Hello my dear readers!
She has her own small cafe and is committed to constantly inventing useful recipes and sharing them with her visitors.
It was her guest that I first tried a drink from Carob-carob powder and loved it.
Let's take a closer look at the benefits of carob and how it can be used in cooking.
From this article you will learn:
Carob - useful properties and methods of use
Erysipelas, or pods, or Tsaregrad pods (lat. Ceratōnia silīquaor carob (eng. carob) - a plant of the legume family ( Fabaceae)
Description and benefits of carob
Carob is a part of so many recipes for home healthy cuisine, as well as widely used in industry and cooking.
How to get a carob?
Carob is a natural, nutritious substitute.
It is produced from carob pods (Tseratoniya chilli), a flowering evergreen Mediterranean shrub.
Inside, each pod contains sweet, edible pulp.
They are dried and roasted in a special way (for 10-12 minutes at a temperature of 400 degrees Fahrenheit), and then ground to a powder, which is called carob flour or “carob powder”
The composition of the powder Carob
Carob powder is similar in its external properties to - powder, but it contains more natural sugar, fiber, much less fat (by 17%), minerals (basic Calcium, Potassium and Phosphorus).
And most importantly, unlike the cocoa fruit, it does not contain caffeine and theobromine.
These substances can cause a number of negative phenomena in our body: increase heartbeat, cause insomnia and sleep disorders, bed-wetting, fatigue, obesity, dizziness, irritability, agitation, anxiety, acne, and more.
Therefore, carob, which is very similar to cocoa in its taste and appearance, is a worthy alternative to it.
Important!!!
Locust bean contains as much vitamin B1 as asparagus or strawberry.
It has more niacin than Roman beans, lentils or peas; more vitamin A than eggplant, asparagus and beets.
It also contains vitamin B2, magnesium, iron, manganese, chromium, copper, and nickel minerals, about 8 percent protein, and is a good source of fiber.
What carob does it taste like?
Carob has a wonderful taste and aroma of chocolate, but at the same time does not bear any risk to health.
Moreover, carob is naturally sweet and does not require the addition of sugar, which makes it possible for diabetics to use it.
What is the benefit of carob?
So, the benefits of carob:
- Carob tannins contain gallic acid, which works as an analgesic, antiallergic, antibacterial, antioxidant, antiviral and antiseptic.
- Carob improves digestion and lowers blood cholesterol.
- It is used to treat diarrhea in children and adults.
- Since it does not contain caffeine, it can be used by people with high blood pressure.
- Regular use of carob helps in preventing lung cancer.
- Carob use is a good prevention of osteoporosis, due to its high phosphorus and calcium content.
- Carob removes toxins and normalizes metabolism.
How to use carob in medicine?
In alternative medicine, there are healing recipes with Carob powder.
Recipe number 1
It is used for diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and indigestion in adults, children, and animals. One tablespoon of the box dissolved in a cup of liquid and drink.
Recipe number 2
French doctors successfully practice the treatment of renal insufficiency with locust bean powder. Approximately 2 teaspoons of carob powder should be dissolved in 1 cup of unsweetened cranberry juice and taken four or five times a day.
How to use carob in cooking?
Carob is most often used as a stabilizer and thickener in bakery products, ice cream, jelly, cheese, sauces, canned meat, and other food products.
Also, carob powder is used as a substitute for cocoa powder or chocolate in cakes, cookies and sweets.
Carob Video
Be sure to watch this interesting video about the useful properties of carob, I recommend !!!
- Carob is a great substitute for cocoa drink. Just dissolve 1 tsp of powder in hot water and a tasty and healthy drink will be ready.
- Carob can be used instead of cocoa powder in baking. Add a tablespoon of carob powder to the dough to give it a beautiful, rich dark color.
- When replacing cocoa powder, use the same amount of carob powder. But remember that the amount of sugar in the recipe will need to be reduced due to the natural sweetness of the carob tree.
- Add a spoonful of carob powder to homemade or frozen yogurt.
- Carob can be sprinkled with fresh berries and fruits instead of sugar. This is delicious!
- With carob you can cook chocolate. Just dissolve 1 tsp in one mug of hot milk and a tasty and fragrant drink is ready!
- Kerob is very tasty mixed with butter or coconut oil, honey, spices (cinnamon nutmeg, ginger, cardamom). It turns out this dessert pasta for breakfast.
- Carob powder can be used to make a glaze, breading truffles such as truffles and baking sprinkles.
Video-recipe for a cake with a carob, look, it's very tasty!
Where to buy carob powder?
Fortunately, today natural carob powder can be found in ordinary stores.
I buy it in a regular supermarket in the department of diet products. Here is the manufacturer.
A lot of carob powder from various manufacturers offer online shopping.
For example, here You can buy real organic carob powder.
Try and share your impressions and experience !!!
Buda is glad if this article will be useful for you and you will share it with your friends on social networks.
Send me your recipes for delicious desserts using carob.
With you was Alena Yasneva, See you again!
Unlike cocoa butter equivalents, they have similar physical properties with cocoa butter, but are completely different in acid composition.
For the production of cocoa butter substitutes are used:
- palm kernel hydrogenated oil,
- fully or partially hydrogenated palm kernel stearin,
- modified palm oil,
- modified rapeseed oil,
- modified soybean oil,
- modified sunflower oil.
Types of cocoa butter substitutes according to the Federal Law of the Russian Federation of June 24, 2008 N 90-ФЗ "Technical Regulations for Fat-Fat Products"
POP-type Cocoa Butter Substitutes (POP indicates the presence in the product of 2-oleodipalmitina):- partial compatibility with cocoa butter (at least 25 percent), need,
- the main component is 2-oleodipalmitin (more than 50 percent),
- contain no more than 1 percent by mass of lauric acid, no more than 2 percent by mass of trans fatty acid isomers,
- they are made from natural and fractionated oils of tropical origin and / or modified vegetable oils with or without added food additives and other ingredients.
- mass fraction of fat not less than 99 percent,
- contain no more than 1 percent of the mass fraction of lauric acid, with or without the addition of food additives and other ingredients.
- mass fraction of fat not less than 99 percent,
- do not need tempering,
- based on modified vegetable oils,
- contain at least 40 percent by weight of lauric acid, with or without the addition of food additives and other ingredients.
The use of cocoa butter substitutes can reduce the cost of production.
The most expensive and capricious ingredient of chocolate and confectionery based on it is cocoa butter. One of the difficulties of the technological process when working with it is the need for tempering - so that the cocoa butter does not start the crystallization processes, heating and cooling it is possible only at strictly defined temperatures.
Therefore, in order to reduce costs and avoid unnecessary difficulties during cooking, cocoa butter substitutes are used in confectionery.
The composition and properties of substitutes based on lauric acid
Depending on the composition, substitutes are divided into lauric (cocoa butter surrogates, or CBS) and non-lauric (CBR) substitutes. In the production of lauric substitutes used tropical oils (coconut or palm kernel) containing lauric acid.
The surrogate and cocoa butter are completely different in fatty acid composition, so the miscibility of these oils is insignificant (up to 5%).
Cocoa substitutes of lauric type oils practically do not contain trans-isomers of fatty acids, but they do contain saturated fatty acids, and, therefore, they are still worse absorbed by the human body compared to unsaturated ones.
Advantages of Lauric Substitutes
Low price; Glaze based on lauric substitutes does not require a technologically complex tempering process and gives confectionery products an attractive appearance; There are practically no trans isomers in the composition; Can be used in products with a long shelf life, as they are resistant to fatty subsidence.
disadvantages
It is the surrogates that sometimes give an unpleasant soapy taste and smell to confectionery. Such effects can occur at high humidity, as well as if the product contains the enzyme lipase. Therefore, when choosing a cocoa butter substitute, it is necessary to take into account the mass fraction of moisture and the presence of lipase in the product in which it will be used.
Application
Surrogates are used in the food industry for the preparation of glazes for ice cream, pastry tiles, glazed cheese curds, cakes and other products.
Modern manufacturers are increasingly adding new ingredients to sweets, the origin and properties of which are unknown to the average consumer. In this article we will talk about cocoa butter substitutes, their properties.
So, those vegetable fats containing the same fatty acids as cocoa are considered equivalents. They are used, firstly, in order to reduce the cost of chocolate, and secondly, because of the simpler, compared to cocoa, use in the production of chocolate products with special properties (more pleasant texture, high melting point, long shelf life, other ).
Substitutes are made from modified or natural vegetable oils (palm, illipe, shea nuts, etc.), various food additives can be added.
There are two types of equivalents:
- Non-lauric - made from modified oils (palm, soybean, rapeseed, sunflower), may contain other ingredients, including hazardous hydrogenated fats. In their composition the mass fraction of lauric acid does not exceed 1%. Such substitutes are used for casting chocolate bars, figurines, when icing marshmallows, cakes, etc.
- Lauric - are made on the basis of palm, coconut oil, may contain food additives. The share of lauric acid is about 40%. They have insignificant differences in taste properties from cocoa butter. Used in the manufacture of chocolate bars, icing ice cream, cakes, cheese curds, etc.
Benefits of Cocoa Butter Equivalents
- They do not require thermal treatment, since they have the property of crystallization in a stable form, which makes the chocolate products shine, "chocolate" crunch.
- Increase the shelf life of chocolate products.
- The cost of substitutes is much lower than natural cocoa butter.
The disadvantages of cocoa butter equivalents
The taste of chocolate bar, which includes one or another substitute, is still inferior to chocolate produced on the basis of cocoa butter.
Palm oil, which is part of almost all equivalents, is harmful to human health due to the content of saturated fats, the use of which leads to the development of diseases of the cardiovascular system, obesity. The melting point of palm oil exceeds 40 degrees, it cannot be completely processed by the body and is deposited in the form of slags on the walls of blood vessels, in the intestines and other organs.
When choosing pastries, carefully read the composition, if it contains hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, then it is better to leave such sweetness to lie on the shelf, all the more you should not give products containing these substances to children.
And who in the childhood did not try this delicious flavored cocoa drink? Perhaps there is no such person who did not carry the memory of him through the years and, undoubtedly, uses him in the present tense. Is there any benefit from it? And what is the harmfulness of the drink from cocoa powder?
Cocoa powder is used for the preparation of a drink, in confectionery and so on. It consists of fats, proteins, cellulose, polysaccharides and starch. As well as organic acids, tannins and minerals, water and other elements.
- The benefits and harm of cocoa powder.
- Thanks to the substances in the composition, it forces us to actively produce endorphins, invigorates, improves the blood supply to the head, stimulates the central nervous system.
- The content of polyphenols perfectly helps to fight high blood pressure.
- It helps to resist stress, which is important in our time.
- Participates in the treatment of strong cough. Due to the substances in the composition, the blood circulation increases, the lumens of the alveoli open and the sputum disappears faster.
- Prevents aging due to antioxidant content.
- Usefulness due to the content of vitamins, trace elements, beneficial acids and other compounds.
- Tannins contained in cocoa, promote the rapid healing of mucous membranes. It is indicated for gastritis and gastric ulcer.
The harm of cocoa powder is toning. Contraindicated for people with sleep disorders, depression of the central nervous system, prone to obesity, diabetes, pregnant throughout pregnancy, because it does not allow to fully absorb calcium, suffering from gout due to salt deposits in the joints.
Harm of lauric type cocoa butter substitute.
Cocoa butter is extracted by cold-pressing cocoa beans. There are two types: natural and deodorized (with additional processing). Applied in the manufacture of confectionery, icing and so on.
Cocoa butter includes oleic, stearic, lauric or palmitic, linoleic and arachnic acids.
Due to the high caloric content of the product can contribute to obesity, salt deposition in the joints, diseases of the genitourinary system.
Contraindicated in people with blood sugar, children under three years.
When buying a sweet product or cocoa powder, carefully study the composition of the product. Although no one is insured to buy a low-quality product. Unscrupulous manufacturers often incorrectly indicate information about the product on the label. Acquire only from reputable manufacturers and only in specialized departments.
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