Halvah

Immersion blender "Freedom Fighter Suicide" Halvah!!!

This recipe came out AMAZING maybe because i was really hungry when i got home i couldn't believe how good they were :-) :-) :-)

Only thing is i burnt out the motor on my immersion blender making this it was ok through all the making of the tahini but when i tried to plow through the dry raisins i used after the blender was already overheated i think maybe i fried it somehow, which is why i added the part about soaking the raisins first :-)

Halvah balls.  The cilantro garnish is there because it's green.

Ingredients

2 cups raw hulled sesame seeds

7 dates

1/4 cup raisins

Agave Syrup

1/8 tsp vanilla extract or to taste

dash celtic sea salt

pistachios to stick on at the end (optional)

First make the date and raisin paste:
7 dates and 1/4 cup raisins, water to cover dates, small pinch raw, unrefined sea salt (optional)
Soak dates and raisins in water for 15 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Use soaking water as needed for consistency.

I started with 2 cups of raw sesame seeds. Make sure your immersion blender is really dry before you start. If there’s any moisture the sesame seeds aren’t going to grind up so well.  I used a mason jar for this but in the future i would use a small sauce pan which leaves room for the blender to move around in the pan. Pulse them with the blender until the are ground into a fine meal (or actually i turned it into a paste because it still seemed to be quite crunchy as meal) – seems to make about 1 scant cup of homemade tahini. Add a dash of the sea salt to it, not enough to make it salty, but the salt will bring out the other flavors. Then add the date & raisin paste. Mix the sesame & salt mixture together with the date & raisin mixture and the vanilla, add more sweetener either dates or agave or even more raisins if not sweet enough for you. Roll into balls & then if you like roll the balls in the chopped pistachios (i did not do this). Sounds done to me!!!  Good right away and really really really great after it sits in the fridge for awhile. This is AMAZING halvah :-) :-) :-) Next time i make it i think i might double the raisins though and so will probably be able to leave out the agave syrup which would make it taste more interesting when you bite into it although i have to say that once you get to chewing it is pretty incredible as is :-)