Ballı Çerez - Turkish honey appetizer in a jar

This Turkish honey appetizer more locally known as ballı çerez (honey appetizer) in Turkey is a festive-looking jar filled with multiple appetizing, energizing, and healthy goodies such as nuts (in many varieties) and honey syrup.  Its very complexly-arranged ingredients makes this confectionery item look more like a sweet treat or a flavorful dessert in a jar than just the usual honey-in-jars you'll see elsewhere.  Yet it has the same deliciously sweet honey flavor oozing  out of the comb - but with a rich nutty taste.  To me, it's something more like those who have an appetite for candies and sweets just can't turn their backs on the moment they'll see it... and just can't let go of it once they taste it!

At first glance, this festive jar of ballı çerez would look more like a decorative jar of nuts but with a more closer look, one can easily realize that all the ingredients were carefully glued together with the stickiness of honey and glucose syrup.  Now that's what makes this honey appetizer a truly appetizing one.

So if you have googled for "honey appetizer" or "honey in a jar" and landed on this post, you might have been surprised to see a transparent glass container filled with intricately arranged variety of nuts. This may not be the kind of honey appetizer that you have probably been searching for and neither the honey-glazed chicken wings nor the honey mustard sauces drizzled over pork kebabs and smoky beef hors ’de oeuvres that you've been wanting to make.  Rather, you've found this special kind of nut-filled jar as an appetizer that surprisingly comes with honey.  Well yes,  it really is filled with honey... and the good news is that it also comes with several other healthy ingredients that makes this "wonder jar" a truly appetizing, energizing, and healthy treat.  Just take a closer look, read on, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Here's what’s in a jar of ballı çerez or Turkish honey appetizer:

Inside a jar of ballı çerez - a snackful of healthy goodies.

bal - honey
yer fıstığı - peanuts
çekirdeksiz üzüm – seedless raisin
fındık - hazelnut
Antep fıstığı – pistachio nut
ceviz - walnut
kayısı çekirdeği – apricot kernel
üzüm pekmezi – grape syrup
susam – sesame seeds
çörek ötü – grass muffin
tarçın - cinnamon
hindistan cevizi - coconut
bal aroması – honey flavor
glikoz şurubu – glucose syrup

So how could anyone not crave for this kind of honey appetizer when you know that you’ll not only get yourself loads of healthy benefits from honey but also from the other ingredients that comes along with it such as walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, peanuts, seedless raisins, cinnamon, coconut, apricot kernels, grass muffin, grape syrup, etc. With flower honey alone, you know you’ll get a very wide range of vitamins, minerals, and  amino acids. Honey also has an antioxidant and anti-microbial properties which is effective in the treatment of mouth ulcers and periodontal diseases as well as irritability, fatigue, anorexia, insomnia, loss of appetite and even constipation. Regular intake of honey has also been known to be very effective in the treatment of stomach and duodenal ulcers, intestinal infections, and lung disorders.

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