walnut – Michael Eats

Location: 3535 Odyssey Drive, Mississauga
Website: https://helvaciali.ca/

I’ll admit that I hadn’t even heard of helva, a Turkish dessert, before checking it out at Helvaci Ali. I sort of figured it would be similar to halva or halawi, but it’s a completely different thing.

Helvaci Ali is a Turkish chain that’s been serving up the stuff since 1900, so it seems like a good place to try it.

The version of helva they serve here is made with semolina flour and butter, and is basically like a very rich pudding. It comes on top of ice cream (the menu describes it as 2/3 semolina helva and 1/3 ice cream), and it’s extremely delicious.

It comes in several flavours: walnut, pistchio, Biscoff, chocolate, caramel, and Dubai chocolate (I believe it is now illegal to be a dessert shop and not have some Dubai chocolate variety on the menu). I was told walnut and pistachio were the most popular, so I went with both.

Wow, it’s good. It’s super rich and creamy, with a grainy (but not unpleasantly so) texture from the semolina. It’s served warm, and the contrast between it and the cold ice cream is really, really nice.

The flavour of the walnut and the pistachio were both pretty mild, but present enough that you know what you’re eating.

I was afraid it might be too syrupy, but it’s actually got a really great level of sweetness. It’s quite sweet, but not aggressively so. It was my first taste of helva, but I can guarantee it won’t be my last.

Location: 1715 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/cosette_coffee/

After reading the description of Cosette Coffee’s chocolate chip and walnut cookie (which they call a milky walnut cookie) in this Toronto Life article, I had no choice but to visit. I was obligated. Read that article and look at those photos and tell me you don’t feel the same way. I dare you.

So yeah, got that cookie. It’s a good cookie!

It’s a big, fat cookie with a gooey middle, but unlike some other places in the city (*cough* Crumbl *double cough* Andrea’s), there’s no off-putting rawness in the middle. It’s soft and melty in all the best ways.

It’s also pretty clear that they’re using great quality chocolate, and the big chunks of walnut do a great job of adding some texture and cutting the sweetness a bit. The baker here mentioned in that article that she doesn’t like a cookie that’s too sweet, and yeah, the sweetness here feels very well balanced.

It’s a great cookie, though it does taste like something is missing — not enough vanilla, maybe? But it’s otherwise so tasty, with such an addictive crispy/chewy/gooey texture, that it’s easy enough to overlook this.

I actually wound up coming back on a different day and tried the salted caramel. This one wasn’t quite as fresh as the chocolate chip cookie (it was dense and chewy throughout, with no soft gooiness), but still very, very tasty. Like with the other cookie, the sweetness level is just about perfect, with the addition of a light sprinkling of salt on top doing a great job of balancing thing out the extra sweetness from the caramel.

Tag: walnut

Tasty Turkish Dessert at Helvaci Ali