Salted Chocolate Halva with Pistachios and Poppyseeds

Apr 24

Apr 24 Salted Chocolate Halva with Pistachios and Poppyseeds

If you aren’t familiar, Halva is a tahini based confection originating in the middle east. It can be very simple, just tahini mixed with a sugar syrup, or elaborately made with different sorts of nut butters, dried fruits or a semolina flour roux. This recipe falls somewhere in between. It comes together quite easily but the flavors are far from basic.

Because halva is essentially tahini mixed with sugar it can often be very sweet. I loved the idea of this salted chocolate version by Andy Baraghani for Bon Appetit magazine. It calls for a small amount of salt mixed into the tahini along with sesame seeds and a salted bittersweet chocolate topping to balance out the sugariness. It didn’t disappoint. The complex flavor of the tahini and bittersweet chocolate make a deliciously sophisticated candy bar, but with a crumbly, sandy texture. I love the crunch and extra level of flavor the pistachios add to it too.

Salted Chocolate Halva Recipe:

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/salted-chocolate-halva

Special equipment:
Candy Thermometer

Yield:
10-14 slices

Difficulty:
Easy, but not foolproof. Follow the recipe!

A few tips

Be creative!
Feel free to be creative with ingredients, just be sure to make choices that compliment the tahini and chocolate since they are the dominant flavors.

The recipe calls for a few less common ingredients to top the halva: Black sesame seeds and dried edible flowers. I’m sure they’d be amazing if you can get your hands on them but I wasn’t able to, so I substituted poppyseeds for the black sesame and chopped pistachios in place of the dried flowers. Poppyseeds pair well with white sesame seeds – hello everything bagel – and pistachios are common in middle eastern desserts and work beautifully with the halva and bittersweet chocolate. (Also, I love pistachios. Check out this gorgeous little tart!)

Also, don’t miss the video included with the recipe. Along with some useful tips, there’s a visual of what the tahini mixture should look like when you combine it.

All set up and ready to add toppings once the chocolate has gone on.

If you want to make the halva the way I did...

Stir 1 TBSP white sesame seeds and 1 TBSP poppyseeds into the tahini before you stir in the melted sugar.
Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt, 1-2 tsp of white sesame seeds, then 1 ½-2 TBSP chopped pistachios on top of the still warm chocolate.
Tip: I like to reserve some of the chopped pistachios so I can strategically place in areas that didn’t get covered by the initial sprinkling, making sure there’s even coverage. You want to make sure every slice gets some!

Enjoy! I think this Salted Chocolate Halva would be fantastic with an espresso, coffee or something decadent like port.