Halva (also halvah, halwa, and other spellings) is a type of confectionery originating from Iran and widely spread throughout the Middle East and India. The name is used for a broad variety of recipes, generally a thick paste made from flour, butter, liquid oil, saffron, rosewater, milk, cocoa powder, and sweetened with sugar.Halva is popular in Iran, India, the Middle East, and Greece. Etymology The word halva entered the English language between 1840 and 1850 from Romanian, which came from the Ottoman Turkish: حلوى, romanized: helva, itself ultimately derived from the Arabic: حلوى, romanized: ḥalwá, a sweet confection. The root in Arabic: ح ل و, romanized: ḥ-l-w, means "sweet". ...