Pasteli: Greek Honey and Sesame Bars

Name: Pasteli: Greek Honey and Sesame Bars
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: Makes about 24 small bars
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients: 300g sesame seeds; 200g runny honey, thyme honey if you have it; A little flavourless oil, for the paper and the knife

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Pasteli is the Greek honey and sesame bar: sesame seeds toasted until pale gold, stirred into honey boiled to its setting point, pressed flat and cut while still warm. At its plainest it is those two ingredients and nothing else, which is why the whole recipe turns on a single stage: how far the honey is boiled. This recipe makes about 24 small bars in around an hour and a half, most of it cooling.

Botanical plate of sesame: an upright stem with paired leaves, tubular flowers, and the seed capsule drawn open. — Half the recipe, drawn: Sesamum indicum, from Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen. The capsule at the foot of the plate is what splits to release the seed — the reason sesame has been a stored, traded food for as long as honey has.Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, 1887–1898 (public domain)

How old is pasteli?

Older than its name. Athenaeus, in book 14 of The Deipnosophists, records an itrion — “a thin cake, made of sesame and honey” — and sesamides, “cakes made of honey, and roasted sesame, and oil, of a round shape”. The confection is there in the ancient record in all but the modern word. Pasteli is still made the length of Greece; on Tinos in the Cyclades it is a wedding sweet as well as an everyday one, cut small and served on lemon leaves.

Spanish still life of pale blocks of nut-and-honey turrón on a fluted stand and wrapped in paper, with a wooden box and small sweets on a stone ledge. — Nuts set hard in honey, 1622: the pale blocks on Juan van der Hamen's stands are turrón — the Iberian branch of the practice pasteli keeps on the Greek side. Seeds or nuts, honey, heat, patience.Juan van der Hamen y León, Still Life with Sweets, 1622. The Cleveland Museum of Art (CC0)

Which honey should you use, and how much?

A strongly aromatic one — the honey is half the bar, not background. In Greece that often means thyme honey, whose herbal, savoury edge carries through the boil and keeps the finished bar from tasting of sweetness alone. A milder blend simply makes a quieter bar.

The ratio is flexible. This recipe uses three parts sesame to two parts honey by weight; equal weights give a softer, chewier, stickier bar, and two parts seed to one of honey a harder, more brittle one. The seeds set the density — the honey stage decides whether you have bars at all.

Fig. I · The ratio, and what it does not decideDiagram

Sesame to honey, by weight — the range this recipe is flexible across

3 : 2This recipe

1 : 1

Equal weights

Softer, chewier, stickier

2 : 1

Two parts seed to one of honey

Harder, drier, more brittle

What the axis movesHow densely packed the finished bar is. The seeds set the density.

This recipe’s point on the axis

Three parts sesame to two parts honey by weight — 300g sesame seeds to 200g runny honey.

Not on this axis

Whatever the ratio, the honey stage decides the set — the honey stage decides whether you have bars at all.

Both ends are this page’s own bounds, and the axis does not run past them. It is linear in parts of sesame per one part of honey, so three parts to two falls at the true middle of the range rather than at a convenient spot. Only that middle point carries weights — 300g of seeds to 200g of honey — because it is the only point on this page that has any; the ends are ratios here because they are ratios there. Neither end is drawn as better than the other: the axis measures texture and density, nothing else. No honey varietal is placed on it, since this page puts thyme honey on the side of flavour rather than of performance — a milder blend simply makes a quieter bar. And the set is deliberately not on this scale at all — that is the drawing’s point.

What stage makes or breaks the bar?

The boil. Honey from the jar is a solution of sugars in water — the UK honey composition rules allow it to carry up to 20% water — and a bar bound with unboiled honey will never set. Boiling drives that water off, and the further it goes, the firmer the cooled bar.

Confectioners put thermometers on this stage, but quoted figures vary and honeys differ in water content, so the reliable check is the old cold-water test: drip a little of the boiling honey into a glass of cold water. If it sets at once into a firm bead you can pick out, the honey will hold a bar; if it smears soft, boil on. Much past the bead the sugars scorch and the bar turns dark and bitter, so test early and often.

Fig. II · The boil, drawn as a windowDiagram

Confectioners put thermometers on this stage, but quoted figures vary and honeys differ in water content, so the reliable check is the old cold-water test.

Into the pan — a solution of sugars in water

The UK honey composition rules allow honey to carry up to 20%water. A bar bound with unboiled honey will never set, and cannot firm up until most of that water has boiled off.

The boil, left to rightBoiling drives that water off — the further it goes, the firmer the cooled bar

Too soonThe beadToo far

Before the bead
It smears soft in the glass
Boil on.
The bead
It sets at once into a firm bead you can pick out
The honey will hold a bar.
In the pan at the same moment: the foam subsides, the colour darkens a shade.
Past the bead
The sugars scorch
The bar turns dark and bitter.

ThermometerNo reading is given on this runConfectioners put thermometers on this stage, but quoted figures vary and honeys differ in water content. This page offers no number, so none is drawn.

A state to look for, not a number to hit — and it has a failure on each side, which is why the instruction is to test early and often.

Every station on this run comes from this page. The up-to-20% water is what the UK honey composition rules allow honey to carry — a ceiling on the ingredient, not a measurement of any jar, and nothing here has been measured. No temperature is drawn: the panel where a reading would go is empty by this page’s own reasoning, since confectioners’ quoted figures vary and honeys differ in water content, and no number from anywhere else has been put in its place. The three stretches are drawn the same length because the page gives no measure of how long any of them lasts — the run orders the states, it does not time them. The third station is the pan rather than a third glass, because the scorch shows in the mass and not in the water; and the colour darkening a shade belongs to the bead, while dark and bitter belongs to going past it. A state to look for, not a number to hit, with a failure on each side — which is why the instruction is to test early and often.

The boil is also why a honey-bound pasteli never quite matches the glassy snap of a commercial bar made on boiled sugar and glucose syrup. Honey is a mixture of sugars — glucose, which crystallises readily, and fructose, which resists it — so the cooled bar keeps a slight chew, and over weeks the binding can turn faintly grainy as the glucose starts to crystallise: the same slow change that sets a jar, covered in our guide to crystallised honey. Neither is a fault; they are what honey does.

How do you make it?

Set a wide, dry frying pan over medium heat and toast the sesame seeds in two batches, stirring constantly, until pale gold and fragrant — a few minutes per batch. Tip them onto a plate as each batch is done; they scorch if left in the hot pan.

Pour the honey into a wide, deep-sided saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Let it bubble, stirring now and then, until the foam subsides, the colour darkens a shade and a drop passes the cold-water test above. Working quickly, stir in the toasted sesame and keep stirring for another minute or two, until every seed is coated and the mass pulls together and comes away from the sides of the pan.

Tip the hot mass onto a sheet of lightly oiled baking paper, lay a second oiled sheet on top and roll or press it out to an even slab about 1cm thick. Peel off the top sheet.

How do you cut, store and serve it?

Cut while warm. Leave the slab for 10 to 15 minutes, until cool enough to handle but still pliable, then cut it into bars or diamonds with a large oiled knife, pressing straight down rather than sawing. Leave the cut bars for about an hour, until completely cool and firm, then separate them.

Store them airtight, with baking paper between the layers, in a cool, dry cupboard. Humidity, not time, ends a batch: in damp air the surface turns sticky and the bars slowly soften, so the seal on the tin matters most. Serve with strong coffee or after a meal; the same jar of honey also makes the plainest Greek sweet, Greek yoghurt with honey, and the most festive, loukoumades.

One factual note: honey is not suitable for infants under 12 months. It can occasionally contain bacteria that produce toxins in a baby’s intestines, causing infant botulism, and NHS guidance is to give no honey before one year old.

Golden sesame bars stacked offset on parchment on a dark board, one snapped open, loose seeds and a thread of honey. — Pasteli as this recipe cuts it: dense with toasted sesame, snapped to show the chew, honey catching the light. A generated image, commissioned by the house to the recipe’s own description — standing in until the house photographs the dish itself.Generated image (OpenAI), commissioned by the house, 2026

Where THYMELIA stands

THYMELIA is a UK house of Greek foods working two harvests — raw thyme honey from Chania in western Crete, and early-harvest olive oil from the hills above Kalamata, where the wild thyme flowers from May to July and the honey is drawn once, as the bloom closes. There is no shop yet. How we source is at sourcing, what we test and publish is at testing, and what the research on bee products actually found is gone through at evidence.

Recipe · Pasteli: Greek Honey and Sesame BarsCard

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 15 min
Total: 1 hr 30 min
Makes: Makes about 24 small bars

Ingredients

300g sesame seeds
200g runny honey, thyme honey if you have it
A little flavourless oil, for the paper and the knife

Method

Toast the sesame
Set a wide, dry frying pan over medium heat and toast the sesame seeds in two batches, stirring constantly, until pale gold and fragrant — a few minutes per batch. Tip them onto a plate as each batch is done; they scorch if left in the hot pan.
Boil the honey
Pour the honey into a wide, deep-sided saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Let it bubble, stirring now and then, until the foam subsides, the colour darkens a shade and a drop dripped from a teaspoon into a glass of cold water sets at once into a firm bead you can pick up — not a soft smear.
Stir in the seeds
Working quickly, stir the toasted sesame into the boiling honey and keep stirring for another minute or two, until every seed is coated and the mass pulls together and comes away from the sides of the pan.
Press flat
Tip the hot mass onto a sheet of lightly oiled baking paper, lay a second oiled sheet on top and roll or press it out to an even slab about 1cm thick. Peel off the top sheet.
Cut while warm
Leave the slab for 10 to 15 minutes, until cool enough to handle but still pliable, then cut it into bars or diamonds with a large oiled knife, pressing straight down rather than sawing.
Cool and store
Leave the cut bars for about an hour, until completely cool and firm, then separate them. Store airtight, with baking paper between the layers, in a cool, dry cupboard — they soften and turn sticky in damp air.

Asked, answered.

What is pasteli made of?

At its core, two things: sesame seeds and honey. The seeds are toasted, the honey is boiled to its setting point, and the two are pressed flat and cut into bars. Many Greek versions stop there; others add nuts — almonds, pistachios or walnuts — or a little orange zest, and some commercial bars use sugar or glucose syrup alongside or instead of honey. This recipe keeps to the two-ingredient version, bound with honey alone.

Why did my pasteli not set?

Almost always because the honey was not boiled far enough. Honey may legally carry up to 20% water, and the bar cannot firm up until most of that has boiled off. Use the cold-water test: a drop of the boiling honey should set at once into a firm bead you can pick out of the glass, not a soft smear. Bars also soften after the fact in humid air, so store them airtight once cut.

What ratio of sesame seeds to honey should I use?

This recipe uses three parts sesame to two parts honey by weight — 300g of seeds to 200g of honey. The ratio is genuinely flexible: equal weights give a softer, chewier, stickier bar, while pushing towards two parts seed to one of honey gives a harder, drier, more brittle one. Whatever the ratio, the honey stage decides the set — the seeds only change how densely packed the finished bar is.

How long does pasteli keep?

Stored airtight in a cool, dry cupboard, with baking paper between the layers, the bars keep for a few weeks. The enemy is moisture: in damp air the surface turns sticky and the bars gradually soften, so a well-sealed tin matters more than anything else. Over longer storage the honey binding can also turn faintly grainy as its glucose begins to crystallise — a change of texture, not of safety.

Can babies and young children eat pasteli?

Not under 12 months. Pasteli is bound with honey, and NHS guidance is not to give a child honey until they are over one year old, because honey occasionally contains bacteria that can produce toxins in a baby's intestines, leading to infant botulism — and that includes honey in a sweet like this one. For older children and adults it is simply a sweet, and a hard, sticky one, so cut small pieces for small teeth.