Traditional Sweets

In addition to a wide range of preserves and beverages, Russians prepared other types of sweets, although it must be stressed that for the most part these treats were reserved for the well-to-do, as the serfs, and later the peasants, subsisted on meager grain-based diets; only on feast days and major holidays like Easter were they able to indulge. Pastila is among the most distinctive: puréed, sweetened apples are whipped with egg whites and dried slowly in the oven to form a light confection. See pastila. An old term for fruit leather is levashniki. Fruit, usually berries, was cooked with patoka and puréed, then spread into a thin layer and dried. See fruit pastes.