Five Popular Sweets Around the World

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Text to type: We can ask four questions about a sweet. What ingredients are in it? What form does it have? How do people make it? What is its texture, or how does it feel in your mouth? Gelato is a popular frozen sweet from Italy. Its main ingredients are milk, sugar, and flavour. Gelato has less air than ice cream, so it is denser. Dense food is closely packed, not light and full of air.

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Text to type: Baklava is a popular pastry sweet in Turkey and nearby countries. It has many thin layers of pastry with chopped nuts between them. Honey or sweet syrup goes over the pastry and soaks into it. “Soaks into” means the liquid enters the food. Baklava and gelato have very different forms. Gelato is one frozen mixture. Baklava is built from many pastry layers, nuts, and sweet liquid.

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Text to type: Mochi is a popular rice cake from Japan. It is made from sticky rice. People pound the rice, or hit it again and again, until it becomes soft and stretchy. Mochi has a chewy texture, so you must move your teeth many times when you eat it. Some mochi has sweet bean paste inside. People can also eat it with other sweet toppings. Unlike layered baklava, mochi is a soft rice cake.

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Text to type: A churro is a popular fried dough sweet from Spain. Frying means cooking food in hot oil. The dough cooks until it is golden. People often roll the churro in sugar after frying it. Churros are also eaten in Latin America. Some people eat them with thick hot chocolate. Their cooking method is different from gelato: churros go into hot oil, but gelato is frozen.

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Text to type: An alfajor is a popular sweet in Argentina and other parts of South America. It is a sandwich cookie. Here, “sandwich” means that two round cookies hold a filling in the middle. The filling is a sweet milk caramel. Some alfajores also have chocolate or sugar on the outside. Their form is different from baklava: an alfajor has two cookies around one centre, while baklava has many thin pastry layers.

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Text to type: Now use the four questions. Gelato is a dense, frozen milk sweet. Baklava is layered pastry with nuts and syrup. Mochi is a chewy rice cake. A churro is fried dough, often with sugar. An alfajor is a sandwich cookie with milk caramel. Their ingredients, forms, cooking methods, and textures make them different. One is frozen, one has many layers, one is chewy, one is fried, and one has two cookies around a filling.

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