Is it possible to eat milk chocolate in fasting. What chocolates can you eat during Lent? What is Lean Chocolate
On the eve of major Christian holidays, believers observe fasting. This is done to purify the body and soul, to turn thoughts to the spiritual. Fasting should serve to strengthen the will, spirit and body. During fasting, many pleasures are banned - gastronomic and not only.
It is forbidden to eat fast food (meat, eggs, dairy products), alcohol. But what about sweets?
Sweets are allowed during fasting. But these should be special, lean treats.
There are no restrictions on sugar, because it is a vegetable product. But eggs, dairy products and animal oils are banned. For a lean treat, flour, jam or jam, sugar, honey, vegetable oil. You can add raisins, nuts, cocoa to your lean culinary masterpieces.
Chocolate in post
"But what about chocolate?" - you ask. You can eat chocolate in the post. But not everyone.
Only dark dark chocolate is allowed during fasting. It contains cocoa butter, cocoa powder and sugar. This chocolate contains no dairy products and animal fats. So, chocolate, carefully study its composition - it is written on the package.
Some church fathers even argue that, just as despondency is a sin, then to cheer yourself up with a window of black bitter chocolate is a good and charitable deed. Such a small joy is not forbidden even to monks.
Special offer for sweet tooth
For fasting sweet tooth we offer honey cake recipe.
You will need:
- 1 cup of sugar,
- 200 ml of water
- 2 tablespoons of honey and cocoa,
- 1 teaspoon soda, half a glass of vegetable oil
- half a glass of any jam or jam,
- flour to taste
- raisins, nuts,
- a pinch of cinnamon.
Pour sugar into a saucepan, add honey, vegetable oil and water. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly, so that the sugar is completely dissolved. Cool the liquid slightly - up to 35-40 C. Add cocoa, cinnamon and soda. Stir. Then add flour, stirring gently so that there are no lumps. The consistency of the finished dough should resemble thick sour cream. Add nuts and raisins.
Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Cut the finished gingerbread lengthwise and spread with jam.
Can you eat dark chocolate during fasting? It is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to this question in view of the huge amount of chocolate products that today's market offers. Is it possible to believe the mark "for fasting" on a bar of chocolate? First you should pay attention to its composition.
Fasting and favorite sweets
Fasting is a difficult test for every lay believer. In the modern rhythm of life, it is difficult to refuse pleasures, including gastronomic pleasures. As a rule, not everyone fasts in the same family, so it is difficult for those who follow this spiritual practice to resist the temptation to eat. The same applies to corporate parties, secular celebrations and other events.
Most often, a fasting person leaves the race not because of a physical craving for the forbidden. Breakdown happens on a psychological level. All thoughts are directed exclusively to food, and this is the first and most serious deviation from the rules of spiritual transformation during fasting.
How to resolve this confusing situation without deceiving yourself? It is necessary to choose a diet that will fully saturate the body with the necessary energy, and in addition, something to pamper the believer, which will relieve psychological stress. That is why it is appropriate to use real chocolate, which is not only tasty, but also useful for the human body.
How to choose chocolate for fasting
Choosing good chocolate is not as easy as it might seem. Authentic chocolate and fake chocolate can be equalized in price on the supermarket shelf. During fasting, not only the spirit, but also the flesh of a person is cleansed. In order not to interfere with this, you need to use only high-quality products.
The better the chocolate, the fewer components in its composition. Dark chocolate, which can be eaten in any post, includes only 3 ingredients: cocoa beans, cocoa butter and sugar. Nikah cream and powdered milk. If a long list of unknown words is found in the composition of chocolate, this purchase should be discarded, as preservatives and additives can harm the body, cleansed during fasting.
High-quality dark chocolate is not only possible, but should be consumed. It supports the immune system, helps fight viruses and harmful bacteria, is a strong prophylactic in the treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal and cardiovascular tract, stimulates cells to regenerate, is an antioxidant and antidepressant.
Dark chocolate toffee for fasting
Dark chocolate treats suitable during Lent are easy to make with your own hands.
For example, lean iris. To prepare it you will need:
- 1 cup white rice;
- 400 g dried apricots (raisins or nuts can be used instead of dried apricots);
- 1 glass of granulated sugar;
- 2 cups orange juice;
- 400 g dark chocolate.
Rice is well washed and cooked until it becomes viscous, then rubbed through a sieve. 2 cups of orange fresh are poured into a small metal container and granulated sugar is poured, and the mixture is sent to a slow fire, where it is brought to a boil to produce orange syrup. Next, grated rice is added to the syrup.
The new mass is again brought to a boil over low heat. After that, the mass is removed from the fire, cooled and laid out in a thin layer on a dish, where it solidifies for 20-24 hours. The frozen mass is cut into pieces, and chopped dried apricots, raisins or nuts are placed on top.
Dried apricots and raisins need additional cleaning and processing: they need to be poured with boiling water 1-2 times, dried well before use. Now is the time for high quality chocolate made from cocoa beans, cocoa butter and sugar. Chocolate is melted in a water bath or in microwave oven. The previously prepared mass must be carefully lowered into melted chocolate, then send the chocolate toffee to the refrigerator. To make the chocolate layer thicker, you can lower the prepared blanks into the melted dessert several times.
The result is a lot of iris, which can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time. You can take it with you so that during a snack you will not be tempted in pastry shops and fast food restaurants. Chocolate toffee with natural additives is an acceptable delicacy for any post.
Dark chocolate is a great product for those who want to cleanse their body and soul during fasting. However, there are a number simple terms. Chocolate must be real: it must contain a minimum amount of ingredients (cocoa beans, cocoa butter and sugar). It is strictly forbidden in the composition of chocolate used in fasting, cream or powdered milk. Treats must answer state standard. Such a dessert is not capable of harming the figure and health, if consumed in reasonable quantities.
In 2019, Lent falls on the period from March 11 to April 27. During this period, there are strict dietary restrictions. People often ask: is it possible to eat dark chocolate in great post? Attitudes towards this product have changed over the centuries. Chocolate was either recommended for fasting or forbidden.
Moreover, the question of whether it is possible to eat chocolates during Lent was not “on the agenda” for a long time: solid chocolate and sweets appeared only in the 19th century, and before that, for several centuries, it was popular with aristocrats. chocolate drink, which was prepared from products of plant origin.
However, all drinks that give pleasure are not recommended to be consumed during fasting, so the issue of chocolate remained controversial. When Pope Pius V was treated to a cup of hot chocolate without sugar, he decided that it was okay to drink it during fasting: after all, “such disgusting things cannot please someone” ...
In 1662 Catholic Church stated that chocolate can be consumed during fasts, after which it became very popular in monasteries.
But the Bishop of Vienna, John, considered it a "sinful passion-inciting drink" and forbade the Franciscan monks to drink it. And, of course, chocolate was no longer consumed on fasting days, when milk and alcoholic beverages were added to it: wine, liquor and even beer.
Can you eat dark chocolate during Lent 2019?
The composition of bitter chocolate includes cocoa butter, grated cocoa and powdered sugar; soy lecithin, that is, an ingredient of plant origin, is also commonly used.
Some manufacturing companies produce chocolate that contains 99% cocoa and does not include sugar. So if there are no ingredients of animal origin in this product, then it can be included in the diet on fasting days.
A similar answer can be given to the question of whether chocolates can be eaten during Lent. However, all this does not apply to milk chocolate, which contains dairy products: as a rule, it is not fresh, but powdered (whole or skimmed) milk, whey, dried cream or milk fat.
The composition of white chocolate includes special milk powder, which gives the product a peculiar shade of taste. Some of the essential components of chocolate paste are whey, whole or skimmed milk powder.
In addition, alcohol-containing liquids are added to some types of chocolate products. So be careful when choosing chocolate, and be sure to read what is written on the label.
The clergy remind that Great Lent is a refusal not only from certain foods, but also from the pleasures that we get when we eat goodies. So do not include too many sweets and chocolates on the menu these days.
Today, many people fast, and therefore eat only lean food. But even among them there are those who cannot live a day without sweets. Is there lean chocolate and what is included in it? Fortunately for those with a sweet tooth, such a product is actually produced, and many manufacturers. Let's find out more about him.
What is lean chocolate?
Since you also want to see a variety of dishes and products on the table in fasting, many people prefer to please themselves with confectionery. Today, many sweets companies have opened new lines with lean products. A series of lean confectionery products includes products that do not contain dairy products and animal fats. This is not only cookies, but also caramel, sweets, chocolate. Some types of products have fillers in the form of nuts, raisins and other lean ingredients.
The recipe of all products is selected in a special way: the products do not differ much from traditional sweets either in taste or in nutritional values. The chocolates of this series include sugar, molasses, cocoa and other "permitted" components.
Thanks to the high nutritional value of such chocolate or cookies, a fasting person will be able to maintain vitality at an optimal level and prevent the rapid appearance of fatigue.
Fasting and dark chocolate
If it is not possible to purchase products from a special lean series, you should not be upset, because ordinary dark chocolate can also be considered lean. The main thing is that it is natural and does not contain prohibited fillings.
Dark chocolate consists exclusively of components of plant origin, cocoa butter acts as the basis here. This useful product well absorbed by the body. The use of cocoa products serves as a prevention of cardiovascular diseases, narrowing and hardening of the arteries, and also improves blood circulation. During the fasting period, you can buy dark chocolate with almonds and other types of nuts. Raisins are also allowed, but this ingredient is rarely added to dark chocolate.
Lean dark chocolate typically contains 58% to 99% cocoa. Before buying a sweet, be sure to check its composition printed on the label. If there is no milk and animal fats, then you can eat a chocolate bar without a twinge of conscience. It is worth noting that bitter chocolate perfectly relieves depression, which often occurs during the fasting period for those who refuse all their usual and favorite foods.
Lean chocolate brands
The Belarusian manufacturer "First Chocolate Company" produces black chocolate called "Monastyrsky Bitter Lenten". The product contains 62% cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar, lecithin and vanillin. Tiles weighing 100 grams are packed in a festive wrapper. Natural chocolate has a high taste and does not contain artificial flavors.
The Ukrainian manufacturer of confectionery "Konti" also produces a series of lean sweets. Among them are cookies, caramel and chocolates. All products included in this series do not contain ingredients of animal origin.
The assortment of dark chocolate, which is allowed to be consumed during fasting, is rather large at the Conti company. These are Dolci natural chocolate from TM AMOUR and three types of dark chocolate AMOUR-CARRE (black, spicy black and black with whole almonds).
It is useful to eat dark chocolate not only during fasting, but it is during this period, when you need to restrict the body from eating many foods, that it does not hurt to occasionally indulge yourself with a delicious treat.
The Lenten table differs from the dietary table also in that even sweets and coffee cannot be consumed during this period. But is it possible to have chocolate on a diet if you have given up everything that brings gastronomic joy? As a product that has entered our diet not so long ago, chocolate may not be mentioned in the list of lean foods approved by the Charter.
Is chocolate allowed during Lent?
Chocolate belongs to the list of foods that we do not eat to satisfy our hunger. This is a product that gives us the joy of eating, and therefore it is not allowed to use it in fasting. Each fast is a time of abstinence and spiritual cleansing. Therefore, willpower is brought up, and chocolate cannot be consumed during fasting, like many other sweets:
- chocolate candies;
- caramel;
- cakes;
- waffles;
- biscuit;
- marmalade.
Store-bought sweets during fasting are prohibited, as products that in everyday life are not symbols of saturation, but additions.
In general, the question of whether chocolate can be in will not even be asked by a person who is constantly fasting. After all, it is known that in fasting you can’t eat animal products and eat fats, except for vegetable oil (on allowed days). If you know the composition of chocolate, then it contains the following products:
- milk;
- alcohol;
- sugar;
and other products are part of the chocolate. But during fasting it is forbidden to consume at least milk and fat. That is why the answer to the question, is it possible to have chocolate during Lent, the answer will be - no! After all, this product does not apply to lean, as it contains milk.
If there are still a number of permitted products regarding baking, they are sold and are called “lean”, they do not contain milk and eggs, then the situation is different with chocolate. It is technically impossible to produce chocolate that will be made without milk or sugar, and fat is also an important condition for the structure of this product. Milk can be replaced with milk powder, sugar with a substitute, and fat with butter. But then it will be a surrogate chocolate, but is it necessary to eat this?
On the other hand, many fasting people in our time can turn to the priest and find out what kind of chocolate can be consumed during fasting, without considering it a sin. There are special brands that produce chocolate without animal fats and proteins. Such chocolate in fasting can be eaten without restrictions, and only such a product is considered permitted for all fasting people.
If you absolutely cannot live without sweets, and be sure to eat chocolate with tea, you can replace chocolate with sweets allowed in fasting.
- bananas;
- candied fruit;
- cashew nuts;
- berries;
These products are sweet and can replace your favorite chocolate bar for tea.
