Sesame Brittle — Levantine simsmiyeh, glassy and crisp

i. Origin & history

Sesame is one of the oldest oilseed crops, cultivated in the Indian subcontinent and Mesopotamia for millennia, and sesame sweets made with honey or syrup have a correspondingly long history. Medieval Arabic cookbooks describe many confections of sugar and nuts or seeds, and the sugar-based brittle in its modern form spread as cane sugar became more widely available. Today simsmiyeh is a standard of the Levantine sweet shop and corner store, sold in thin squares wrapped in cellophane or in bags of broken pieces.

Its name simply comes from simsim, Arabic for sesame. In the Levant it is often made with a mixture of sugar and a little honey or glucose, sometimes with pistachios or peanuts, and flavoured with a hint of orange blossom. It is a cheap, everyday sweet, carried by children to school, offered to visitors with coffee and sold at festivals.

Across Asia the same idea takes many forms. Indian chikki uses jaggery, giving a darker, more caramel-flavoured bar, and til (sesame) chikki is especially made for the winter festival of Makar Sankranti. Chinese sesame candy (zhīma táng) is often made with maltose and eaten at Lunar New Year; Persian sohan asali combines sesame or almonds with honey and saffron. In Britain, sesame snaps are the familiar shop-bought version.

The honey-only Greek cousin is softer and chewier — see sesame honey candy (pasteli) for that version. Simsmiyeh is its crisp opposite.

ii. Why sugar snaps where honey chews

Brittle is sugar glass. When a sugar syrup is boiled, water evaporates and the concentration of sugar rises along with the temperature. At about 149–154°C, the hard-crack stage, almost all the water is gone; as it cools, the molten sugar solidifies without forming crystals, into a glassy, transparent solid that snaps cleanly. That is why a brittle made mainly with sugar is crisp, while a honey candy — whose fructose holds moisture and resists hardening — stays chewy.

A small amount of glucose syrup or honey helps. It interferes with the sucrose molecules lining up into crystals, so the brittle stays clear and glassy rather than turning grainy, and it adds a little flavour. Lemon juice does a similar job by inverting some sucrose. Too much honey, however, softens the brittle and makes it sticky.

The sesame seeds must be toasted and added warm. Cold seeds tipped into hot caramel drop its temperature suddenly, making it thicken and seize before it can coat the seeds evenly. Warm seeds mix in smoothly, and the residual heat of the caramel toasts them a little further. A ratio of roughly equal weights of sesame and sugar gives a seed-packed brittle that is still held together by caramel.

Speed matters at the end. The mixture must be spread thinly while still molten — between oiled sheets of baking paper with a rolling pin is easiest — and cut while still warm and flexible. Once it cools fully, it can only be broken, not cut. Humidity is brittle's enemy: sugar glass absorbs moisture from the air and turns sticky, so it must be stored airtight.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 30 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 250 g hulled white sesame seeds
• 250 g granulated sugar
• 60 g glucose syrup or honey
• 60 ml water
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp orange-blossom water (optional)
• 40 g pistachios, chopped (optional)
• 1 tsp neutral oil, for the paper

Hulled white sesame gives the classic pale-gold brittle; mix in some black sesame for colour, as Chinese sesame candy often does. Glucose syrup keeps the brittle clear and stops it crystallising; honey or golden syrup add flavour but make it very slightly softer. Pistachios or peanuts can replace up to a quarter of the seeds. For a jaggery version, see chikki. A sugar thermometer takes the guesswork out.

iv. Method

1. Cut two sheets of baking paper to the size of a large baking tray and brush one side of each lightly with oil. Have a rolling pin ready.
2. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring, for 4–5 minutes until pale golden and fragrant. Keep them warm in a low oven, at about 100°C (80°C fan, 210°F), on a tray.
3. Put the sugar, glucose, water, lemon juice and salt in a heavy saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring and boil.
4. Cook until the syrup reaches 150°C (300°F), the hard-crack stage, and is a light amber colour, about 8–10 minutes. Swirl the pan rather than stirring.
5. Off the heat, tip in the warm sesame seeds, orange-blossom water and pistachios, and stir quickly until every seed is coated.
6. Pour onto one oiled sheet of paper, cover with the other, oiled side down, and roll firmly and quickly to 2–3 mm thick.
7. Peel off the top paper. While still warm and pliable, after about 1–2 minutes, cut into 4 cm squares or diamonds with a large oiled knife or pizza wheel.
8. Leave to cool completely, about 20 minutes, then snap along the cuts and store at once in an airtight jar.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Reach the hard-crack stage. Below about 149°C the brittle bends and sticks to your teeth; check with a thermometer or drop a little in cold water — it should snap.
• Don't stir the boiling syrup. Stirring can trigger crystallisation and make the brittle grainy; swirl the pan instead.
• Add the seeds warm. Cold seeds make the caramel seize into clumps.
• Work fast when rolling. You have a minute or two before it sets; have everything ready.
• Cut while warm. Cold brittle only breaks into random shards.
• Store airtight immediately. Sugar glass absorbs moisture and goes sticky within hours in humid air.

vi. Variations

Black and white sesame brittle mixes both colours, Chinese-style. Pistachio simsmiyeh adds chopped pistachios; peanut sesame brittle adds roasted peanuts. Til chikki replaces sugar with jaggery and often adds a little ghee and cardamom. Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda stirred in at the end makes a lighter, more porous brittle, as in honeycomb.

For the chewy Greek honey version, see sesame honey candy; for an Indian jaggery bar, chikki; and for airy sugar candy, honeycomb. Sesame also stars in black sesame ice cream.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve sesame brittle as a snack with tea or Arabic coffee, as part of a sweet platter, or crumble it over ice cream or yoghurt. It makes a good homemade gift packed in a jar or cellophane bags.

Stored in an airtight jar or tin, separated with baking paper, it keeps for up to a month at cool room temperature. Keep it away from humidity and do not refrigerate, as condensation makes it sticky. Brittle that has softened can be re-crisped for a few minutes in a low oven, then cooled.

ix. More from Middle Eastern

• Sesame Honey Candy — Greek pasteli
• Chikki — Indian jaggery brittle
• Turkish Delight — rose lokum
• Gaz — Persian nougat
• Honeycomb Candy — airy sugar candy
• Maamoul — filled semolina cookies