Iranian Halva

Halva, has a very special place in the Iranian culture. It is also cooked in other places like India and North African countries, but the recipes differ a lot. Halva is originally an Arabic word meaning “sweet”. In Iran, the application of this dessert has changed a lot throughout history. In the past, it was cooked at the weddings and ceremonies and it was also offered as a gift. Today, Halva is mostly served at the funerals, or cooked and given to others as a religious treat but it is still one of the most favorite, delicious and nutritious sweets among Iranians alongside other sweets like Nan Berenji.

Persian Halva

Halva is mostly served at the funerals, or cooked and given to others as a religious treat but it is still one of the most favorite, delicious and nutritious sweets among Iranians.

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Course Snack

Cuisine persian

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup white flour
• ½ cup oil
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
• 1.5 cups Shahd (in an additional recipe, preparing Shahd has been explained)

Instructions

 

• Put a saucepan on a moderate flame. Put the flour in the saucepan, stir and sauté it gently and continuously until its color gradually turns in to golden and it smells roasted (it takes almost 7 to 9 minutes).
• Add the oil and stir the ingredients for some moments.
• Add the cardamom powder.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat and gradually add some Shahd, be careful not to add it all at once, add enough of it for the combination to thicken to an appropriate level. Take care not to pour it all at once.
• Heat the sauce pan again and stir the ingredients for 2 or 3 more minutes.
• Spread Halva on to a plate and garnish it with silvered almond, pistachio or coconut.

When preparing the Shahd for Halva, remember that:

Water and sugar have the same proportion for making Shahd. Each cup of sugar requires one cup of water, ½ cup of rose water and 2-3 food spoons of thick brewed saffron. This amount of ingredients results in 2 cups or 500 milliliters of Shahd.

Tips for Cooking Halva

Brewing Saffron

The brewed saffron is better to be thick, because If it is watery, you will need to add more of it which can make Halva too soft.

Sauteing the flour

This may be the most important stage in the process of cooking Halva, because it determines the color and texture of it.
Stir the flour continuously, patiently and gently on a moderate flame. Choose a sauce pan that flour occupies at most 1 centimeter of its height. It takes flour almost 40-60 minutes to be well sautéed in such a saucepan. For more amount of flour, more sautéing time is needed.

The Color of Halva

Too light or dark, choosing the right color for Halva is completely up to you. Through trial and error, you can determine your favorite color among the changing colors of flour during sautéing. You can experiment the color, first on a small portion of the flour and sauté it until your favorite color. This is rather helpful but still not a very reliable method for the whole amount of flour in Halva.
Moderate heat is very important in sautéing Halva, because if the heat is too much, the flour burns and affects the taste.
Proper heat, time and speed of sautéing also affects the texture of Halva and prevents it to be doughy or stretcSautéing the flour with oil
Oil is not a healthy ingredient, but if you are willing your Halva to achieve a good texture, you need to be generous in using oil. The right amount of oil for Halva is when it covers the whole flour and removes its stickiness. When oil is used less or more than that, Halva will be doughy or too much oily.
Flour and oil don’t need to be stirred too much, unless you need a darker color for your flour. Even in that case, the heat needs to be moderate. Too much heat and stirring causes the flour to burn in oil and Halva will be dried after adding Shahd.

Serving and Garnishing Halva

Halva can be served in plates or platters or as the stuffing for tarts or other sweats. If you want to make Halva tart, you need to stuff the piping bag with Halva, while it’s still hot. Otherwise, the edges of Halva on the tart will be cracked. You also need to add more Shahd to Halva, in order to achieve a softer texture which can be formed easily through the nozzle. Choose big nozzles for making Halva blossoms on the tarts. For making blossoms, hold the piping bag vertically and steadily on the tarts and push out Halva from nozzles, then turn your hand a little bit to detach the remaining Halva from the nozzle.