Salted Halva Blondies from Dessert Person

The January/February baking cookbook for the Rainy Day Bites Cookbook Club is Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz. I skipped the first challenge of the blood orange olive oil cake but it certainly looked delicious. The second challenge, which I posted to Instagram on Saturday the 23rd, are the Salted Halva Brownies. I'm copying the recipe from New York Seed + Mill since they had already posted it online.

I had baked with tahini before (tahini cookies, buckwheat tahini orange chocolate cookies, and tahini chocolate chip cookies) but had not used halva as an ingredient to add to things. I ordered a vanilla flavored halva and chopped it up. You can't see it in the picture but it adds a distinct flavor and chewy texture which made these very delicious.

Salted Halva Blondies

INGREDIENTS

1 ¼  c flour
1 tsp kosher salt 
½ tsp baking powder
6 oz (170g) white chocolate (chopped)
4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter 
½ c light brown sugar 
1 large egg 
2 large egg yolks 
1 tbs vanilla extract
4 oz crumbled halva
2 tbs sesame seeds
Flaky sea salt (for sprinkling the top) 

STEPS
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8 x 8” pan with 2 sheets of foil, crossing one over the other. Butter the foil generously and set aside.  
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Gently melt the white chocolate in a double boiler (i.e. in a bowl that is placed over a pot of simmering water). Add the butter and tahini to the white chocolate and stir gently to combine until smooth. Remove the mixture from the heat. 
3. Whisk the brown sugar into the white chocolate. It may start to look grainy and separate (which is normal). Add the egg and egg yolks and vanilla to the white chocolate mixture and whisk vigorously until smooth and glossy. 
4. Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mix and use a flexible spatula to combine. Final step is to add the crumbled (or chunked halva) trying not to over mix at this point and break up the halva too much. 
5. Scrape batter into the buttered pan, sprinkle with sesame seeds, flaky sea salt and bake for 20-25 mins (or until blondies are golden brown on the top). Allow to cool in the pan, remove and slice into squares. They should be chewy on the inside and puffed on the top!

Makes 16 blondies. 
You can make these and freeze for up to 2 months.