Making halva is a lovely cooking project because it reveals how a few simple ingredients are transform into a gorgeous confection that first crumbles, and then melts in your mouth. I fell in love with halva when I worked in Israel as a student where you could buy in in bustling markets. This recipe is adapted from Honey & Co – The Baking Book by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich.
Ingredients
50g pistachios, lightly roasted in a hot oven for 5 minutes, roughly chopped
1 tbsp dried rose petals
200g light tahini
300g caster sugar
100g water
Method
Line the base of a small plastic container (approximately 15cm X15cm) with baking parchment. Sprinkle the chopped pistachios and rose petals over the base.
Place the tahini paste in a small saucepan over a low heat until it becomes liquid and shiny. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Put the sugar in a separate pan and pour in the water allowing it to coat the sides of the pan as you do. Mix the sugar and water together to form a paste. Remove any sugar crystals that have stuck to the sides of the pan. Bring the sugar and water to the boil on a high heat and then cook for five minutes or until the sugar syrup has reached 118C. Take the pan off the heat and plunge it into a bowl of cold water.
Place the tahini into a bowl and gradually pour in the sugar syrup and stir the mixture as you do. As the mixture cools and thickens put on disposable gloves and knead the halva as you would bread dough. Once the halva is as thick as marzipan transfer it to the lined plastic container. Flatten into a smooth square and cover with cling wrap or a wax coated wrap. Allow the halva to cook for a couple of hours before cutting into 36 small squares measuring about 2.5 x 2.5cm
