You can, but you will get plain caramel balls rather than chak-chak. Honey gives the distinctive aroma that the dish depends on.
Chak-chak is a golden sweet made from small balls or sticks of fried dough, bound together with a hot syrup of honey and sugar. It belongs to both Uzbek and Tatar cooking, and at an Uzbek wedding it is one of the most common desserts. What matters most is a light, airy dough and hot honey: the syrup should coat the pieces and bind them together without turning them into caramel.
Method
- 1
Beat the eggs with the milk, salt and bicarbonate of soda.
- 2
Add the flour gradually and knead into an elastic dough.
- 3
Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
- 4
Roll the dough into ropes 1 cm thick.
- 5
Cut the ropes into pieces 1.5 cm long.
- 6
Heat the oil to 170 °C.
- 7
Fry the pieces in batches for 30–40 seconds until golden, then lift them out with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper.
- 8
In a saucepan, combine the honey, sugar and water. Bring to the boil and cook for 5–7 minutes to the thread stage: when you lift out a spoon, the syrup trails into a thread.
- 9
Take the syrup off the heat, tip in the fried dough and stir quickly.
- 10
Pile the chak-chak into a mound on a plate, decorate with nuts and leave to cool for 1 hour until firm.
Cook's tips
- The syrup is the tricky part: overcooked, it sets into brittle caramel; undercooked, it stays a sticky mass.
- Cut the dough into 1.5 cm pieces: larger ones turn out hard, smaller ones burn.
- Work fast once the dough and syrup are combined, because the syrup sets quickly.
- Chak-chak is not cut with a knife. It is a dessert to go with conversation, and people break it apart by hand.
FAQ
Chak-chak: common questions
Up to 30 days in an airtight container at room temperature. There is no need to refrigerate it: in the fridge, chak-chak goes hard.
You can shift the balance slightly from sugar towards honey, but you cannot make chak-chak truly unsweetened: it is a sweet dessert by nature.
Traditionally, almonds or walnuts. If you like, add raisins, fine desiccated coconut or candied fruit. Some modern versions also use dried cranberries.
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Get the ingredients at Arkan Bazar
You will find rice, spices, dried fruit, nuts, non flatbread and tea for most of these recipes on our counter at Riga Central Market, Nēģu iela 7, open daily from 09:00 to 17:00.