Turkish Semolina Halvah - İrmik Helvası

[sazji]

Turkish Semolina Halvah - İrmik Helvası

Serves 15 as Dessert.

"Halvah" (Helva) in Turkish means just about any sweet that involves toasting of a seed or grain, be it sesame, flour, semolina, or even cornstarch, and the addition of a sugar syrup. This is one of the two most common made in homes.

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Ingredients

• 500 g coarse semolina
  
• 4 c water
  
• 3 c sugar
  
• 250 g butter
  
• 1/4 c pine nuts
  

Mix 4 c water and 1 1/2 c of the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and keep hot. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large pot, and add the pine nuts. Stir them in the butter a minute or two, then add the semolina and reduce the heat. Stir till the semolina begins to heat up and appear a bit more oily in consistency (this means the liquid has evaporated from the butter). You can then increase the heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to darken somwhat, you get a good toasty smell, and the pine nuts have begun to brown. Remove from the heat and GRADUALLY add the hot sugar syrup. Do this carefully as it will boil and steam violently at first. Then put back on heat and reduce heat to very low, cover and let sit for around 5 minutes or until the mixture has become fairly firm. Turn off the heat, and add the remainint 1 1/2 cups of sugar, stir in and cover, let sit a few minutes and stir again. Repeat a few times. Serve warm or cold.

This way of adding sugar gives a crumbly, separate halvah. Alternatively you can add all the sugar to the water in the beginning; this will give a halvah more suitable for molding and slicing.

You can also add other nuts such as walnuts or almonds, and flavorings such as cinnamon or orange zest. My last experiment was with orange zest dark chocolate added with the sugar, and chopped white chocolate added after it cooled somewhat but was still warm.

Keywords: Dessert, Easy

( RG2037 )