Chocolate and Vanilla Halva Bites

Jenn and I went on a trip to Israel over the summer (part of the Birthright program). It was a magical experience in so many ways! We ate great food, learned about the culture, met so many new friends and just in general had a grand time.

One of my favourite things there was: Halva!
There's lots of recipes for halva, some include granulated sugar, rose water, eggs, even butter.

But the kind in Israel is just made with two ingredients: tahini and honey. And it's amazing...
I bought some from the grocery store but it was the one with sugar in it and just didn't cut it.

I thought to make "no cook" halva bites, that have a secret ingredient: protein! So it cuts the glycemic index and it's like eating a protein bar but it tastes like sesame-honey goodness. I tell you the combination is magic.

You can easily make these VEGAN! Simple as pie! Use a vanilla flavoured protein powder (brown rice protein would be perfect) and substitute the honey for agave or they have honey flavoured agave which is interesting but worth a try!

The honey! This is our main "natural" honey in Canada. It's in every health food store (at least in Ontario). Summer Blossom is the most mild and is best for baking!

Vanilla:

1/3 cup tahini
2 tbsp honey
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder (or 4 tbsp)
Pinch of salt

Chocolate:

1/3 tahini
3 tbsp honey
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder (or 4 tbsp)
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder (add more if you like it more dark chocolatey)
Pinch of salt

Roasted sesame seeds for rolling

Combine all ingredients to make two different flavoured doughs.

Take a piece of dough and roll into ball, then roll it in sesame seeds to form a strip of seeds on the ball, then flatten a bit to resemble a cookie.

Put them in the fridge and snack away!

You can buy these seeds at any asian supermarket, they're roasted, and nice and crunchy!

Delightful treats!

You could do so many different flavours too, putting some orange zest would be good (choc or vanilla) Mix in pistachios or you could roll them in toasted coconut. yum!

Store in refrigerator. Makes around 15 bites.