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Spiced raw cacao halva with pistachios, ginger, cardamom and rose

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Spiced raw cacao halva with pistachios, ginger, cardamom and rose is a homemade version of sesame halva dessert that that has a beautiful crumbly consistency rich with raw cacao, sweet spices, real ginger chunks and the crunch of pistachios. Halva is a delicious middle eastern dessert made with tahini or sesame seed paste, sugar or honey, nuts and flavours such as vanilla and chocolate. For this spiced raw cacao halva with pistachios I have created a spice blend of vanilla, ginger, cardamom and rose and used real chunks of ginger. I’ve also used a little raw honey for more flavour, along with a sugar syrup made with coconut sugar. The dessert uses a melted 85% raw cacao chocolate and is decorated with edible rose petals, pistachios and raw cacao beans.

You need a sugar thermometer to make this recipe to test the heat of the sugar syrup before adding it to the tahini. My main tip with making this recipe is to prepare everything in advance because it’s all about timing and a chemical reaction that occurs both when the sugar syrup is heated and when it’s combined with the tahini and mixed. The time to make the dessert is quick once all the ingredients have been prepared and assembled. It does take some time to set in the fridge before you can enjoy it. Halva is delicious with a short black or a dessert drink such as my Mulberry rose champagne cocktail.

Spiced halva with raw cacao, almonds, ginger, cardamom and rose

Print Recipe
Serves: Makes 1 round 20cm cake pan Cooking Time: 2 hours 30 minutes (30 minutes preparation, 2 hours chilling time in the fridge)

Ingredients

  • 200 grams coconut sugar
  • 2 tablespoons raw honey
  • 80 ml water
  • 1 teaspoon rose water
  • 385 grams hulled tahini
  • ½ cup pistachios chopped
  • ½ cup naked ginger chopped
  • 1 teaspoon ginger ground
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom ground
  • Seeds scraped from one vanilla pod
  • 100 grams dark 85% raw chocolate
  • Rose petals, pistachios and raw cacao beans to garnish

Instructions

1

Add sugar, water, honey and rose water to a small saucepan and set aside

2

Have your sugar thermometer at the ready as you need to measure the heat of the sugar syrup to 125 C

3

Prepare a greased and lined round cake tin

4

Grind the spices

5

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean

6

Add the spices and vanilla to a small ramekin ready to add to the tahini

7

Chop the nuts and naked ginger

8

Prepare the water bath to melt the raw chocolate in a bowl on top of a saucepan full of hot water

9

Melt the chocolate until almost melted and set aside – it will melt completely as you make the rest of the dessert

10

Add the tahini to an electric mixer and begin mixing

11

Pause mixing and heat the sugar syrup until the temperature is 125 C – then remove from the heat

12

Add the sugar syrup to the tahini while mixing

13

As soon as the halva begins to look crumbly stop mixing

14

Remove the halva from the mixer to a large bowl and add the nuts, spices and chopped ginger

15

Swirl in the melted chocolate, reserving 1/3 to add to the top of the halva once it’s in the cake tin

16

Press the mixture into the greased and lined cake tin and add the final layer of melted chocolate in swirls with a knife or the back of a spoon

17

Cover with beeswax or other wrap and place the cake tin in the fridge for 2 hours to set

18

When completely set turn out and cut into diamond shapes

19

Garnish with rose petals, pistachios and raw cacao beans

20

Enjoy with fresh fruit and coffee for dessert or with a dessert drink such as my Mulberry and rose champagne cocktail

Notes

Inspired by Angela Nahas’ Chocolate nut halva on SBS Food I also referred to Jen Hoy’s Israeli tahini halva recipe on The Spruce Eats and it is from this recipe that I derived the 125 C soft ball stage measurement for the sugar syrup. I did try to heat it to 140 C as Nahas suggests but found it would not go much beyond 125 C. The soft ball stage 125 C temperature still provides a wonderful crumbly consistency. I used the urban beehive inner west raw Sydney honey. I sourced my sugar thermometer from Essential Ingredient Rozelle

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