Honey Pomegranate Mandelbrot

Long before pomegranates became known as a healthy super food — linked to everything from improving cardiovascular health, to preventing cancer, to abating erectile dysfunction — they were a mainstay of Jewish cuisine.

Included in Deuteronomy 8:8 as one of the seven species of Israel (along with wheat, barley, grapes, figs, olives, and dates) and mythologized to contain 613 seeds in every fruit, pomegranates are, without doubt, one of Jewish tradition’s most sacred and celebrated foods.

As a symbol of fertility and love, the pomegranate shows up multiple times in the Jewish canon’s most famous love poem, The Song of Songs. For example (4:3): “Your lips are like a crimson thread; your mouth is lovely. Your brow behind your veil [gleams] like a pomegranate split open.” Not surprisingly, the red, spherical fruit also regularly shows up as an artistic theme on ketubot, challah covers, and other marriage and family-focused Judaica.

Pomegranates’ peak season generally falls somewhere around the High Holidays, which makes them the perfect accompaniment to the harvest holiday of Sukkot. They can be hung in a sukkah as decoration, and their seeds can be incorporated into both sweet and savory dishes — everything from pomegranate-glazed chicken to salads speckled with lush, bright red seeds.

In that spirit, here is a pomegranate-inspired dessert recipe, which livens up a traditional Mandelbrot batter with a splash of pomegranate juice. The juice imparts a beautiful blush and an extra hint of tartness to each delicious cookie.