Halvah is an addictive Middle Eastern sweet traditionally made with honey and ground sesame seeds, called tahini, and often studded with nuts. Apparently there are versions made with semolina flour, seeds, beans, and even vegetables, but I have not tried any of those. I can’t get past the honey and tahini combination. It’s just too good. Especially swirled with dark chocolate.

An uncooked Halvah:

• 1 cup ground sesame seeds (tahini)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup toasted, slivered almonds, optional

Mix all ingredients just until creamy but not sticky. Form into balls or place in a pan lined with waxed paper and weigh down with heavy weight. Store in refrigerator.

A cooked version of Halvah:

2 cups honey
1-1/2 cups sesame tahini
1/2 to 2 cups toasted sliced almonds, pistachios, or other nuts (optional)

Place the honey in a heavy pot and the tahini in a smaller pot, and set the tahini aside for the moment. Heat the honey over medium heat to soft ball stage (235-240F or 118-120C), which is when a drop of the honey placed in cold water forms a soft ball that loses its shape when taken out of the water.

Once honey has reached soft ball stage, set it aside and place the pot of tahini on the heat until it reaches 120F (50C).

Pour the heated tahini into the honey and stir well with a wooden spoon until it is smooth and well combined.  Add the nuts and continue to stir as the mixture cools and stiffens. This may take five to eight minutes.

Pour into a greased cake pan or spring pan. Let cool to room temperature, then wrap the whole pan tightly in plastic wrap and store in fridge for 24-36 hours. Crystals should form in the halvah during this process. Remove halvah from pan and cut into slabs with a sharp knife.

Wrap individual slabs tightly in plastic wrap. Keeps well for several months in the fridge if tightly wrapped.

Pracny were cookies that Grandma baked at Christmas–amongst many other delicacies such as Walnut and Poppyseed Rolls (Beigli), Cottage Cheese Cake, Hoska, and Viennese Crescents (AKA Mexican Wedding Cakes). The Pracny were baked in special molds, were a rich, dark brown covered with a snowy sprinkling of powdered sugar, and had a most wonderful texture (and taste!).

This particular recipe is one that a second cousin gave us when she came to visit us from the Czech Republic. The measurements are in dekakilograms (each dekakilogram measures 10 grams)… happy converting!

(Note: below this recipe is a link to a very similar recipe with convenient conversions already made)

Ingredients for Pracny

7 dkg ground walnuts
10 dkg butter
7 dkg powder sugar
14 dky flour (very mild one)
2 tsp Vanilla sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Mix all this together and let is sit for at least an hour or 24 hours, it’s up to you.

Spread a lot of butter into small cookie forms (we use metal one, if you don’t have any, we’ll send you some). It’s very important to spread the butter properly, otherwise, you won’t be able to take the cookies out.

Lay the forms (with the open side up) on the cookie sheet. Put the sheet in oven (about 180 C or 350 F). Bake them until they are done (until the cookies turn gold). After you pull the sheet out of oven, let it sit for a while. Then comes the final moment–cookies digging. Sometimes it is easy to take them out and sometimes you get just crumbs. Sometimes just knocking on the sheet helps.

Then you prepare some powder sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Every cookie you cover with sugar in that bowl. Then you have to keep them at the safe place without insect and with low humidity.

Merry Christmas….. Vesele Vanoce……. Marketa

Another Czech Christmas Cookie Recipe: Bear paws / Recept na medvedi tlapicky

Mom used to make this recipe as small raisin tarts rather than a full pie. It brings back memories of a warm kitchen during a cold winter.

Ingredients for Raisin Pie or Tarts

• 3/4 cups raisins
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 3 T lemon juice
• 3 T grated lemon rind
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 pie shell, unbaked

Let raisins stand in water for 2 hours. Mix sugar, flour, egg, lemon juice and rind, and salt. Add raisins with their soaking water. Simmer until thickened (about 15 minutes), stirring constantly to avoid sticking and burning. Cool.

Fill the pastry shell with the cooled raisin mixture and top with pastry lattice if desired.

Bake at 425 F for 45 minutes.

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 cup whipped cream
• Prepared fruit
• 1 graham wafer crust

Beat together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into crust and top with fruit. Chill.

This fruit cake has evolved over the years in Mexico to suit the ingredients readily available here. Some years, I can find only raisins and dates and some dried tropical fruits. Often there’s no citron. The nuts are sometimes only a few lowly pecans and almonds supplemented with pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  But the recipe is very forgiving and will handle all sorts of substitutions and adjustments to suit ingredient availability.

• 1 cup mixed dried fruits (apricots, papaya, peaches, mango), cut into small pieces
• 1 cup raisins, or 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup currants
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/2 cup candied citron, cut, or other candied fruit
• 4 oz. candied cherries, green and red, chopped
• 1-1/2 cups chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds and/or hazelnuts
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 t allspice
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t cloves
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup molasses (or honey)
• 1/2 cup milk

Cover mixed dried fruits, already cut, with boiling water. Let stand 2 hours. Drain. Mix and set aside the rest of the fruits and nuts. Sift together the flour, baking soda and spices. Beat the shortening with sugar. Stir in eggs, honey and milk. Add flour mixture, fruits and nuts.

Line 2 large loaf pans with foil. Fill pans and bake 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours at 300F. Remove from oven and cool.

Sprinkle with rum and wrap in a layer of waxed paper and then in foil. Store in fridge or cool area and sprinkle once a week with rum. Best if made at least a month, and up to 3 months, before eating.

For a vegan version, simply substitute almond or soy milk for regular milk and 1 T ground flax seeds soaked in 3 T water for 15 minutes for each egg. Use coconut oil in place of regular vegetable oil in either version for an extra taste treat.

Variations of these healthy carob-based sweets, sometimes called Bliss Balls, Power Balls, or Energy Balls, were always on the shelf by the cash register at Annie’s Health Food Store, Grand Forks, B.C. (no longer in existence). Vary the ingredients in any way you want, as long as your proportions of dry to wet allow them to hold firm without being sticky.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup carob powder
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup dry milk powder
• 3/4 cup mixed chopped walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds
• Unsweetened coconut

Combine all ingredients except coconut, adding enough nuts and seeds to form a mixture that will stick together. Add extra milk powder if necessary. Mix well and press into balls 1 inch in diameter. Roll in coconut or additional carob powder. Store in sealed jar.

Vegan version

For a vegan version, substitute the honey for agave syrup, maple syrup, or processed dates, omit the milk powder (or use finely ground rolled oats or oat flour instead), and add a bit of coconut oil or more peanut butter if the mixture needs more moisture.

Pflaumenkuchen

• 2 T butter
• 1 T sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 t lemon rind
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 cup wholewheat flour
• 3 cup halved prune plums

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg. Stir in milk and lemon rind. Sift together baking powder, salt and flour. Combine with butter mix. Spread in a greased pan.

Cover with halved plums and bake at 325 F for 20 minutes. Cut into squares.