Pasteli

Two ingredients boiled to a precise temperature and cut while hot, where the thermometer is the whole recipe.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains honey.

Ingredients

• 400 g sesame seeds
• 300 g honey
• 50 g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• a pinch of salt
• oil, for the surface

Method

1. THE THERMOMETER IS THE WHOLE RECIPE. Honey taken to 120C sets soft and chewy; to 150C it sets hard and snaps. Between those two there is no visual difference worth trusting and no reliable timing, because honey varies in water content from jar to jar. 138C gives a bar that holds its shape and still yields to a bite, and that is the number this recipe is built on.
2. AND IT IS CUT WHILE HOT, within about three minutes. Cold pasteli shatters into shards under a knife -- not cleanly, but into pieces nobody chose. Everything needed for cutting is laid out before the pan goes on.
3. Sesame seeds toasted in a dry pan over a medium heat, stirred constantly, 5 minutes, until golden and fragrant. Tipped out at once; left in the pan they keep cooking and go bitter.
4. A tray lined with baking paper, and a second sheet of paper, a rolling pin and a large knife all oiled and laid out ready.
5. Honey, sugar, lemon juice and salt into a heavy pan with a thermometer in it.
6. Brought to the boil over a medium heat and then NOT STIRRED -- stirring crystallises it. Swirl the pan if it is colouring unevenly.
7. Taken to 138C. It will foam up considerably on the way, so use a pan far larger than seems necessary.
8. HEAT OFF. The warm sesame seeds tipped in all at once and stirred hard for 20 seconds until every seed is coated. It stiffens as you stir.
9. Tipped onto the lined tray, the second sheet of paper laid over it, and rolled flat to about 8 mm with the rolling pin. Work fast.
10. Top paper peeled off and the slab cut into bars with the oiled knife IMMEDIATELY, pressing straight down rather than dragging.
11. Left to cool completely on the tray before the pieces are separated.
12. Stored between sheets of paper in a tin. They keep a month and go sticky in damp air rather than stale.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes