Halvah is a Homonym

My dad really enjoys halvah--the kind with sesame and honey and such. He got these little halvah confections flavored with vanilla that I are delicious, so much so that the company decided to call themselves Delicious Halva, but of course. So I got it in my head that making halvah from scratch would be quite the project and started looking up recipes.
So as the title suggests, there are two types of halva, the more common sesame kind, and the other type made from semolina flour (the same flour used to make pasta). I buy a fairly expensive bag of semolina thinking "semolina, sesame, they must be related." And I bring the bag of pricey flour home, and I take it out, and glance over the ingredients...nope, no sesame listed. Semolina is actually made of from the hard grains left over after milling flour.
But I was actually able to find a rather enticing cookie recipe here, that used a hefty amount of the semolina. The recipe called for putting an almond on top, which I did, but in my opinion was a rather silly addition. If you were to replace the vanilla extract with almond it might work, but otherwise I would leave the cookies naked except for the quick egg gloss on top to shine them up.
I thought the flavor would be a bit flat with just the vanilla and semolina, so i decided to add a sprinkling of cardamom. I didn't put very much, so initially I was worried that the flavor wouldn't come out at all. Luckily it turned out to be the perfect amount, the cardamom flavor was there, but very subtle, so you had to wonder for a minute what the note actually was. These also might be nice with a teaspoon of ginger to replace the cardamom.

Cardamom Vanilla Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar
2 c. semolina flour
1 tsp. ground cardamom
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
A bit of egg for glossing them

1. Melt the butter slowly, i.e. don't let it get any brown speckles in it. After you've melted it use a spoon to remove as much as you can of the white froth that gathers at the top.
2. Combine the flours, sugar, and cardamom in a bowl.
3. Once the butter is cool, stir in the eggs and vanilla, make sure to break the yolks up. Add the flour mixture and stir well. With your hands rub and knead or whatever measure you want to use--just make sure that the dry flour parts and the yolky liquid parts meld together to form a cohesive dough. Let this sit for an hour or so covered with a towel or plastic wrap.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Play with the dough again to make sure it's the same consistency all over. Take out baking pans and put parchment paper on them. Make littles ball with of the dough. Midway between a tablespoon and a teaspoon in size. Put them about an inch apart on the baking sheets. Brush with the egg wash and stick in the oven for about 20 minutes.