Georgian Chuchkhela is a delicious candy made with walnuts or hazelnuts strung on a sting and then dipped into a thick candy like mixture of grape or other fruit. This candy is loved all over the country and you will see them hanging up drying in many villages. They are sometimes referred to as Georgian snickers because that’s what they kind of taste like. They are a little time consuming to make and you need a couple of weeks for the covering to properly dry. A fun thing to make with kids. Enjoy!
Georgian Churchkhela (Grape and walnut candy)
Servings 4
Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- 50 walnuts
- 1.5 liters of fruit juice grape or pomegranate
- 300 grams of flour
- 3 tbs of sugar.
- Needle and thread
Instructions
- Shell the walnuts.
- Add to a hot pan and heat on a low-medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
- Be careful not to burn them.
- Thread a needle with a 30-inch length of strong thread. With the flat side of the nuts facing up, thread 25 walnut halves onto the thread. Cut the thread from the needle and knot the ends.
- Add the flour and sugar to a bowl.
- Gradually add up to 500 ml of the fruit juice and mix with a wooden spoon.
- Once the flour, sugar and juice have been mixed with a spoon, use an electric blender to ensure that the mixture is absolutely smooth.
- Add the rest of the juice to a deep cast iron pot and gradually add the flour/sugar/juice mixture.
- Stir thoroughly
- Heat on a high temperature, vigorously stirring all of the time. Bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to a low temperature and continue to stir for 8-10 minutes. During that time it will thicken and you should test it to make sure that it does not taste of flour.
- The thickened mixture is called tatara
- Keeping hold of one end of the thread, carefully place a strand of threaded nuts into the tatara.
- Use a wooden spoon to cover the threaded nuts.
- Make sure all the nuts are completely covered
- Remove the churchkhela from the tatara.
- If the tatara has been made correctly the churchkhela should not drip.
- Hang the churchkhela. A pole placed between two chairs is ideal.
- Repeat the coating process with each strand of threaded nuts.
- Put the remaining tartara in the refrigerator and heat up before using for the second coating.
- Leave the churchkhela to dry for 3 to 4 days, until the strands are no longer sticky to the touch. After 3 to 4 days repeat the dipping process. Leave the churchkhela to dry for 3 to 4 days.
- Enjoy!
