Help with Halvah

[Ubi Dubium]

Long story here, but I cam home from my chorus rehearsal with a big (2 pound) container of Halvah. It's imported from Lebanon and everything. It's tahini (sesame paste), with enough sugar added to make it crumbly instead of sticky. Which is a LOT of sugar.

My problem is how to eat this stuff. The sesame flavor and sweetness are really overwhelming if I try to eat it straight. It has the wrong consistency for spreading. I can melt it in the microwave and it will spread, but the taste is not improved by warming it, it really is better eaten cold.

I really do like sesame, but I really need to figure out how to include this stuff as an ingredient in something else. Any ideas?

[Rev. Rowan Redbeard]

After a quick google search, I came up with little more than an understanding of what it is.

My suggestion is to find fruits and/or vegetables that it goes well with. You may not be able to spread it, but if you can slice it, you should be fine.

I'm not big on sesame, but I did this with peanut butter and raw sweet potato slices for a very yummy snack.

[Ubi Dubium]

It might be good with apples, I'll have to try that. It's too crumbly to slice well. It's so sweet, it would need a good tart apple like a Granny Smith to balance it.

[PKMKII]

If it's too much sweetness straight (although my girlfriend says she eats it straight and it's not sickly sweet ) you could try eating it with some semi-sweet or bitter chocolate.

[Tigger_the_Wing]

It's good with a truly vicious mature Cheddar. Crumble it and the cheese together on plain crackers.

[Cardinal Fang]

As a rule halva should properly eaten in small chunks as a sweet snack. It keeps indefinately, so my suggestion is to couple it with a cup of strong black arabic coffee as a pick-me-up.

CF

[Ubi Dubium]

I've got the super-taster thing going on. Sharp Cheddar and coffee are both totally unpalatable to me. Otherwise those would be good ideas.

I tried it with apples. Definitely an improvement. I'll have to repeat that one.

Now I want to find something to mix it into, to lessen the overwhelming sweetness, reduce the intensity of the sesame, and perhaps make it spreadable. Maybe I could melt it and mix it into some chocolate icing. Or come up with a cookie recipe that includes it as an ingredient.

[Rev. Rowan Redbeard]

Crumble it into cheesecake

[Ubi Dubium]

Now there's an idea. I wonder how much cheesecake it would take to balance two pounds of halvah?

[daftbeaker]

I wonder how much cheesecake it would take to balance two pounds of halvah?

Two pounds of cheesecake obviously

[Roy Hunter]

I wonder how much cheesecake it would take to balance two pounds of halvah?

Two pounds of cheesecake obviously

Oh, not the old halvah / cheesecake titration controversy again! I thought we were over that!

[Ubi Dubium]

No, no! Halvah is much more concentrated than cheesecake. I'm thinking a couple of tablespoons of halvah per cheesecake. That's a lot of baking! I'd better get started.

Oh, wait. I just got back into those old jeans. Drat.

[Tigger_the_Wing]

Nobody says you have to eat the whole cheesecake yourself, you know…

[Ubi Dubius]

Nobody says you have to eat the whole cheesecake yourself, you know…

Tig, somebody does say so. Ubi Dubium says so!

[daftbeaker]

I wonder how much cheesecake it would take to balance two pounds of halvah?

Two pounds of cheesecake obviously

Oh, not the old halvah / cheesecake titration controversy again! I thought we were over that!

Actually, I was making a bad joke about balancing stuff, the obvious point that two pounds of anything will be balanced by two pounds of anything else.

Sorry