Halvah
Updated Aug. 24, 2022
- Total Time
- 20 minutes, plus cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2cups granulated sugar
- ½vanilla bean, scraped
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1½cups tahini
- Pinch kosher salt
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)
155 calories; 8 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 20 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 17 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 22 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Line an 8- x 8-inch baking pan with parchment paper.
- Step 2
Combine sugar, vanilla seeds and lemon zest with ½ cup water in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Allow mixture to simmer into a syrup, without stirring, until temperature registers 245 degrees on candy thermometer.
- Step 3
While syrup is cooking, place tahini and salt in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle. Beat on medium speed. Carefully stream syrup into tahini with mixer running. Mix until syrup is incorporated and mixture begins to pull away from sides of bowl, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Be careful not to overmix. The halvah texture should be fudgelike, not sandy.
- Step 4
Working quickly with a heatproof spatula, transfer mixture to the prepared pan. Place another piece of parchment on top and use your hands on top of the parchment to smooth out halvah. Cool completely to room temperature and cut into squares. Store at room temperature, well wrapped in plastic, for a week.
Private Notes
Comments
This is delicious, but three notes of caution: turn mixer down to LOW before mixing in the hot syrup, wear oven mitts because hot syrup will splash out (ouch) and really do mix for as short a time as possible. Mine turned sandy almost immediately, perhaps because mixer was too high, or I was distracted by my burning finger. Still good for any recipe with crumbled halvah, but not really sliceable.
When I was younger I craved halvah but since I developed diabetes its not for me. I will stick with using tahini to make hummus. I make my own tahini, it is really easy to do and is so much cheaper than store bought. It is just sesame seeds and a little oil, ground in a food processor or similiiar machine. I use a Nutri Ninja.
Easy and delicious.
After reading the reviews here, I made it by hand, beating with a wooden spoon so it was a little softer but still great. I brought it to Shabbat lunch and people devoured it!
Don't omit the lemon zest, it's what makes this halvah so much better than store bought.
I also used fair trade sugar, which is darker, but its only impact on this recipe was on my conscience, so use the sugar you have.
I made this exactly as directed. The mixture began to harden immediately; by the time I turned off the mixer and lifted the paddle, it was almost too solid to clean off the paddle and get the rest out of the mixing bowl. The flavor is great, but the texture is not the same as store bought halvah. It is dense and chewy and fudgy! Not sure how you get the lighter flaky texture. Maybe using honey instead of sugar creates a different texture?
Perhaps I’m not that picky, but this was as trouble free as it comes. Takes about 1 12 ounce jar, makes 3 of the little tubs I’ve been buying for about the same price apiece as the full jar of tahini. I used a candy thermometer, no lemon zest, vanilla extract. I don’t have a stand mixer so used a food processor with the bread blade ( blunt plastic). Whisked the tahini a bit to get uniform texture, poured the hot syrup thru the ingredient hole with the machine running (only has 1 speed). Pulsed until the right thickness. Globbed out into the (saved) little tubs from what our food coop sells. I don’t know if the texture will be perfect when completely cool, but I don’t care— sometimes what I buy has been too crumbly to slice anyway. Next time I’ll try some with dark chocolate swirled in at the end, or some pistachios.
I'm in too much of a hurry...I just stir maple syrup into a teacup of tahini...done.
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