Greek Semolina Halva

Semolina, one of those dishes able to strike fear into any schoolchild’s heart when they see it on the menu. Because school style “semolina pudding” is usually a torrid unapetising mess with a thick inedible skin. But this Greek semolina halva couldn’t be further from that horror story, and is a deliciously tasty, yet nutritious dessert. It is especially good when served with whipped mascarponi, soya ice-cream or soya cream.

The recipe is fairly simple, but it does work best if you use 2 grades of semolina –  fine and coarse. Mix them 50/50, and I find they work really well together. When you add in all the tasty morsels, like black raisins, almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, & dates it really is scrumptious. Of course the spices like cinnamon, & star anise, plus the orange and lemon peel help it along. They add a lot of additional zest and taste. You may discover it is difficult to find coarse and fine semolina, so just use whatever you can obtain locally.

The initial toasting of the semolina flours in oil, is essential to add flavour and help it thicken properly. Meanwhile, the liquor you are going to pour into it when the semolina is finished toasting, can be simmering away. This is necessary in order to extract the maximum flavour from the spices and citrus fruit peel.

Just be careful though as you start to pour the liquor into the pan with the hot toasted semolina. If you’re not careful, it can erupt unexpectedly and scald you. It’s essential to stir it well, and continuously, as you begin adding the liquid. If you don’t then you can end up with lumpy semolina halva.

This is a recipe orginally sourced from a Greek language website, but then adjusted by me and my source Erisa. I find that virtually all dessert or cake recipes I come accross, are ridiculously high in sugar content. In this has been pared right back to give it a “sweet enough”, but not overly sugary or sickly taste.

Once you’ve toasted your semolina and mixed in the liquid, it needs to be poured into a mould. Then you can put that somewhere to cool and set. Some form of heat-proof dish is advisable – I particularly like pyrex myself! Once it’s cool, you can release if from the sides of the dish with a table knife, and turn it out onto a plate. It wants to be fairly solid on the plate, but soft and yielding in the mouth.

For serving this Greek semolina halva, I would suggest a slice around 1cm thick. You’ll need a sharp knife though as the nuts can get in the way.

I like to serve it warm with a sauce/accompaniment of some type – either the traditional cream or ice cream. Alternatively it could be a thinnish slightly sweet lemon or orange sauce made with cornflour – or all three! The orange sauce recipe is given in the main recipe below – to serve 12 slices.

Greek Semolina Halva

This is a mixture of fine and course semolina, toasted, then mixed with a flavoured sweet liquor and then cooked and cooled until it sets.

5 from 1 vote

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Course Dessert

Cuisine Greek

Servings 12 slices

Equipment

• 2 medium sized pans
• 1 heat proof mould preferably pyrex

Ingredients

  

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The main semolina halva creation

• 100 g olive oil extra virgin
• 150 g wholemeal semolina organic is best - use either coarse or fine or a mix of both.
• 100 g muscovado sugar this is nearly half the original sugar!
• 750 g water or almond milk can be half milk, half water could use soya or oat milk
• 35 g black raisins
• 25 g flaked almonds must be flaked - whole ones won't work
• 25 g chopped walnuts
• 10 g pine nuts optional ingredient
• 25 g chopped dates optional ingredient
• 2 whole lemon peels cut into strips - use the juice for hummus
• 2 whole organge peel cut into strips use the juice for the sauce.
• 1 whole cinnamon sticks
• 1 teasp ground cinnamon
• 2 whole star anise
• 25 ml cointreau a very optional ingredient!

Topping

• 25 g apricot jam to spread on top to make the nuts stay in place
• 25 g chopped hazelnuts this is for the top.

Sweet orange sauce

• 350 g orange juice
• 6 tbsps palm sugar
• 3 teasps corn starch
• 1 tbsp vegan margarine

Instructions

 

• Pour the olive oil into a largeish pan on a medium heat
• Add in the 2 different grades of semolina and stir well.
• Cook until slightly browned, but don't let it burn. 5 to 10 minutes.
  
• In another pan at the same time add the sugar, cinnamon, star anise, lemon and orange peels.
  
• Add in the water/milk and bring the mixture to the boil and simmer gently for around 10 minutes while the semolina toasts
  
• Strain the liquor from the water & spice mixture into a large jug or other container.
  
• Turn off the heat on the toasting semolina and add the nuts, raisins, (& dates if you're using them) to the semolina and stir the mixture to distribute them evenly.
  
• Allow the pan with the semolina to cool briefly (30 seconds or so) before pouring in the strained liquor that you have created in the other pan/jug. This is so it's not too volatile.
• Add the liquid gradually, stirring all the time. Watch out for it errupting if you add too much too quickly.
• Turn the heat back on and continue stirring until the mixture begins to thicken.
  
• Take if off the heat and pour it into a large enough heat proof mould. Pyrex is best, but any rectangular shaped dish should do.
  
• Allow to cool and firm up, and then loosen with a knife and turn it out onto a serving dish or tray.
  
• Heat the apricot jam in the microwave and mash with a fork so it's smooth.
• Brush the top with the jam and sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts and maybe some finely chopped dates.
  

Making the orange sauce

• pour the orange juice into a small saucepan
• add in the corn starch and palm sugar, and combine
• stir as you heat - making sure there are no lumps.
• bring to the boil, and simmer gently until the sauce is thick enough - a nice runny but syrupy consistency.
• add the vegan margarine and whisk until combined well.
• Serve warm with an orange thickened sauce or cream or ice-cream
  

Notes

• I've realized that as I was testing a half batch, just to get all the ratios right, in fact the recipe as listed would make far too much. I've therefore amended the recipe to make enough for 12 reasonable slices.
• I've also changed my reccomendation to cut two thin slices - it's just too tricky due the relatively fragile nature of the dessert.
• I've added an optional ingredient of cointreau, which I think makes it a little more decadent - but it's entirely optional.
• I like to use a pyrex loaf mould, but anything that will hold the quantity of semi-liquid halva is fine.
• Medium and coarse semolina can be hard to find. I've managed to find a wholemeal medium semolina in my local wholefood shop, and I would recommend just using that.

Keyword dates, almonds, semolina, orange peel, nuts, raisins

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