Project: Jan-Willem Doornenbal

Halva letters

Traditional arab sweets in new forms

The traditional sweet stuff which is known in the whole arabic world and in Turkey (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halva) is, as far as I know, just sold in blocks.
The word 'halawa' (حلاوة) in Arabic means 'sweetness' while the word halwa (حلوي) means sweets or candy. The word halva comes from the Arabic word halwa; the root word is hilwa meaning sweet. The root word is also the basis for the Arabic word for "good" (helwa'). (source: the mentioned wikipedia article).
It should be made in different forms, e.g. letters or heart-shapes, to be nice as give-aways.

Enlarge

759092316_65a4b1cf34.jpg - Halva stall at the market from www.flickr.com/photos/moomoobloo/759092316/ (unfortunately not my own photo, and as you see just cubes; letters would make it nicer ;-) )

Halva is a typical Arabic sweet.
The letters could be arabic too, but this is not essential.

It is just a very common sweet, but it is brought in an affordable and simple but well-designed and good-looking way. It simply looks better than the same stuff in next-door shop.

Everybody. It's nice as a birthday present, but can be an Eid ul-Fitr (=end of ramadan) present or a christmas present as well.
People of arabic (incl berber, turkish, etc) descent will be familiar with halva, but when presented in latin letter-form this sweet could be more easily popularised among western people.

Of course I saw the arabic chocolate letters, and I liked the idea. However I thought they might be not practical, because they'll melt away (in hot countries) and they are western culture in an arabic costume.
Halva letters are more like arabic culture in a western costume (or just in a new costume when the arabic alphabet would be used)

Letter moulds and halva.
There need be some experiments with halva varieties (semolina, sesame or other recipes) to find out which doesn't crumb too much etc.

The moulds.