Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Seeds for Rosh Hashana

Rosh Hashana starts Wednesday night, and I haven't posted a single recipe for the Jewish New Year. Honey Cake, symbolizing a sweet New Year, is often associated with Rosh Hashanah. Here's a link to Chocolate Honey Cake to make for the Holiday.  Honey Cake would be great for the first night of Rosh Hashana.

For the second night, though,  I suggest you make this easy recipe for Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Seeds. On the second night of Rosh Hashanah,  a "new fruit" is eaten.   It's usually a fruit that has recently come into season but that you haven't yet had the opportunity to eat. Traditionally, one says the shehechiyanu blessing thanking God for keeping you and yours alive and bringing you to this season. This ritual reminds everyone to appreciate the fruits of the earth and being alive to enjoy them.

A pomegranate is often used as this new fruit. In the Bible, the Land of Israel is praised for its pomegranates. It is also said that this fruit contains 613 seeds just as there are 613 mitzvot (commandments). Another reason given for blessing and eating pomegranate on Rosh Hashanah is that we wish that good deeds in the ensuing year will be as plentiful as the seeds of the pomegranate.

For this recipe, I buy packages of Pomegranate seeds at Trader Joe's, but you can always go the old fashioned way and buy two whole pomegranates and remove the seeds.  The rich dark chocolate flavor goes very well with the tart pomegranate flavor, and the textures meld well. Even if you're not celebrating the Jewish New Year, Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds make a great snack, and you'll enjoy the benefits of both sources of antioxidants.

DARK CHOCOLATE POMEGRANATE SEEDS

Quantities are guestimates:

Ingredients
Pomegranate Seeds
About 7 ounces (depending how many seeds you have) of Dark Chocolate, broken up

Directions:
1. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.
2. Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler or a pot on top of a pot of simmering water. Stir to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn.
3. Add dry pomegranate seeds to melted chocolate and fold gently with rubber spatula until the seeds are thoroughly covered.
4. Spoon clusters of mixture onto wax paper.
5. Place wax papered cookie sheet in refrigerator and let chocolate covered seeds cool for several hours or overnight.
Keep refrigerated. Will last 3-4 days.

No time to cook? Trade Joe's sells chocolate covered pomegranate seeds. They're in very small clusters. Delicious and easy.