Pasteli (greek sesame and honey candy) recipe

April 29, 2009 3 minutes read | 449 words by Ruben Berenguel

Pasteli
The Greek home-made energy bar

Ingredients (yields around 500 gr, can be scaled down or up):

250 gr honey
250 gr sesame seed, shredded pistachios and almond (I used: 50 gr shredded pistachios, 70 gr shredded almond and125 gr sesame seed)
Peel of half a lemon (optional)
Cinnamon (optional)
Some place to put it all on (A mould with parchment paper is perfect)

Bring to a boil the honey and optionally a lemon peel and some cinnamon. They will add a special flavour to the base. Mix all the nuts well in a plate

When the honey starts boiling, wait for around 5 minuts (stirring occasionally) and remove the lemon peels and cinnamon. I used chopsticks for this, they come in handy later. Add the nut mixture, and keep mixing them thoroughly with the honey. Keep it at medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring and moving often. The chopsticks come handy to stir, because they are easier to clean than spoons. It will turn darker as the honey starts to caramelize.

Pour it on the mould (beware, it will be really hot), cover with some parchment paper and press until it is more or less evenly spread.

Let it cool down for a while and then move to the fridge for at least 2 hours. Then, let it stand out of the fridge for 30 minutes (it will be hard as a rock just after taking it out), cut in small pieces and store in an airtight container. In the fridge, better.

The generic recipe is just the same proportions (in weight) of honey and sesame seeds (or a mixture of other nuts and sesame). Scale it as you wish!

Links to nutritional information about these ingredients:

The whole 500gr bar has around 2100 kcal, thus each piece has around 140 kcal (I made 16 pieces), which comes mostly from non-saturated fats (nuts) and sugar (from honey). Quite a lot of minerals (mostly calcium and iron from sesame, and manganese, phosphorus and copper from all ingredients), vitamins (B6 pistachio and sesame, E almond, a little from almost every other) and fiber (from all nuts). This is an amazing treat, both in taste and in nutritious value.

I got the original recipe from about.com and grouprecipes.com and changed a few things to suit my tastes. If you enjoyed this recipe, leave a comment to tell me how did it turn, give a thumbs up, reddit or whatever you feel like doing. Thanks for your attention!

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