Greek Halva (1 - 2- 3 - 4)

Ingredients:

1 Cup olive oil

2 Cups semolina

For the syrup

3 cups sugar

4 cups water

1 cinnamon stick

Zest/peel of 1 lemon 

Optional: Raisins and nuts to your taste

Method

1. Put the water with the sugar, the cinnamon stick and the lemon peel in a saucepan to make the syrup.

2. Once the sugar has melted, turn off the heat.

3. When we start making the syrup and it is warming through, we cook the semolina at the same time.

4. For the semolina, put the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and wait for it to warm up.

5. Once the oil is hot, add the semolina and stir constantly so that it does not stick and does not burn. Semolina is very sensitive and can burn in seconds so watch it carefully!

6. When our semolina darkens enough to be toasted but not burnt, very carefully pour the syrup into our pot and mix.

NB: When you pour the syrup into the semolina please make sure you take out the cinnamon stick and lemon peel, they are just there to flavour the syrup and not meant to be eaten separately.

7. Warning! Here you have to be very careful, because once we pour the syrup over the semolina the temperature will rise rapidly and our halva will look, more or less, like lava!

8. After emptying all the syrup, continue to stir until the mixture is relatively solid and the syrup is soaked up by the semolina.

9. At this point you can add the raisins or/and nuts, whatever optional extras you wish to add, to taste. Mix thoroughly to make sure they are well distributed.

10. Now remove the halva mixture from the heat and pour into a mould. We used a 22cm bundt tin mould to give an attractive shape though you can use any similar size cake tin or smaller individual ones for separate desserts.

11. The halva is ready to turn out onto a serving plate once it has cooled enough. If it is turned out too soon, it will break up and not keep the shape of the mould.

12. I like to sprinkle it with cinnamon, ideally just before serving so that it does not soak in to the halva.

13. Enjoy this light, refreshing, delicately flavoured dessert!