Make corn sticks at home. Are corn sticks a healthy or unhealthy treat? For corn sticks at home you need to take

Almost every person buys and enjoys eating corn sticks from time to time. This sweet dessert appeared in the Soviet Union in the sixties of the last century, but is no less popular today. One of the brightest representatives of this segment is the manufacturer of corn sticks "Matyash", more about which on the website www.matyash.com/production/corn-sticks/. Most of us associate this dessert with childhood. Many parents still buy this delicious dessert for their children. Is it useful? Or not really? Today's article is devoted to the beneficial properties of the product and the negative consequences of eating this dessert.

So.
Firstly, cereals are obtained from grains that lack germs and shells, which are then sifted. This material is mixed with salt. Then the mass is moistened, after which it is left “alone” for a certain period of time. Next, the corn grits are sent to the extruder. When leaving the above-mentioned apparatus, the volume of raw materials increases significantly due to a decrease in pressure. The mass is cut with an industrial knife so that the maximum length of the piece is 3 cm.

The next step is drying the semi-finished product in a special receiver. Next, the semi-finished product is transferred to the installation, vegetable oil is added, as well as powdered sugar or various flavorings. The finished product is packaged and transferred for further storage.

What are the benefits of dessert?

"Back side"

Dried foam made from cornmeal, which is essentially corn sticks, is loved by children of all ages. Recently, their range on grocery store shelves has expanded significantly. You can find not only a sweet product, but also salty sticks with different flavors, as well as in chocolate or various glazes.

There is a special machine for the production of corn sticks - an extruder, a unit similar to a large meat grinder. Corn grits with other components are loaded into its working chamber, where under the influence of high temperatures and pressure the mixture begins to melt, changing its structure.

The fluid-viscous mass is pressed by a screw through the dies (outlet holes). This is where the fun begins: the temperature and pressure of the feedstock drop sharply, the water evaporates almost instantly, and porous and airy sticks appear.

Calorie content and composition

The composition of many children's favorite delicacy does not contain many components. To make corn sticks, you only need corn grits (in industrial production, grits are used, not flour), refined and deodorized vegetable oil, finely ground table salt and powdered sugar for coating (sometimes it is mixed with milk powder or cocoa).

Of course, modern manufacturers often additionally use dyes, flavor enhancers, preservatives and stabilizers. Such ingredients make the taste more intense, but the benefits of consuming such a product are significantly reduced.

The average calorie content of sweet puffed corn sticks is 518 kcal/100 g. The ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, respectively, is 6/28/58.

Benefits and harm to the body

The benefits and harms of corn sticks are simultaneously due to their high carbohydrate content. If corn porridge is rich in “slow” carbohydrates, which are more difficult to digest by the body, then under the influence of heat and mechanical processing the carbohydrates in corn sticks become “fast”. Therefore, after consuming this product, the level of glucose in the blood quickly increases, and the body is charged with energy.

But this positive aspect also has a downside. The same heat treatment almost completely destroys the vitamins A and E contained in the cereal. However, you can replenish the supply of vitamins while eating sticks by simply pouring juice over them. Such a breakfast will charge you not only with energy, but also with vitamins.

But it is worth remembering that if the body does not use up “fast” carbohydrates in the near future, then they will just as quickly settle as extra centimeters and an orange peel on the waist and hips. This is another possible harm to the body.

Who should limit consumption?

There are a number of categories of people who should limit their consumption of corn sticks or avoid them altogether:

1. Children under one year old. Older children can be given a sweet treat covered in powdered sugar as a dessert, but sticks with artificial flavors should be avoided altogether.
2. Nursing mothers, since babies may experience allergic reactions or flatulence.
3. People with diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, obesity, especially during exacerbation.

How to cook at home?

How corn sticks are made on an industrial scale is already known, and now it’s time to find out whether this dessert can be repeated at home and how to do it.

Not a single housewife has an extruder in her kitchen to replicate the technology, so you won’t be able to prepare an identical product at home, but you can prepare a sweet, airy dessert with a similar taste that is as close as possible to the desired result.

For corn sticks at home you need to take:

• 220 g powdered sugar;
• 4 egg whites;
• 130 g corn flour.

The process of making homemade sticks:

1. Sift the corn flour through a fine sieve and mix with half the total amount of powdered sugar.
2. Beat the egg whites to stable, strong peaks along with the remaining powdered sugar.
3. Then combine the meringue and the flour-powder mixture. At first the dough will be thick, but after kneading with a spatula it will become smooth and fluid.
4. Transfer the dough into a pastry bag and place sticks on a baking sheet covered with parchment or a silicone mat and dry them for 15 minutes in the oven at 150 degrees.

Recipes for desserts made from corn sticks

Ant Hill Cake

To make a tasty treat - a cake made from corn sticks and toffees, it is enough to have a quarter of an hour and the following ingredients:

• 200 g sweet corn sticks;
• 500 g of Toffee candies;
• 180 g butter.

How to make a cake without baking:

1. To ensure that there are no voids in the ant hill, use a knife to chop the corn sticks a little, but not too finely.
2. Place the butterscotch and butter on low heat and stir constantly until the mixture is smooth and uniform in consistency.
3. Pour the sticks into the butter and toffee cream, mix and quickly (since the mass sets quickly) place on a serving dish and form a mound. Press it slightly with your hands to avoid the formation of air pockets. Place the formed cake in the cold for half an hour.

Chocolate roll with cookies

For this delicious dessert with a bright coffee and chocolate aroma you need to take:

• 300 g shortbread cookies (for example, “Baked milk”);
• 100 g corn sticks;
• 150 g butter;
• 100 g sugar;
• 80 ml heavy cream (from 33%);
• 100 g cocoa powder;
• 80 g coconut flakes;
• 30 ml liqueur with coffee-creamy flavor (for example, Baileys or Sheridan`s).

Cooking method:

1. Beat the cookies into crumbs, cut the sticks or break them into small pieces. Mix these products with coconut flakes.
2. In a separate container, mix cream, sugar and cocoa. Heat this mixture until all granulated sugar crystals dissolve. Then add the diced butter and liqueur and mix the mixture thoroughly.
3. Pour the mixture of cookies, sticks and shavings into the resulting cream and mix. Form a roll from this mass, which must be cooled until set for about an hour before serving.

Cake with condensed milk

To prepare a delicious striped dessert from corn sticks and condensed milk you will need the following ingredients:

• 200 g corn sticks;
• 370 g boiled condensed milk;
• 50-60 g butter;
• 100 g peanuts;
• 90 g powdered sugar;
• 90 g cocoa drink "Nesquik".

Recipe step by step:

1. Chop the nuts a little with a knife and fry in a dry frying pan, but do not fry. You just need to enhance their aroma.
2. Cut the corn sticks into half-centimeter thick rounds and mix with melted butter, boiled condensed milk and peanuts. Press the resulting mass tightly into a tall rectangular cake pan, lined with food foil or film and greased with vegetable oil.
3. Refrigerate the sweet food for two to three hours. Once set, remove from pan to a serving platter and top with stripes of Nesquik and powdered sugar. By the way, the drawing can be absolutely anything.

Cake recipe with sticks, coconut and liqueur

Creating this unusual sweet will take a little longer than working with previous recipes, but even a schoolchild can still handle it.

This version of the corn stick dish includes the following ingredients:

• 140 g corn sticks;
• 370 g boiled condensed milk;
• 155 g butter;
• 120 g coconut flakes;
• 100 g dark chocolate;
• 20 ml liqueur.

Recipe step by step:

1. Use a blender to crush the puffed cornmeal sticks into fine crumbs.
2. To make the cream, beat the boiled condensed milk to a creamy consistency with butter and liqueur. Place part of the cream (approximately 1/3) in a separate bowl, and mix the rest with corn stick crumbs.
3. Form the resulting mass into balls no larger than a walnut. Roll each of them in coconut flakes.
4. From the balls, assemble a structure similar to a slide, pressing the balls tightly against each other and generously smearing each row with the remaining cream.
5. Pour melted chocolate on top of the formed cake. Before serving, the dessert should be kept in the cold for at least one to two hours.

What is more in corn sticks (benefit or harm), everyone must decide for themselves, soberly assessing the characteristics and condition of their body. But if you carefully choose this delicacy, excluding products with dangerous content, then every healthy person can sometimes treat himself to sweet corn sticks or a piece of dessert made from them.

Let's look at the interesting topic of the history of corn sticks and find out How are corn sticks made? Sweet corn sticks have been known to everyone since childhood. They were a favorite delicacy back in Soviet times. Tender, airy and crispy sticks are loved not only by children, but also by adults. This product is both tasty and incredibly healthy. Made from high-quality varieties of corn with the addition of natural products (powdered sugar and deodorized vegetable oil), corn sticks are rich in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and other minerals, and also contain vitamins C, E, PP and B group.

The predecessors of corn sticks were corn flakes, which were invented by the American brothers Wil and Keith Kellogg completely by accident. The reason was their own prudence, and maybe even greed. But, one way or another, in 1895 a patent was issued in the USA for the invention: “Hulled corn cereals, as well as the technology for their preparation.”

Corn sticks replaced flakes only in the post-war years of the 20th century. With the rapid development of food production technologies in the United States, extrusion has become widely used in various branches of the food industry. Extrusion is the pressing of a viscous mass of a product through special holes in order to obtain products of the required shape. In the Soviet Union, the first corn sticks were produced in 1963 at the Dnepropetrovsk Food Concentrates Plant using domestic equipment developed by Soviet designers. Since then, corn sticks have become a favorite delicacy of millions of people.

And finally how to make corn sticks, the production of corn sticks is a labor-intensive process. Corn grain must go through several stages of the technological cycle before it turns into an appetizing food. To make corn sticks, glassy, ​​hard varieties of corn are used. The grain is cleaned of the fruit shells and germ, which impart bitterness to the product. The prepared corn is ground into grits. Then the cereal is calibrated: sifted through vibrating sieves, where particles of inappropriate size are eliminated. The corn grits obtained in this way must be absolutely pure and without any flour impurities, which will negatively affect the quality.

The finished corn grits are sent to a special bunker, where it is salted, moistened, mixed and left for some time to evenly distribute moisture. Next, the extruder comes into operation. This is a special device that works on the principle of the well-known meat grinder. It has the shape of a cylinder, inside which a screw rotates at a certain speed. Heating elements are located in the inlet part of the extruder, and the outlet part is equipped with a matrix with holes of a certain diameter.

The prepared corn cereal mass is fed into an extruder, which is heated to a predetermined temperature. Using a screw mechanism, it moves towards the matrix. Under the influence of heating elements, the temperature of the corn mass increases. The liquid begins to evaporate from it and the pressure in the extruder increases. Under such conditions, corn grits turn into a plastic mass.

When the mass exits the extruder through the holes of the matrix, a sharp drop in pressure occurs, the superheated steam quickly evaporates and the corn mass explosively increases in size. Special ones cut the streams of squeezed-out corn sticks into pieces of the required size. And this is almost a finished product. All that remains is to sweeten the sticks and for this they use purified vegetable oil and finely ground, sifted powdered sugar. This process is carried out in special glazing installations, where cooled corn sticks and vegetable oil are first fed, and then powdered sugar.

Only with strict adherence to the technological process will high-quality products be obtained. The slightest glitch and corn sticks You may come across hard grains, and such delicacies are unlikely to please anyone.

Sweet corn sticks are a high-calorie product. 100 grams of sticks contain approximately 300 calories. Currently, the range of corn sticks is very large. They can be sweet, salty, cheese, bacon, and even lard flavored. Shelf life of sweets corn sticks without additives is quite large. But the shelf life of sticks with all kinds of flavorings must be controlled according to the sell-by date indicated on the label.

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Corn sticks are familiar to people of all ages. Everyone, without exception, knows the amazing taste of this crispy treat. It can confidently be put on a par with such delicacies as ice cream or “cock lollipops”.

A package of puffed food can be given to children at school, taken with you to work, on a picnic or on a trip, because it is relatively inexpensive and perfectly satisfies hunger. This is a very healthy product, but do not forget that it is also very high in calories, so you should not abuse your favorite food.

Many people are interested in how to cook corn sticks at home, and whether it is even possible to do it yourself. The technological process for making this popular dish is quite complex, so it is almost impossible to prepare it at home. Only special equipment that cannot be found in a regular kitchen can help with this. But there is another recipe for corn sticks that can be used to make this dish similar to the real thing. Let's look at two cooking options step by step and with photos.

We make corn sticks using specialized equipment

You will need equipment such as a household kitchen extruder and a screw conditioner. During cooking, humidity and temperature indicators should be observed, as well as the necessary atmospheric conditions should be created. Only then will you get the right and high-quality product. Using a special device - UKP-M, which costs about 2000 rubles, you can also quickly prepare your favorite dessert.

The preparation scheme is as follows (amount of ingredients “by eye”):

1. Grind the corn grits in a coffee grinder to even grains. Their size directly affects the foaming of the mass from which the delicacy is formed. Poor grinding will lead to lumps and burning;
2. Place the ground grains into the auger conditioner. There it needs to be mixed with warm, salted water for about four minutes;
3. Set the speed to constant and wait 3 hours for the mixture to mix until completely broken up. In this case, the humidity percentage in the device must be constantly maintained at 25%;
4. The moistened prepared cereal must be placed in an extrusion apparatus, where it undergoes a heating process of up to 200 degrees and foams, acquiring a plastic, homogeneous structure;
5. Next, the device uses pressure to push the mass into a special drying chamber, evenly cutting the “dough” with a mechanical knife at regular intervals. In this chamber, corn blanks are dried until their moisture content decreases to 5%. This makes them crispy. And it is at this stage that the workpieces acquire their usual airy appearance and porous shape;
6. The final stage is glazing. Here, the workpieces are first coated with filtered vegetable oil by spraying it onto the surface of the resulting products. After this, they are placed in a mixing drum along with the ground ingredients for glazing (powdered sugar, crushed salt, chocolate chips or various seasonings);
7. With this our delicacy is ready. It will be as tasty as the product produced in the factory.

Simplified version of corn sticks

There is another way to make homemade corn sticks. It is much simpler and faster than the previous one. Finished products will differ significantly from store-bought ones, but will also delight you with their taste.

You will need:

• 2 eggs;
• Butter – 50 g;
• Corn flour – 100 g;
• Milk – 70 ml.

Step-by-step cooking instructions:

1. Stir the butter and milk in a saucepan, place on low heat and bring to a boil, then slowly add the corn flour and stir continuously to avoid the appearance of lumps. Bring the mass until smooth;
2. Remove the resulting mixture from the heat and cool, then add the eggs and beat all the ingredients thoroughly;
3. We put the mixture into a cooking bag, then squeeze small finger-thick strips out of it onto a baking sheet;
4. We bake the preparations in a well-heated oven;
5. If desired, sprinkle the top of the finished dish with powdered sugar and place it on a plate.

Raffaello made from corn sticks

Your favorite delicacy can be consumed separately or included in many dishes. Therefore, finally - a simple sweet dessert made from corn sticks.

You will need:

• A jar of condensed milk;
• Corn “sticks” – 150 g;
• Coconut flakes - to taste;
• Nuts (any) – 100 g.

Cooking step by step:

1. Grind the corn sticks in a blender or pass through a meat grinder to obtain “flour”;
2. Place condensed milk in it and stir thoroughly until smooth;
3. Form small balls from the “dough”, place a nut on them and press them in, then roll the pieces again, giving them a round shape. Instead of nuts, you can use dried apricots or prunes;
4. Pour coconut flakes into a deep bowl and roll each ball evenly in it, then place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. After this, the delicacy is ready to serve.

Video: How to make corn sticks at home