How can I make dry, flaky halva at home?

February 18, 2013 12:18 PM

I need a tried, tested, and true recipe for making proper, dry, flaky sesame halva.

I have scoured the internet trying to find a tested recipe for dry, flaky sesame halva. Most recipes are of the "soft ball syrup + tahini" variety, and they produce something roughly the consistency of a soft taffy, especially as it warms up. This will not do! I need your personally tested recipe.

To reiterate and clarify: I am only interested in sesame or tahini-based halva, not semolina or wheat halva. Bonus points if the recipe uses honey rather than sugar. If the recipe calls for soapwort or saponaria, bonus points if you can tell me where to get food-grade soapwort or saponaria in the St. Louis, MO area, since there probably isn't time to get it online (I need the finished product by Saturday morning).

In case you're wondering, I'm trying to recreate the Byzantine dessert gastris, which sources say was similar to baklava except instead of a sweetened nut filling between pastry dough, the filling was between layers of something like sesame halva.

posted by jedicus to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

Best answer: Is there a reason you wouldn't use a gastris recipe? Direct from the ancient Greek text.

Or if you want, the wiki also says it may have resembled pasteli, which is like the crust in her recipe above, but cooked. I would use hers tho', as it's tested and cooking it might make it too hard or chewy.

I may be wrong, but I don't think there is such a thing as halva that resembles something flakey like baklava.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 3:42 PM on February 18, 2013 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Is there a reason you wouldn't use a gastris recipe? Direct from the ancient Greek text.

I utterly failed to find that. That looks perfect. I still want to know how to make a decent halva, if now only to avenge a lot of failed attempts.

I may be wrong, but I don't think there is such a thing as halva that resembles something flakey like baklava.

Flakey might not be quite the right word. I mean the kind of crumbly, fudgy texture that you get with commercial halva, not the soft, sticky texture that most online recipes produce.
posted by jedicus at 3:54 PM on February 18, 2013

There is definitely flaky halva- I have read that it is impossible to replicate commercial Israeli-type halva because you need a large mass in order for it to stay warm as it is pulled and pressed to make the more flaky texture. I haven't made this recipe, but the instructions in the sidebar tell you to pull and stretch it before putting it in the fridge for a day and a half.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:42 PM on February 18, 2013

Joyva brand halva is pretty flaky if the grocer has kept it properly refrigerated. I'm not sure how it would take to being worked or cooked.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:55 PM on February 18, 2013

Response by poster: I have read that it is impossible to replicate commercial Israeli-type halva because you need a large mass in order for it to stay warm as it is pulled and pressed to make the more flaky texture.

I have read the same thing. I have considered using my stand mixer to beat the halva until it reaches room temperature, then refrigerating it. But after two failed attempts I don't feel like more trial and error. Honey and tahini aren't cheap.

Other recipes say to fold beaten egg whites into the syrup. Apparently this is a substitute for the foaming action of soapwort. But again I'd like to know if it really works before trying it myself.

Joyva brand halva is pretty flaky if the grocer has kept it properly refrigerated.

I would go with store bought halva except it almost always comes in either vanilla or chocolate flavor, and the Byzantines didn't have access to either. But now that I know how to make proper gastris that aspect of the question is moot.
posted by jedicus at 7:46 AM on February 19, 2013