Haroset Recipe: 
The Secret Canfi Family Recipe is Now Released to the Public!

This year I had to make the Haroset all by myself. I could not go to my parent's house for the Seder, because all of Israel was under a total Corona virus lock down.

So, after a lifetime of keeping the secret family recipe close to the vest, my dad decided it's time to set it free!
He wants to share it with everyone in order to keep the tradition alive. 

Roll up your sleeves, here we go:

Ingredients:

This is a centuries-old traditional Sephardi Jewish recipe. Therefore the exact ratios between the ingredients can vary, depending on what you have that year, where you live and what's available there!

This is the kind of food you taste and adjust as you make it. Add a bit more of this or that as you mix, until the result is to your liking.

Have an extra portion for each ingredient ready, so you can add if needed.

For One Jar of Haroset:

Moist ingredients:

• One apple, preferably the sour kind (because it's all very sweet otherwise).
  
• Moist Dates.
  About 6 or 8 large Majhūl dates if you have them.
  

If you cannot find moist dates, a block of date paste is very good too. Stick it in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften it up.
If you have no dates at all, try finding Silan - date "honey". 

Dry ingredients (minimum amounts):

• 50 grams Walnuts
• 30 grams Almonds
• Any other type of nut will do! Add pecans, bonduc nuts, etc. 

Fluids:

• Tirosh - a non alcoholic grape wine 
  and / or
• A good red wine, with alcohol, such as a Merlot.
• Not for the faint hearted, you can make a very potent Haroset  by adding some Cognac, or a non Kosher version with Whiskey!

Spices:

• 2-3 thick slices of fresh Ginger root. 
  You can use dried powder instead.
• 1 tsp ground Cinnamon.
• Extra spice suggestion: Muscat (Nutmeg) - add very little, carefully, as it could take over the whole taste.

Tools:

• Food Processor
  or
  Hand held stick blender with a tall jar that fits it.
• Some kind of Kitchen Mallet, maybe a Schnitzel hammer or something like that. 
  Instead, you can use a Crater and pestle.
  (I didn't have either, and ended up using my home workout dumbbell - it worked just fine! lol)

Instructions

Cut everything small because this is a high density dish, and you don't want to stick your food processor.

1. Open the wine or tirosh bottle, and have a drink! :)
   Fun Fact: Before the days of food processors, making Haroset was decidedly a MAN's job, because preparing it manually takes considerable strength. Accordingly, the guys were happily drunk by the time they finished preparing it :D
2. Peal and core the apple, then cut into manageable cubes for the blender.
3. Core and cut the dates to quarters.
4. Crush the walnuts and almonds to small pieces with the mallet.
5. Peal and cut the Ginger root to small pieces.

Now into the food processor:

1. Add 1/4 cup of wine or tirosh.
2. Add the moist ingredients - cubed Apple and Dates.
3. Mix! Churn until you have a wet mass.
4. Into the wet mass, add the dry ingredients - crushed Walnuts and Almonds. Churn it good.
   If too dry, slowly add wine/tirosh to keep the wet consistency.

Taste your Haroset now:

Is it too wet and runny? Add walnuts and or almonds. 

Not enough "body"? add more dates.

Too dry? Add wine or tirosh. Never add water! Only wine or grape juice.

Add the spices:

The mix will be quite sweet now.

Start adding Ginger and Cinnamon. Just a little at a time. 

Mix. Taste. Add more or adjust other ingredients.

Tip:

You might want an alcohol-free version for the kids, so you can make the whole Haroset with Tirosh only.
But it's the Red Wine that gives this dish it's real "zing". 

My dad would start off with tirosh, then split off some of the mass and finish making it with wine. 

Same goes for the Ginger and Cinnamon - not everyone likes them, so you can make several versions split off from the main mass to accommodate everyone at the Seder.

For the brave: Prepare a small portion with some extra Cognac or (Not Kosher) Whiskey!

Give Everyone a Bit of Haroset on Matzo :)

In the picture: 
Haroset on Matzo, set on my great-grandmother's family heirloom Seder Plate.

This plate is about 250 years old. It was a part of a three-piece set. Each of the sisters got one, and my grandmother took hers to Eretz Israel.

Notice the hole in the center - the original three plates were stacked on a center pole. 

This wasn't a Seder-Plate at all to begin with. It was a part of the family's Seder Dinnerware though.

I think, that this was one of the few things my grandmother had left from her family, and she and my grandfather used it as their Seder-Plate as a reminder of their old home.

Final touch:

Haroset is supposed to represent the mortar the Hebrew slaves used in order to build the cities of Egypt.

It's supposed to be quite thick and heavy and sticky. 

Personally I like it to have a granular texture - not a smooth paste, so at the very end, I add a handful of crushed walnuts and just mix them in by hand, without using the food processor. 

Let everyone in the house taste it and say what they think.

Happy Pesach!

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