In the not-too-distant past, I was something of a professional traveler, spending months away from home on various assignments. It was a mixed experience; as a travel lover and someone who enjoys learning about other cultures, I relished it. But as someone separated from their partner and, if I’m honest, someone separated from their kitchen, it was a challenge.

On a three-month long trip to Amman earlier this year, my partner surreptitiously snuck a packet of New York Times Cooking sections into my luggage as a “travel well” and “don’t miss your oven too much” gift. I started reading a section over breakfast each weekend, and it quickly became a treasured routine, in part because of the connection to home and in part because of the food. Weekend breakfast in Amman was a thing of beauty: hot, pillowy breads; an assortment of salads and olives and pickled vegetables (like my favorite, makdous); cheese and labneh; ful medames. At the end of the meal, I’d pour another cup of coffee, spread open a Cooking, and tuck into a wedge of halva, a fudge-like Middle Eastern sesame confection that’s sweet, a tiny bit bitter, and deliciously crumbly. It was a routine worth savoring, and also how I came to be reading an outdated column about cooking for Hanukkah in February. Melissa Clark’s recipe for olive oil brownies practically leapt off the page at me, and with the taste of halva lingering in my mouth, how could I not think to combine the two?

Back at home, I tinkered with Melissa’s recipe, removing a tablespoon of olive oil to make the brownies less oily, adding an extra ounce of unsweetened chocolate (because how annoying is it when most bars are four ounces but a recipe calls only for three?), and folding in a full two cups of chopped halva. The result is a one-bowl brownie, decadent chocolate married with halva, a bridge between the life I put on hold while I traveled and the one I found when I arrive

Olive Oil and Halva Brownies

Adapted from Melissa Clark via the New York Times

Makes 9 or 16 brownies, depending on how much you feel like sharing

Active time: 15 minutes; total time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup sugar (I prefer dark brown sugar, but feel free to use white or light brown sugar, if that’s what you have on hand)
• 1 teaspoon table salt (trust me, the salt helps balance the sweetness of the halva)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee or 1/2 teaspoon instant espresso (optional, but this will make your brownies taste more chocolatey without adding a coffee flavor)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• About 1 pound halva, any flavor (I used pistachio)
• Flaky sea salt, to finish (optional)

Directions:

• Roughly chop the unsweetened chocolate into small pieces, about 1/2 inch square. Place the chocolate in a large glass bowl and melt in the microwave—several one minute blasts at 50% power usually does the trick without burning the chocolate—or over a double boiler.
• While the chocolate is melting, check your oven and make sure the rack is in the middle, and then preheat it to 350F. Grease an 8 inch by 8 inch pan with butter or cooking spray, and line the pan with parchment paper (it’s fine to leave a parchment overhang on two sides, as this will make it easier to get the brownies out of the pan).
• Assemble the rest of your ingredients and chop enough halva into cubes about 1/2 inch square to get two cups. If the chocolate finishes melting before you’ve finished all of this, that’s fine; just set it aside for a few minutes.
• Once the chocolate has melted and you’re ready, add the sugar, salt, vanilla, egg, oil, and instant coffee (if using) to the melted chocolate. Mix well to combine. No need for fancy techniques here; just get everything mixed up.
• Add the cocoa powder and boiling water next, again mixing well and mashing out any little cocoa lumps against the side of the bowl until the batter is smooth and homogenous.
• Now add the flour and baking powder, mixing well to ensure there are no unblended pockets of flour. This is a good place to sneak a taste and make sure you’ve added all the ingredients. Did you forget the salt? The olive oil? No? Well then, proceed.
• Finally, add the halva. It’ll likely crumble as you stir it in, and that’s fine! This way, you’ll end up with some nice big chunks and some tiny crumbles, and it’ll be all the more delicious.
• Tip the batter into the prepared pan and spread it about with a spatula to cover the bottom. Remember that these are brownies, so it doesn’t have to look perfect.
• Slid the pan into the oven to bake. It’s absolutely critical that you don’t over-bake these brownies, so I recommend setting your timer for 15 minutes and checking every two or three minutes thereafter—my brownies took about 18 minutes, but they could take several minutes longer if your oven runs cool. You’ll know the brownies are down when everything looks set (it shouldn’t look as though it would jiggle if you shook the pan) and only parts of the middle are still shiny.
• Remove from the oven and immediately scatter sea salt over the top. Allow to cool most of the way before cutting and serving. These will keep on the counter, covered, for several days.