Sesame seed candy


Sesame seed candy is a confection of sesame seeds and sugar or honey pressed into a bar or ball. It is popular from the Middle East through South Asia to East Asia. The texture may vary from chewy to crisp. It may also be called sesame candy/bar/crunch; sesame seed cake may refer to the confection or to a leavened cake or cookie incorporating sesame.

By location

In Greece and Cyprus, sesame seed candy is called pasteli and is generally a flat, oblong bar made with honey and often including nuts. Though the modern name παστέλι pasteli is of Italian origin, very similar foods are documented in Ancient Greek cuisine: the Cretan koptoplakous or gastris was a layer of ground nuts sandwiched between two layers of sesame crushed with honey. Herodotus also mentions "sweet cakes of sesame and honey", but with no detail.
Various kinds of sesame candy are found in Indian cuisine. The Assamese tilor laru is an Assamese breakfast snack. The Maharashtran tilgul ladoo is a ball of sesame and sugar flavored with peanuts and cardamom and associated with the festival of Makar Sankranti. Sesame Candy or Rewri is also widely eaten in Pakistan. The Chakwal city of Pakistan is very famous for this product. Many people around Pakistan request their fellows to bring it as it is not widely available in any other part of Pakistan.
Sesame candy is also traditional to northern Iran and is called Peshtezik in Mazandarani and Persian. Peshtezik is usually a thin flat layer of sesame seed with sugar or honey and often includes nuts. Peshtezik is served in special Persian holidays such as Nowruz and Yalda.
In the Middle East, it is called simsimiyah or simismiyeh and is either made as a thin crunchy layer or a slightly thicker chewy candy.
In Indonesia, sesame seed candy is known as Ting-Ting Wijen, while the version with peanuts is called Ting-Ting Kacang. These types of candy are influenced by the Chinese.
In Poland, sesame seed candy is known as sezamki and usually consists only of sesame seeds in thin layers of honey without any nuts.