Halvah, a favorite confection

[patris]

Just finished my first batch, using Kerry's honey recipe and layering in some chopped dark chocolate. I used my Kitchenaid mixer (no thermomix for me!), and beat until it was really thick - like if library paste and peanut butter had a baby. Seemed almost uncomfortably oily when I was putting it into the pan, so much so that I actually poured some oil off. It has sat for an hour or so now, and has magically transformed into a much nicer texture. A bit hard, but crumbly as opposed to the gumminess it had at the start. Also: delicious. Like "I will need bigger pants soon if I don't get it out of my house" delicious. Lior, I may be sharing your level of obsession with this stuff pretty soon!

[Lior]

Hello! Back home with bad jetlag but happy. I had an amazing time!!

I so apologize for screwing up the halvah recipe-big oops!

1/2 קילו סוכר

1 כוס מים

1 כף תמצית וניל

1 כוס פיסטוקים קלופים וקלויים

Translation:

1/2 kilo sugar

1cup water

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup pistachios.

Method is as in the video and my previous post.

So Kerry, of course, you figured that out.

I came home two days ago and found the container of Halvah I had made in the fridge! There were 4 pieces left and I gobbled them up at 3am wide awake. They were still good.

Nice to be back! I have to go and read more posts! Bye!

[minas6907]

I just wanted to reply to this topic, I've been meaning to do so for so long. Kerrys recent halva recipe in the confections topic triggered my memory. Anyways, about two years some videos in my YouTube feed had been about making halva, and I had never been able to get it down. So I went and looked back at a topic I made on halva, here. I had posted a few links to youtube videos, which I took another look at, and started translating some of the comments from Greek because it they mentioned temperatures, and realized they may be on to something.

One of the videos that led me closer to what I was looking for was here:

 

I somehow was led to another video found here:

Long story short, I searched for the guys name, found his website, emailed him, then he sent me back another video as well as a recipe he uses, he was fine with me posting it here. There is another video where he has the recipe linked, but the images he sent me are attached. I slightly modified his recipe, since you apparently have to make an extract from Good King Henry, which is a type of herb. I'm not sure if this is for flavor or it aids with whipping, but I did follow his recipe and replaced the good king henry extract with 1/2 T water and 1/2 T powdered egg white. I mixed to hydrate. So the recipe I did is as follows:

 

1/2 T water

1/2 T powdered egg white

Mixed to hydrate.

 

100ml water (or 3.3fl oz)

Pinch citric acid

300g sugar

 

Boiled to 150c

Let cool to 120c

Added the hydrated egg white mixture and whipped in the pan by hand until aerated.

 

Added this mixture to

300g sesame tahini

 

Mixed with a metal spoon, then as the mixture cooled, I folded by hand. I did not put it in the refrigerator like he does in the recipe.

One thing that I found out is that halva is a crystallized candy, I didnt know that previously. Generally you purchase it in a square plastic container or round can. When the candy is warm, its obviously pliable, then its deposited into the container its sold in. After a few days at room temperature, it will crystallize, giving you a nice flaky halva.

 

Anyways, the stuff is delicious, I really enjoyed making it. Its been two years since I did this, I meant to post about this a long time ago, but just havent had the time. Now that I look back at this recipe, I'm fairly confident that you could get good results ignoring the egg white completely, I'll give that a try eventually. Hope someone find this useful.