World’s Best Charoset

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I said it, and I mean it. Last night I’m eating the haroset and thinking “why do I only make this once a year?” Then I’m thinking – “why am I eating this for dinner when I REALLY should be eating this over vanilla ice cream!?” But then I’m googling – Is ice cream kosher for passover? This is what happens when your religion encourages you to drink all night! Anyways, this recipe is LEGIT and thank goodness this makes a LARGE batch because you’re gonna want a ton of this.

SHOPPING LIST: 6 red apples, 2 lemons, pecans, walnuts, dates, dried cherries, Manischevitz wine, honey, confectioners sugar, cayenne pepper, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg

The first step is candying the pecans. If you’re lucky to have a store nearby like Whole Foods that carries candied pecans than lucky you – I would totally just buy them if I could. For the rest of us – take 1 1/2 cups of pecans and lay them on a baking sheet and throw them in a 350 degree oven for 4 minutes. Set up a strainer in your sink and then, in a mixing bowl, combine 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar with 1/2 tsp. of salt and 5 dashes of cayenne pepper. When the pecans emerge from the oven, put them in the strainer and run water over the nuts so they are equally wet. Then, toss the wet nuts in the bowl of spiced confectioners sugar, replace the seasoned nuts on your baking sheet and bake them another 3-5 minutes in the oven until they are crunchy and candied (like below). Allow them to cool, chop and reserve.

Next, let’s just prep all of ingredients. Chop 1 1/2 cups of walnuts. Remove the stem and seeds from 1 cup of dates (unless yours are already pitted) and chop the dates as well. Squeeze the juice of two lemons. Peel and chop all 6 of your red apples (the size of your chop is very preferential, I like a large apple cube because the apples will start to lose firmness so the larger chop helps retain their structure), immediately tossing them in the bowl of lemon juice to retain their color. Season your apples with 1/2 tsp. of salt, 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. of nutmeg. Add your chopped nuts (pecans and walnuts), chopped dates and 1 cup of dried red cherries. Add 1 cup of Manischevitz wine and 2 heaping tablespoons of honey. Mix well and allow to marinate for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, stirring occasionally if you remember.

Since I couldn’t find an answer to the ice cream question, I ended up eating the Charoset later with melted cream cheese which, as usual, SOUNDS weird, but it seriously tasted amazing or maybe that was the bottle of Brunello talking. Either way, can’t wait to do it all over again later!