Raspberry & halva crumble slice

November 7, 2021

   

Restrictions have eased a lot, but I'm emerging slowly - seeing friends occasionally, in small groups, and most often outside. I'm still spending plenty of time at home and allocating some of it to baking. The halva I needed for this recipe was a nice excuse to walk to a more distant supermarket and browse their novel groceries early in the morning when the aisles were still quiet, then potter around the kitchen in the afternoon.

I made a couple of easy substitutions to render this vegan and gluten-free: margarine instead of butter, and a gluten-free flour blend instead of wheat-based plain flour. I feared this might make for a crumble slice so crumbly it couldn't hold together, but it held up fine. Eaten warm from the oven, I reckon this slice was indistinguishable from a buttery, gluteny version. Eaten cool a day later, it was a slightly less convincing shortcrust but still a very good snack.

The recipe promises lots of contrasting flavours from raspberries, tahini and halva, sumac and rosewater. The raspberries definitely dominate, and the halva has a moment here and there, but the sumac and rosewater got a bit lost in the bake. They might have had a better chance if I'd included the optional unheated raspberry drizzle, but it just seemed messy and unnecessary at the time. These are both flavours I've enjoyed in other pink, fruity desserts so I'd like to see them shine here too!

Happily, I was able to share this slice with friends - we had one spontaneously pop in for a coffee while this was in the oven, and I packed some for a walk with another on Sunday.

   

Raspberry & halva crumble slice

(a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi published in The Guardian)

225g plain flour (I had good results with a gluten-free blend)

105g caster sugar

50g brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

175g butter or margarine, melted

40g tahini

1 teaspoon vanilla

300g raspberries, fresh or defrosted from frozen

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 1/4 teaspoons sumac

1 teaspoon rosewater

200g halva

Preheat an oven to 170°C. Line a 22cm square cake tin with baking paper.

In a medium-large bowl, stir together the flour, 70g of the caster sugar, the brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the melted butter/margarine, tahini and vanilla until everything is well mixed. Measure out 300g of the dough and place it in the lined cake tin, using the back of a spoon and/or your clean hands to spread it out into an even layer. Bake the biscuit base for 20 minutes, and refrigerate the leftover dough.

While the base is baking, get out a medium bowl use it to stir together the raspberries, remaining 35g caster sugar, cornflour, sumac and rosewater.

When the biscuit base is baked, retrieve it from the oven and raise the oven temperature to 180°C. Crumble the halva evenly across the biscuit base, then spoon the raspberry mixture over the halva. Retrieve the remaining biscuit dough from the fridge and scatter it in pieces over the raspberries. Bake the slice for 45-50 minutes, until the crumble is golden and the raspberries are bubbling. Allow the slice to cool a bit before slicing and serving.