Halva is one of those love-it-or-hate it things. I’ve never met anyone who’s just so-so about this middle-eastern sugar and tahini treat.
With leftover carrot and ginger pulp from a delicious orange smoothie, it seemed like a good opportunity to try making a more universally loved halva (universal = more than just one person in this family).
Google is only a half friend in this experiment. There are a lot of recipes, but they vary with the ratio of sugar:tahini. It varies from 3:4 (less sugar than tahini) to 4:3 (more sugar than tahini). This video claims to make ‘halva that really works’, but it was far too sweet for us. But we noted their comments about the cooking temperature, tried again, and came up with this:
Hmmmm, not too bad. At first it wasn’t as flaky as real halva, but that’s almost impossible in a domestic western kitchen because we don’t have the secret ingredient: soapwort. After a week, its texture improved a lot. It still isn’t commerical grade, but for a home kitchen, we think it’s pretty good.
For my next trick, I might try this delicious looking Chocolate nut halva. It looks like we could reduce the amount of sugar even more.
At any rate, I thought we would bring this to Fiesta Friday to share it around. So what do you think? Have you tried making Middle Eastern style halva before?
Tahini halva with carrot and ginger
Ingredients (a very small amount)
- 2-3 tablespoons of water
- ½ cup of sugar
- ½ cup of tahini
- ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract
- optional: 1-2 tablespoons of leftover ginger and carrot from the orange smoothie
- more options: chopped nuts
Ingredients (for a lot of people)
- ½ cup of water
- 2 cups of sugar
- 2 cups of tahini
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- optional: up to ½ cup of leftover minced ginger and carrot from the orange smoothie
- more options: chopped nuts
Directions
- Warm the tahini until it feels very warm (about 40 to 45 degrees). You can do this in the microwave using medium power.
- In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and water until it reaches the hard ball stage (121 degrees Celsius, or 250ºF, on a sugar thermometer).
- Take the sugar−water mixture off the heat NOW and immediately stir in the warmed tahini. Add the carrot and ginger too, or chopped nuts if you’re using them.
- Stir this mixture quite vigorously until it starts to stiffen and form a smooth paste. The more you make, the longer it takes. For the smallest quantity, you have less than a minute or two!
- Pour into a greased and lined tray and sprinkle the top with more chopped nuts or minced carrot and ginger.
- Set aside for a day or two. It seems to improve the texture.
Notes
The temperature of the sugar−water mixture is critical. If you heat it too long, you’ll end up at the ‘cracked’ stage, which will give you something like toffee. If you stop at the soft ball stage (which most websites recommend), you seem to end up with toffee-like fudge. You really do need a sugar thermometer to get the best results.
You don’t really need the water, but it makes it easier to heat the sugar without burning it before it melts.
These look great. Glad you already sliced them for FF crowd. 😀 Happy FF!
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Thank you. Cut up and ready to serve: it’s the only way for a party!
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I loveeee halva yim
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So do you think this rates well enough?
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I think you need to send some over for me to try 😀
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They look wonderful. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you for dropping by.
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Haven’t made halva before. Not sure I’ve had them. Chocolate nut halva sounds yummy!
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I took one look at that chocolate halva picture and … it looks so good. They use even less sugar and cook to a higher temperature. Happy Fiesta Friday.
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Yes, well I’m out of soapwort too. Just kidding. But how did you think to put carrot tahini and ginger into it . . . the flavor must have been amazing! Yum!
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How did I think to do it? Well, the carrot and ginger came first (from a smoothie), and I didn’t want to toss out something so delicious. The halva idea started shortly after that.
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I made halva once, but long time ago and I used sunflower seeds 😉 The result of your recipe looks tasty! 🙂
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Yum, sunflower seeds! Did you have to grind them into a paste yourself? That could take a bit of doing.
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Happy Happy Fiesta Friday!! What a very cool dessert that you have brought to our table this week! I’ve never had halva…nor have I ever heard of it! There are so many different foods out there that people either love or hate. Unfortunately for my hips…I usually love it all. 🙂 this definitely looks like something that I would love! Chocolate nut sounds fabulous!! Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us!
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It’s worth trying halva at least once. The flaky texture can put some people off, but I quite enjoy it. Thanks for dropping by.
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looks great and I love the idea of using the leftover pulp from my juicing!
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Thank you. That pulp is what started it.
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Mmmm! I love halva and your recipe looks positively up my alley! Thanks so much for this amazing recipe! 😀
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Thank you for dropping by. Do you already make your own?
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Very nice! Have never made halva before but this looks like a nice twist!
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Thank you. I’d never made it before either – the ginger is what made it worth the effort as afar as I was concerned.
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How much does the tahini add to it? We don’t easy access to it here and I usually use my tahini up in my hummus lol
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The tahini is the essential ingredient. 😦
I know what you mean though – the only reason we have tahini in the house is for hummus.That’s why I have the quantities in there for a small batch (I think I made only half of that). I didn’t want to waste too much trying to get it right.
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Yeah I totally agree. I wasted a lot of pecans and dark chocolate chips for a semi failed experiment and I got unreasonably mad lol. I’ll give the halva a try with the tahini though because it looks so good!
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they look awesome….thanx for sharing…
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Thanks for dropping by.
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Oh I love halva! Will try your recipe, I’ve also been intimidated by the huge number of different recipes online…. Thank you for bringing this to FF!
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Thank you. I’ll be interested to see how it goes for you.
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Extremely intriguing dessert!
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Oh yes. It’s great with coffee. For us, that means morning tea. I can’t do coffee at night.
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Admittedly, I’ve never heard of halva. But this looks great! Thanks for introducing me to something new 🙂
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You’re welcome. It’s rather sugary, but that’s ok for a small sweet treat.
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I love halva! It’s one of my favourite Middle-Eastern sweets but I’ve always had it plain. I’ve got to try this!
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I really hope it works for you. Please let me know how you go with it if you do give it a go.
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Love the flavors of your halva! I have never had one with ginger, but I’ve never met a halva I didn’t like 😉
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I haven’t always liked halva, but this is pretty good.
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I’ve never tried Halva before…but I’m always looking to try new treats! THanks for introducing me to them at the party 🙂
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You’re so very welcome. thanks for stopping by to chat.
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Interesting. Never knew you could make halva out of Tahini.
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It was the only type we knew for a long time. Middle eastern made it to our delis before some other cultures, I guess.
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Looks delicious! 😀
Happy FF!
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Thank you.
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Lovely -bookmarked these to try 🙂
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Thank you. Please do let me know how it works out for you.
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