I first learned this recipe in the kitchen of my first boyfriend Matt. His mother Marsha Yarus was my first Passover and Charoset instructor supreme and I have never found a better traditional recipe than hers. It is important that you use enough sweet wine for this recipe, and as in all my recipes, don’t skimp on anything!

Traditional Wine Soaked Charoset

1. one box of Matzos (not egg or flavored, just plain ones)
   10 or so good apples
2. 1–2 cups of finely chopped walnuts (I mean really finely, either in a food processor or take your time and get those walnuts very tiny if you are doing it by hand)
3. 1–3 cups of Manishewitz brand or other Sweet Kosher Wine (this is the Cough Syrup of the wine world, but you have to use this sickly sweet stuff for this recipe. It’s the only recipe I will ever tell you to use this kind of wine for)
4. lots of cinnamon
5. lots of honey

Chop up the apples into really tiny little pieces, really, really tiny pieces, skin and all. Chop up the nuts into really tiny little pieces. Combine these in a large mixing bowl, grind up 4–5 Matzos with your hands into small pieces. You can put them in the food processor to get them tiny, you can also do this with the nuts. DON’T do a food processor for the apples. Sprinkle liberally with lots of cinnamon, pour the wine over all of this and stir it up, then add a bunch of honey. Charoset should be sticky and pasty, like the mortar it is supposed to represent. It will taste right to you at some point. You may have to add more Matzos, more honey, more nuts and more cinnamon depending on your taste buds. This should be prepared an hour or two before the Seder, it gets less yummy over time and the consistency changes as the wine, honey and matzos soak. I usually put five or six small bowls of this around the table and along with my Persian Halek and the Sephardic Date Balls there are then three different kinds of Charoset on offer at my Seder (traditional Passover meal)