Jacob’s “Sesamia” - Sesame Honey Slice

The base recipe for “Sesamia” is a very simple, traditional, middle eastern recipe from Jordan. Given sesame seeds and honey have both been staple foods in the middle east for thousands of years, the basic Sesamia recipe is undoubtedly very old.  By substituting other ingredients like pistachio, almonds or sultanas for some of the sesame seeds you can change the Honey Sesame Slice into something more exotic. Drizzle with dark chocolate or dip the entire slice for something extra special.

Base recipe

850gm sesame seeds

500g honey

*Alternative Recipe below replaces up to half of the mixture sesame seeds with nuts and or dried fruit

  1. Dry roast sesame seeds until golden brown (Reserve 100gm for coating finished slices)
  2. Put the honey into a large saucepan or pot and bring to a boil
  3. Quickly after it begins to boil, bring it down to a simmer.
  4. Very gentle simmer until it reduces and becomes darker in colour – The longer you simmer the crisper the slice will become. You need about 10 minutes. (5 minutes gives a very sticky but softer slice). The honey will have reduced in volume by about 10%
  5. Remove from heat and immediately add the roasted sesame seeds to the honey and stir very well. (At this point it's extremely hot!)
  6. Stir until it's completely mixed and allow it to cool – Don’t pour into slice tray until it is just cool enough to touch. If you pour when it’s very hot, the honey wants to separate from the other ingredients, and you end up with a sticky disaster.
  7. Put down baking paper into a standard slice tray and pour into the tray and spread out so it has a uniform thickness.
  8. Once it’s warm to touch, use wet fingers to flatten the slice uniformly into the tray.
  9. Cut into bars while still warm but leave on the baking paper. Put them in the fridge for 10 minutes to set completely before you separate the bars. Roll in the reserved sesame seeds or coat in high cocoa dark chocolate
  10. Store in airtight containers in the fridge.

*Alternative Recipe

Replace up to half of the mixture sesame seeds with nuts and or dried fruit 

400gm sesame seeds
150gn Natural Almonds (Not roasted)
150Gn Pistachio Kernels (Not Roasted)
150gm Natural Sultanas
500g honey

  1. Dry roast sesame seeds in a heavy frypan until golden brown (Reserve 100gm for coating finished slices)
  2. Dry roast the almonds and pistachios in a heavy frypan and crush the almonds into smaller pieces. Mix the nuts and sultanas with the sesame seeds.
  3. Follow the basic recipe from here step 2 onwards.

Recipe courtesy of Jacob Habbebeh