A Jewish Grandmother: Original, unedited daily musings, and host to the monthly Kosher Cooking Carnival. **Copyright(C)BatyaMedad ** For permission to use these in publications of any sort, please contact me directly. Private accredited distribution encouraged. Thank you.
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Sunday, April 25, 2010
Simple, Healthy, Non-Dairy Spread
I used to be the cook for the local day care center for babies and toddlers from 3 months to three years old. I did this for at least four years. At the same time I was the girls gym teacher. The logistics could be very complicated, but I liked having two totally different jobs. I guess my extra weight, which eventually put me in the obese category, began piling on after I stopped those jobs.
Some of the food I cooked was my usual recipes from home and others I learned or adapted from professional lessons they arranged for us.
One thing I learned was Halva Spread. Halva is sweetened sesame seeds made into a "candy." As candies go, it's pretty healthy. We were taught how to take the ground unflavored seeds, sold in many stores for techina and turn it into a spread, good for sandwiches or for spreading on crackers.
This is really easy, just three ingredients of similar quantities. Don't obsess over measuring exactly. You may like it sweeter or less so, more liquidy or more solid. You won't get arrested for playing with the proportions.
unflavored sesame paste
honey
boiling water
Mix them all together, and that's it. It sure beats peanut-butter and jelly, the sweet sandwiches of my childhood.
Shalom! I Googled recipes for proper halva (no sugar and certainly no glucose!), and then came to your understanding: proportions are not so important concerning taste. However, I was trying to make solid halva and ended up with, albeit tasty but, spreadable halva. Do you know anyone who gets it to solidify into a block?
Shalom! I didn't Google in Hebrew, but if the proportions of techina and honey are correct, the mass is supposed to solidify in a few days. Sugar shouldn't be necessary because halva has been around since before sugar as we know it was used. Perhaps it solidifies only if it's completely exposed, which I'm not going to let happen. I'll Google in Hebrew and see if I find more tips. (I have a feeling that even if I do manage to get the techina and honey to solidify my daughter will prefer the store-bought garbage.)
Shalom!
ReplyDeleteI Googled recipes for proper halva (no sugar and certainly no glucose!), and then came to your understanding: proportions are not so important concerning taste. However, I was trying to make solid halva and ended up with, albeit tasty but, spreadable halva. Do you know anyone who gets it to solidify into a block?
My guess would be that you need sugar and heat. Did you google it in Hebrew?
ReplyDeleteShalom!
ReplyDeleteI didn't Google in Hebrew, but if the proportions of techina and honey are correct, the mass is supposed to solidify in a few days. Sugar shouldn't be necessary because halva has been around since before sugar as we know it was used. Perhaps it solidifies only if it's completely exposed, which I'm not going to let happen.
I'll Google in Hebrew and see if I find more tips. (I have a feeling that even if I do manage to get the techina and honey to solidify my daughter will prefer the store-bought garbage.)
There's som additive which stiffens it. If you ever made candy, you'd see how hard sugar can get after being heated.
ReplyDelete