If you are not familiar with halvah, you should get acquainted. It's a sweet sesame paste from the middle east that is dry and crumbly and in the best shops is cut into sedges from a huge wheel - not unlike parmesan cheese. And a few weeks ago Mark told me about a halvah brownie recipe that Yotam Ottolenghi created and posted all over the internet. I found it and tried it. And while delicious, it only included halvah as a topping for brownies - a topping which baked into the bar cookies. I wanted a cookie that had halvah as main ingredient. So I came up with these. They're incredible crunchy and fragrant. Listen in, get the recipe, and get cooking! --Bruce