Chocolate Halva Cookies with Sucanat
I am a huge fan of Yotam Ottolenghi and in his cookbook Sweet, he has a recipe for brownies with halva. These brownies are some of the best I’ve ever had but I was in more of a cookie mood and so this recipe was born! These cookies are soft, fudgy, and chocolatey and the halva plus the toasted sesame seeds on top adds such a nice nutty flavor.
If you’re looking for a good brand of halva to use, this one would be my choice - since it’s one of the only ones I could find that uses a natural sweetener (honey).
The other natural sugar in this cookie is Sucanat. For those who may be unfamiliar with Sucanat, the name is an abbreviation for “sucre de canne naturel” or natural cane sugar and is a less processed, more natural sugar in comparison to granulated white sugar/brown sugar. Due to the minimal processing involved in producing Sucanat, it retains more of its nutritional properties as well. The minimal processing does mean that the granules of Sucanat are larger and not uniform though so when adding it to recipes, including this one, you will need to grind it in a coffee or spice grinder first so that it can better incorporate in with the the rest of the ingredients.
I hope you give these cookies a try!
Yield: About 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients
2 oz. chocolate (chopped if using a bar or you can use chips/chunks/etc.)
40 g cocoa powder
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
150 g Sucanat, ground in coffee/spice grinder
140 g whole wheat bread flour (or regular bread flour if you don’t have whole wheat)
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
85 g milk
1 egg plus 1 yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
30-60 g halva (use more or less depending on how much halva you want on your cookies)
2-3 tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted
60 g chocolate chunks
Directions
Over a double boiler (or in a microwave if you have one), heat the 2 oz. chocolate, cocoa powder, and butter until melted and smooth. Let cool slightly
In a small bowl, combine the Sucanat (make sure to grind it!), flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, egg and yolk, and vanilla extract. Add the chocolate mixture to the milk mixture and stir. Then add the flour mixture and stir until fully combined. Refrigerate the dough for at least a couple hours up to overnight depending on your schedule.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F and prepare your baking sheets (line with either parchment paper or a Silpat liner). Scoop the cookie dough onto the baking sheets using a cookie scooper (or a spoon and grab about a tablespoon of dough - or more if you like bigger cookies!). Leave a couple inches of space between cookies. Press the cookies down with either a fork or your palm. Sprinkle halva and sesame seeds over each cookie and top with a few chocolate chunks. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges are just about set. Cool on wire rack.
