Here’s something you may not know about me. In my family, I’m known as The Queen of the Imberlach!
Imberlach is a an old-timey passover candy. Imber in Yiddish means ginger. Traditional Imberlach recipes are basically matzah & ginger brittle. For over 20 years, one of my jobs at Passover time has been to make this wonderfully sweet candy that’s only eaten at Passover.
When I started making Imberlach, many years ago, I was still hooked on sugar and wheat, so I thought nothing of using white sugar and wheat in this recipe. As I’ve evolved, and my diet has become healthier, so has this recipe.
This recipe is a bit of a production. It’s one of those once-a year-events, but totally worth it. Everyone in my family loves it!
It’s easier to do this if you have a candy thermometer, but if you don’t have one, don’t let that stop you. I have instructions below for how to do it without a candy thermometer.
Queen of the Imberlach
- 3/4 cup granulated natural sweetener like: Granulated Maple Sugar, Granulated Date Sugar or Granulated Coconut Sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup chopped almonds
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans – walnuts are lovely too. Toast the nuts briefly before chopping them, by putting them in a dry skillet for 5-10 minutes (Keep an eye on them so you don’t burn them)
- 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup dried cherries, prunes or goji berries (gojis make a lovely red accent) – or all of them
- grate 3 – 4 or more tablespoons of fresh ginger – depends on how much you like ginger. Tip: To make ginger easy to grate, freeze it, then you can grate it – peel and all.
- 3/4 cup matzah farfel (matzah pieces)…if you don’t have farfel, just break up matzah into little pieces. I use gluten-free matzah pieces, so that this recipe works for those with wheat sensitivities and sometimes (gasp) I skip the matzah in the recipe entirely and it’s delicious!
- melted chocolate for dipping – optional. I use grain sweetened chocolate chips or stevia sweetened chocolate chips to avoid the refined sugar. (I’ve also grated a little orange rind into the chocolate for a lovely accent)
- Bring honey and sugar to a boil in a deep saucepan.
- Bring to hard crackle stage. Use a candy thermometer to tell it’s at hard crackle – 300 degrees. If you don’t have a candy thermometer drop the mix in cold water, then feel the texture to see if it hardens quickly.
- Once the mix is ready, quickly add in the nuts, fruit, ginger and farfel. Mix it hard and fast.
- Spread it out onto parchment paper.
- Dip a big wooden spoon or paddle in cold water and slap the imberlach hard to compress the flatten the mix.
- Allow it to cool and harden. Before it is completely hard, cut it into pieces.
- Once it is completely cooled, dip either a corner or the whole piece into chocolate.
Love and health,
Nina
Nina Manolson, MA, is the founder of Body-Peace®.She helps women end the war with food and body and finally feel truly at home in their body—as it is.
She is known for her deeply feminist, anti-diet, body-peace® approach. She brings her 30 years of experience as a therapist, Body-Trust® Guide and Psychology of Eating Teacher to helping women create a respectful and trusting relationship with their food and body.
Nina’s Body-Peace® work is all in service of helping people get off the diet roller-coaster, and into a compassionate and powerful way of eating & living which creates a positive long-lasting change in and with their bodies. Her courses, coaching, poems and Body-Peace APP positively change the conversation that women are having with their body.
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Loved your imberlach, love your blog.
I’m here to tell everyone – it is all true!!
I never believed we would eat all the Imberlach Nina made. —
but WE ATE THE WHOLE LOT!
You should try the recipe and you too will become
QUEEN OF THE IMBERLACH.
Ayala
we just put it on the menu plan for next year–!!
and we have oceans of desserts–
this year we added (gluten free) lemon bars–
next year — Imberlach!
thank you for sharing this part of your world too–
sounds yummy, where did you find spelt matzo? i’ll have to look for that!
Will try it next year Too late for tonight but many thanks Nina Chag Sameach to you and your family
Thank you for always freely sharing your amazing creations of love.
Absolutely delicious and fun to make!!
It is so delicious, I gave a plateful to my jewish friend. PS. I am not jewish I revel in all the dishes that Nina makes and I cherish her recipes. Also, I love learning about Jewish culture and being included in a community of like minded women —I hope you make this Imberlach too—because you will love it too!!!!