Sweets have always held a special place in our diet. They are very high in calories, contain a lot of carbs, easily digested, but people appreciate in them pleasant, sweet taste. For centuries people using their products, came up with a variety of sweet dishes to indulge. Nevertheless, sweets is not necessary to include in the menu - many do not eat them, preferring fruit, which also contains a lot of sugars.
It's hard to say who and when invented the first confection; it is only known that already in II thousand BC the ancient Egyptians knew how to cook real candy, mixing honey with chopped dried figs and nuts. For centuries honey remained the main sweet dish of Europe as sugar, in small quantities delivered from India and Arab countries, was extremely expensive. Only in the XVII century.in Europe has developed its own production of sugar from imported syrups, and at the end of the XVIII century, after the discovery of the method of extracting sugar from the beet root sugar, it gradually turned into a public product.
On the table set for tea, today you can easily meet, such as halva and chocolate, but these popular sweets have been invented in countries remote from each other for thousands of kilometers. Drink from cocoa beans (foundations of modern chocolate) was invented by the Indians of Central America — Olmecs. However, this drink, called chocolatl, was quite bitter; he did not like the Europeans who came to America in the late XV century, and they added a syrup of cane sugar. Homeland halva - Iran;it was invented hundreds of her recipes, and from here it spread throughout the Middle and near East. It is assumed that invented this amazingly delicious and nutritious food around V century BC; in our country, halva has become popular only in the XIX century.
The concept of "Oriental sweets" includes a lot of variety of confectionery products - various kinds of biscuits, halva, made of marmalade, sugar molasses, nuts and raisins. Turkish delight is one of the most famous types of Oriental delicacies; it is known that it was made in XV-XVI centuries, in the heyday of the Ottoman Empire. In Europe it appeared in the middle of the XVII century. other popular types of sweet Asian cuisine, halva, nougat, kuchela baklava and a variety of sherbet.
