![\"Tklapi](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sweetlore-20261026-figure-47317faff40af4c2.webp?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
<\/p>\nTklapi (\u10e2\u10e7\u10da\u10d0\u10de\u10d8) is a Georgian preserved food made by mashing fruit, spreading it thin and drying it. It is sold as paper-thin sheets, stacked or rolled, and when eaten, the sourness and sweetness of the fruit come through strongly. Unlike dried fruit, which keeps the shape of the fruit, the flesh is first made into a pur\u00e9e and then re-formed into a single film.<\/p>\n
While the sweet kinds are enjoyed by tearing off pieces to eat, the sour kinds are also used in cooking. Having two uses, as a confection and as a seasoning, is a distinctive feature of tklapi. Unlike those meant as sweet snacks, the sour sheets add the acidity of fruit to soups and stews.<\/p>\n
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Tklapi made from thinly dried fruit. Although the colors differ, each is in a form that can be held as a single film. Photo: Source<\/a>, Xuthoria, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Image not modified (reduced-size version from the hosting source).<\/p>\n The fruit is cooked until soft, then the seeds and skins are removed and the pulp is made uniform. If the juice is still thin at this stage, it is difficult to obtain a cohesive sheet even when it is spread out. Concentrating it, then spreading it thin over a large drying surface, is the basis for finishing it as a single sheet.<\/p>\n When mulberries are used, some methods add wheat flour. Gardens of Biodiversity, published in 2010 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), documents the food of farmers in the South Caucasus and how they adapt to the seasons, and it includes Georgian tklapi. In the method with wheat flour described in the book, mulberries are mashed and sieved and cooked down until their volume is greatly reduced, and then a thick paste of wheat flour and water prepared in a separate pot is mixed in. The mixture is spread on cloth and dried in the sun, and when it is peeled off, the cloth is moistened slightly from the back.<\/p>\n In this method, not only the fruit but also the cooked wheat flour holds the sheet together. The back of the cloth is moistened not to rehydrate the fruit but to release the dried layer from the cloth. The book also clearly describes a method that does not use flour, so versions with wheat flour and versions made only of fruit coexist. The fact that the finished product is thin does not necessarily mean that fruit is its only ingredient.<\/p>\n Fresh mulberries, the cooked-down concentrate and the dry film contain different amounts of water for the same quantity. A more intense taste when eaten does not necessarily mean that more sugar was added. The processing itself, which removes excess water and gathers the components of the fruit into a smaller volume, makes the sourness and sweetness more distinct.<\/p>\n Sour plum tklapi is torn into pieces and added to stews such as kharcho. Darra Goldstein\u2019s 1999 cookbook also describes a method of cooking and sieving sour plums and drying them thin, and explains their use for adding sourness to soups and stews. The dry sheet softens again in the liquid, and the sourness of the preserved fruit dissolves into the dish.<\/p>\n Tklapi can also be soaked in water to soften it and combined with seasonings to make a sauce. In one example published by Georgia\u2019s FoodLab, a finely cut sour sheet is softened in water and simmered until it dissolves, then seasoned with garlic, cilantro, red chili pepper and salt. The dry sheet can thus be turned back into a sauce.<\/p>\n Apricots, peaches and other fruits are also used for the sweet kinds. Between those made with sour plums and those that make use of the fruit\u2019s sweetness, the same thin sheet plays a different role at the table. Looking at the type of fruit together with whether flour is used, including mulberry versions, makes it clear that tklapi is not the name of a single formulation but a name that encompasses a technique for preserving fruit as a film.<\/p>\n Tklapi is made throughout Georgia. The FAO record states that similar processing is also widespread in neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan. Tklapi is a food that belongs to life in the South Caucasus, where dried fruit, cooked-down fruit juice and fruit sheets are made for different purposes so that fruit can be eaten over a long season.<\/p>\n Compared with churchkhela<\/a>, in which thick fruit juice is layered over nuts threaded on a string, in tklapi the thin surface itself is the finished product. Unlike churchkhela, which builds up coatings around the nuts at its center, tklapi\u2019s form is determined by the area over which it is spread and its thickness. The rolled sheets lined up at markets offer the convenience of preserved food: the harvest lasts until winter, and when it is time to eat, people can choose whether to tear it off and eat it as is or return it to cooking.<\/p>\n A market in Tbilisi. Stacked fruit sheets are in the foreground, with hanging churchkhela in the back. Photo: Ekkatterrinna, 2020-08-30, Tbilisi, Georgia. Original image<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version from the hosting source, no additional processing.<\/p>\n Tklapi (\u10e2\u10e7\u10da\u10d0\u10de\u10d8)<\/strong>: A Georgian food made by drying fruit pur\u00e9e in thin sheets. There are strongly sour versions for cooking and sweet versions for snacking.<\/p> Pur\u00e9e<\/strong>: Fruit flesh or similar ingredients mashed and sieved until smooth.<\/p> Darra Goldstein<\/strong>: Author of the Georgian cookbook The Georgian Feast. In its tklapi entry, published in 1999, she described sour plum sheets and their culinary uses.<\/p> Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)<\/strong>: An international organization concerned with agriculture and food. In this article, it is relevant as the organization behind a 2010 publication documenting the food culture of farmers in the South Caucasus.<\/p> Kharcho<\/strong>: The name of a Georgian soup or stew. Some methods use tklapi as the ingredient that adds sourness.<\/p> Churchkhela<\/strong>: A confection made by coating nuts threaded on a string with fruit juice thickened with flour or other ingredients and drying it.<\/p> FoodLab \u201cTklapi Sauce\u201d<\/a> \u2014 An example of softening a sour sheet in water, simmering it until it dissolves, and adding aromatics.<\/p>\n<\/li> FAO Gardens of Biodiversity<\/a> \u2014 Published 2010, p.153. Tklapi made with mulberries and wheat flour, and a method that does not use flour.<\/p>\n<\/li>Adjusting the concentration before drying<\/h2>\n
Returning sour sheets to cooking<\/h2>\n
Fruit processing in the South Caucasus<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/00789a7f2c72c1ba0e9066534bf6bf156ab92cb50a06c1168f939806d36cd48c.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
<\/p>\n![\"For](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/64e5272a8eb6cd58c94c1b48ac5ec7c787bf2d7844d966cf3d8bcffef676129a.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
\nGlossary<\/h2>\n
References<\/h2>\n
![Source<\/a>, Xuthoria,](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Various_flavors_of_Tklapi_from_Dezerter_Bazaar_%28Tbilisi,_Georgia%29.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Original image<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Traditional_Georgian_sweets_-_Churchkhela_and_Tklapi.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Churchkhela.jpg\"){kind=link}