Have you ever tried Churchkhela?
When I first saw a picture of the churchkhela, I knew I had to try it.
This is a traditional Georgian candle shaped candy. To make this candy all you need is grape, nuts, and flour. You can make grape juice out of grapes and that is what we did. You could also buy grape juice but we try to avoid store bought juices.
You thread the nuts onto a string then you dip it in thick grape juice (made out of flour and grape juice known as tatara). Then you hang and let it dry. After two hours of letting it somewhat dry you dip it again into the thick grape juice. The more you dip it into the thick grape juice, the better. Then you leave the Churchkhela hang and dry for a week. The churchkhelas can be eaten once they are dry to the touch but you can also wrap in a towel and place in a wooden box to allow it to mature for 2 to 3 months.
This is so tasty and so easy to make but it is time consuming. We think it is worth all the effort and time.
What you need:
3 pounds of red seedless grapes
100 half pieces of walnut meats
1/4 cups of flour
Bring to a boil the grape juice. Leave a cup of grape juice out. This you will mix the flour into and then you’ll add it to the pot with boiling grape juice. We find that it is less clumpy when done this way.
Reduce heat and cook for 20 minutes. You want to stir often during this time.
Use a cooking brush and dip and brush the tatara onto the string nuts.
When it has been covered with tatara, hang to dry.
The following day warm up the tatara and dip it again. Repeat this process until you are satisfied with the thickness of the tatara. We only dipped ours once so we tasted a lot of walnut but the more tatara you have the better.
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