Preparation:
1. Mix nuts, sugar, honey, apples and cinnamon together until well-blended.
2. Add wine slowly until the texture resembles a thick paste, like mortar.
3. Taste and adjust cinnamon, sugar, wine amounts.
Author's Notes:
This paste-like, sweet spread is a prescribed part of the traditional Seder. Its mortar-like consistency is intended to remind Jews of the bricks and mortar our ancestors labored with as slaves in Egypt. Quite incidentally, it is delicious and tastes wonderful spread on matzah. This is the traditional charoset from the Ashkenazic (Eastern European) Jewish tradition; very different, but equally delicious, charoset recipes, using such ingredients as dates, raisins, and sesame, can be found in the various Sephardic communities (e.g., Yemenite, Persian, Turkish, Moroccan, etc. |
