Cookie butter/spread and wheat halwa

[shain]

We got some pretzel-caramel ice cream, which was topped with a pretzel and salted caramel spread. The ice cream was OK, too sweet, but the spread is interesting. It reminded me of both halva (the sesame kind) and of cookie spread. Which made me think of Indian wheat halwa, which I never had. It is made by toasting flour in butter and cooking it into a thick paste with sugar and spices. Have you ever had wheat halwa? How do you find it differs from a cookie spread (other than flavoring)? It seems like grinding actual cookies might be unnecessary if you could just use fried flour. Obviously, baking develops flavors, but I'd guess toasting in butter yields similar notes.