough. To do this, mix 200 g soft butter with 1 cup cane sugar. Stir the ingredients until smooth. Add 2 chicken eggs, a pinch of salt and 1 tsp each to the butter. vanilla sugar and soda. Stir all the ingredients again and start kneading the dough. To do this, you will need about 250 g of wheat flour. Stir 100 g of chocolate covered nuts into the dough (choose the smallest possible nuts). Form a cookie from the finished dough. It is more convenient to do this by wetting your hands in water. Put the finished cookies on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake the dessert for about 25 minutes.
- Chocolate cake with nuts … Whisk 5 chicken eggs thoroughly with 7 tbsp. l. granulated sugar. Beat until the mass doubles or even triples. Grind 250 g of hazelnuts with a blender. Then, without mixing with the nut mass, grind 150 g of chocolate wafers. Add 2 tbsp each to the nuts. l. wheat flour and cocoa powder. Add this mixture to prepared eggs. Bake the resulting dough in the oven for 50 minutes. While the cake is baking, prepare the cream: combine and mix thoroughly 200 g of melted, but slightly cooled chocolate, 7 tbsp. l. Nutella and 200 g of butter. Beat the resulting mass with a mixer. Cut the finished cake into two parts, coat with cream and sprinkle generously with chopped waffles (not only outside, but also inside the cake). Decorate the top cake with chocolate covered nuts.
Interesting facts about nuts in chocolate
Some historians believe that the world learned about how to cook chocolate-covered nuts after America was discovered. Other scholars point to Italy. In their opinion, it was here that the local pastry chef first created hazelnut sweets in chocolate glaze.
It is believed that this particular dessert (by the way, it was called "Janduja") inspired chefs from all over the world to create similar sweets from other varieties of nuts. Also, the hard and nutritious kernels of nuts began to be coated not only with dark, but also with other types of chocolate - white or milk.
How to cook chocolate covered nuts - watch the video:
Nuts in chocolate is a nutritious dessert that has a beneficial effect on human health, enriching the body with calcium, magnesium, iron and other useful elements. In this delicacy, the most useful element is the nut. Allergy sufferers and overweight people should refuse dessert. Before buying nuts from the store, make sure they are free of chemicals that can negatively affect your well-being.
