Dried foam from cornmeal, and this, in fact, are corn sticks, is loved by children of all ages. Recently, their range on the shelves of food stores has expanded significantly. You can find not only a sweet product, but also salty sticks with different tastes, as well as in chocolate or various glazes.

Corn sticks - how and from what do they make?

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 forced through the die by means of a screw (outlet openings). Here the fun begins: the temperature and pressure of the feedstock drop sharply, the water evaporates almost instantly, and porous and air sticks appear.

Calorie content and composition

The composition of the favorite treats of many children is not multicomponent. To make corn sticks, you will need only corn grits (cereals are used in industrial production, not flour), refined and deodorized vegetable oil, finely ground table salt and icing sugar (sometimes mixed with powdered milk or cocoa).

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

Calorie content of sweet air corn sticks averages 518 kcal / 100 g. The ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, respectively - 6/28/58.

Benefits and harm to the body

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

But this positive point has a downside. The same heat treatment almost completely destroys the vitamins A and E contained in the cereal. True, you can replenish the supply of vitamins during the use of sticks by simply pouring them with juice. 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 also quickly settle with extra centimeters and an orange peel on the waist and hips. This is another possible harm to the body.

Who should limit their use?

There are a number of categories of people who should limit their intake of corn sticks or completely abandon them:

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

How to cook at home?

How to make corn sticks on an industrial scale is already known, but now is the time to find out if this dessert can be repeated at home and how to do it.

None of the housewives in the kitchen have an extruder to repeat the technology, so at home it will not work to cook an identical product, but you can make a sweet airy dessert with a similar taste, as close as possible to the desired result.

For corn sticks at home, you need to take:

  • 220 g icing sugar;
  • 4 egg whites
  • 130 g of cornmeal.

The process of creating home sticks:

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

Corn Stick Dessert Recipes

Cake Anthill

To make a tasty treat - a cake of corn sticks and toffee is enough to have a quarter of an hour and the following components:

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

How to make a cake without baking:

  1. So that there are no voids in the ant hill, chop the corn sticks with a knife a little, but not too finely.
  2. Put the toffee with butter on a minimum fire and constantly stirring to bring the mass to a smooth and uniform consistency.
  3. Pour the sticks into the cream of butter and toffee, mix and quickly (since the mass quickly sets) put on a serving plate, form a slide. Squeeze it slightly with your hands to avoid the formation of air pockets. Formed cake send for half an hour in the cold.

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 of corn sticks;
  • 150 g butter;
  • 100 g of sugar;
  • 80 ml of fat cream (from 33%);
  • 100 g of cocoa powder;
  • 80 g coconut flakes;
  • 30 ml of coffee and creamy liquor (e.g. Baileys or Sheridan`s).

Cooking method:

  1. Smash the cookies into crumbs, chop or chop sticks into small pieces. Mix these products with coconut.
  2. In a separate container, mix cream, sugar and cocoa. Warm this mixture until all sugar crystals are dissolved. Then add diced butter and liquor, mix the mixture carefully.
  3. Pour the mixture of cookies, sticks and chips into the cream obtained, mix. From this mass, form a roll, which must be cooled before serving for about an hour before serving.

Condensed Milk Cake

To prepare a delicious striped dessert of corn sticks and condensed milk, the following components will be required:

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

Recipe step by step:

  1. Chop the nuts a little with a knife and fry them in a dry pan, but do not fry them. You just need to enhance their aroma.
  2. Cut corn sticks into rounds half a centimeter thick and mix with melted butter, boiled condensed milk and peanuts. The mass that turned out, tightly tamped into a high rectangular shape for the cake, covered with food foil or film and lubricated with vegetable oil.
  3. Send sweet food for two to three hours in the cold. After hardening, remove from the mold onto a serving dish and sprinkle with “Nesquikom” and sweet powder strips on top. Drawing, by the way, can be absolutely any.

Cake Recipe with Chopsticks, Coconut Chips and Liquor

Creating this unusual sweet will take a little more time than working on previous recipes, but even a schoolboy can cope with it anyway.

The composition of this option of corn sticks includes such components:

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

Recipe step by step:

  1. Kill the air sticks from the corn grits in a small crumb.
  2. To make the cream, beat the boiled condensed milk to a creamy consistency with oil and liquor. Put part of the cream (approximately 1/3) into a separate bowl and mix the rest with corn chopsticks.
  3. From the resulting mass, form balls no larger than a walnut. Each of them roll in coconut.
  4. From the balls to assemble a structure that looks like a slide, tightly pressing the balls to each other and generously smearing each row with the remaining cream.
  5. Pour the formed cake on top with melted chocolate. Before serving, dessert should be kept in the cold for at least one to two hours.

What is more in corn sticks (good or harm), everyone must decide for himself, soberly assessing the features and condition of his body. But if you carefully approach the choice of this delicacy, excluding products with a dangerous content, then every healthy person can sometimes indulge in sweet corn sticks or a slice of dessert from them.

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