Halva Ice Cream

  • Posted by Ruby

You’ve all amazed me with your support for my boundary-testing entry for PFB3 so to say thank you, I made ice cream.

This is the halva ice cream from my ‘posh’ menu that I didn’t do for the last challenge. I realized the other day that I had everything I needed, so I just bunged it together and stuck it in the freezer. I only took it out to stir it once – it was so rich and creamy it didn’t need more than that.

The recipe calls for tahini. If you’re unfamiliar with it by name, you might recognize it as a main ingredient of hummus, or the sauce that comes on your falafel sandwich. It’s like a Middle Eastern peanut butter, made from ground sesame seeds, and can be used in both savoury and sweet dishes. A very popular sweet, called halva, is made from tahini, and that is what inspired me. I’ve never heard of it being used in ice cream though, but there’s a first time for everything, right? It got my Syrian hubby’s approval, so it can’t be that bad.

You can buy tahini in a Middle Eastern specialty shop or your local organic/wholefoods store. If you have trouble finding it, try this with peanut butter instead (but with peanut butter I might add chocolate chips or crushed peanuts).

I used my standard no-egg, no-machine ice cream recipe as a base and it worked wonderfully. If anything this ice cream was too rich – you might go for low-fat options with the cream and/or condensed milk. Even if the ice cream crystallizes a bit (as it will do if it’s not creamy enough) that’s ok because halva is essentially crystallized tahini and sugar, so the texture would work well that way.

As it is, serve this in very small portions, all by itself – it’s rich enough to stand alone. Best with Arabic coffee, of course (recipe here) but espresso will do just fine too.

Ingredients:

1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
4 Tbsp tahini
2 Tbsp honey

Method:

1. Mix ingredients together and blend for about 1 minute, until lightly frothy.
2. Pour into tupperware container and freeze.
3. Remove to stir after about 1 hour and then possibly again after a further 2 hours (ish).
4. Leave overnight for a hard set.

Saha!