🇦🇿 Azerbaijani Cuisine

Sheki Halva

Sheki-Style Nut Halva

Prep Time 40 min

Servings 10

Difficulty Hard

Calories 346 kcal

A unique layered confection from the city of Sheki, made with rice flour batter cooked into thin nets, layered with ground hazelnuts and walnuts, and soaked in saffron-rosewater syrup.

Ingredients

200g rice flour
Water to make a thin batter
300g ground hazelnuts
200g ground walnuts
250g sugar
1 teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons rosewater
200ml water for syrup
100g butter for cooking

Instructions

1 Make thin batter with rice flour and water.
2 Heat a buttered copper pan. Drizzle batter through a sieve to create a lacy net.
3 Cook until set, then carefully remove.
4 Mix ground nuts with half the sugar and cardamom for filling.
5 Layer nut nets and filling in an oven tray, 3-4 layers each.
6 Make syrup with remaining sugar, water, saffron, and rosewater.
7 Pour warm syrup over the layered halva.
8 Bake at 160°C for 15 minutes. Cool and cut into diamonds.

Did You Know?

Sheki halva is so treasured that its recipe was once a closely guarded secret of the Sheki khans. Today, visitors to Sheki can watch artisans make it in copper workshops using the same techniques from centuries ago.