Tahini Halvas
Well-stirred tahini does the heavy lifting here, with sugar rounding it out. A Greek snack that takes 20 minutes, start to finish. Each serving lands at 799 calories with 17g of protein, so it eats like a much heavier meal. Leftovers keep well, so it doubles as next-day lunch without any extra work.
✓ USDA-verified nutrition data
799 calories
17g protein
84g carbs
50g fat
5g fiber
Ingredients
- 2 cups Well-stirred tahini
- 1.5 cups Sugar
- 3/4 cup Water
- 1/4 cup Honey
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1/2 cup Toasted almonds
- 2 tbsp Cocoa powder
Steps
- Simmer the sugar, water, honey, and lemon juice to 250°F — the firm-ball stage. No thermometer? Drop a bit in cold water; it should form a pliable ball, not dissolve and not crack.
- Warm the tahini to lukewarm and stir in the vanilla; cold tahini seizes when the syrup hits it.
- Pour the hot syrup into the tahini in a thin stream, stirring constantly in one direction. The mixture will suddenly thicken and pull from the sides — that is the halva setting, and it happens fast.
- For the marble effect, drizzle in the cocoa mixed with a spoonful of hot water and fold twice only; overmixing turns it uniformly brown.
- Press into a loaf pan lined with parchment, stud with almonds, and cool 4 hours until firm enough to slice. Cut with a hot, dry knife. It keeps 2 weeks at room temperature and the flavor deepens by day three.
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