The Sublime Pairing of Chocolate and Sesame
Classic chocolate halvah photo credit depositphotos
Chocolate has a lot of graceful dance partners: nuts, fruits, coffee, and coconut are typically center stage when it comes to pairings, not to mention classic chocolate confections with caramel, toffee, or marshmallow. Sesame, however, also makes a serious play for chocolate’s attention, stepping out with chocolate in various forms and in both sweet and savory applications.
Whether as sesame seeds, creamy tahini, or even halva — a sweetened and flaky sesame paste — you can find sesame and chocolate together in chocolate confections, baked goods, and even in the classic Mexican mole sauce.
Why Chocolate and Sesame Are Such Natural Partners
Even though chocolate and sesame don’t have the same iconic status (yet) as chocolate and peanut butter, it’s not exactly a surprise that sesame, a seed, can achieve the same kind of symbiosis as chocolate and nuts. The category of “nuts,” as we know it, tends to include various subcategories: peanuts are legumes, and pine nuts, walnuts, and almonds are all technically seeds, biologically speaking.
Sesame seeds also have a high oil content, contributing both to their richness and aromatic flavor, which is typically described as nutty. Though we are mostly introduced to sesame's essence through savory means — seeded bread, hummus, sesame oil, etc. — sesame works equally well in a sweet context, and especially with chocolate. “The nuttiness of [sesame] is subtle,” says recipe developer Jennifer Dorman of Brunch and Batter, whose recipe for a Chocolate Tahini Spread uses tahini as a rich, creamy base with cocoa powder. Vanilla and honey sweeten the deal, and the chocolate gets an assist from a jolt of espresso powder. Explains Dorman, “It enhances the chocolate without overpowering it.”
Despite the fact that sesame grows in hotter, more arid conditions than cacao, sesame feels kind of familiar with chocolate and gives it an unexpected twist, making it an ideal component for subtle innovation. Here’s a look at several confections that have lately caught our attention, which celebrate the harmonious pairing of chocolate and sesame.
Sesame and Chocolate Treats
You likely won't be hard-pressed to find a chocolate and sesame combo at a chocolatier or even grocery store near you, but here's a look at a range of chocolate and sesame matchups.
Dandelion Halva Bonbons
Halva simply means “sweet” in Arabic, and is a fudgy or sometimes flaky confection derived from sesame. (If you haven’t already encountered it, now that you’ve been made aware of it, you’re going to start seeing it everywhere. You will enjoy this.) San Francisco’s Dandelion Chocolate partnered with New York’s Seed + Mill for a chocolate/sesame matchup in bonbon form. "Our collaboration was inspired by our admiration for their handcrafted sesame halva, renowned for its tender, flaky texture and pure ingredients,” says Lauren Martin, Director of Product Management for Dandelion. “The nutty, earthy flavors of sesame combined with the flaky layers of halva are a delicious complement to the deep, nuanced flavors of our 70% dark chocolate."
Creo Black Sesame Seed Brittle
Confectioners have discovered that crisp toasted sesame seeds are an irresistible ingredient in chocolate brittle. Creo a Portland, Oregon-based bean-to-bar chocolate maker crafts sesame chocolate brittle with roasted sesame seeds surrounded by thin brittle, then covered with their own 73% Ecuadorian chocolate. It’s made with just chocolate, organic butter, organic cane sugar, organic black and white sesame seeds, and a pinch of sea salt. An award-winner, it’s very popular with Creo customers.
Valerie Rice and Sesame bar
The most sophisticated version of a Krackle chocolate bar, Los Angeles chocolatier, Valerie Confections, combines their 36 percent milk chocolate with toasted rice. Dramatic black sesame seeds perform numerous functions here: doubling down on the crunch element from the toasted rice, adding a nutty, earthy depth, (with an added flavor boost from soy salt) and providing an elegant, decorative flourish on the surface of the bar.
Bell’s Sesame Halva Cookies
Halva, whose texture can be likened to the inside of a Butterfinger, also adds intrigue to one of our favorite chocolate preparations: the beloved chocolate chip cookie. Seattle baker Bell’s Cookie Co. offered Sesame Halva cookies as a limited-time holiday promotion — crossing our fingers for their return later this year — creating a candied cookie with a hint of sesame’s rich flavor. If you can’t wait for the holidays to roll around, try making these Halva Sesame Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies by Fig & Olive Platter at home.
Hebel and Co. Organic Double Chocolate Halva
Los Angeles company Hebel and Co. is entirely in the halva business, with a variety of spreads and confections with a sesame base. By popular demand, allegedly giving in “to the will of the people,” they created a Double Chocolate Halva spread, using both cocoa powder and organic dark chocolate for a halva that isn’t merely chocolate coated, (though we love that, too,) but “the mostly chocolatey halva on this planet.”
Gail’s Chocolate and Tahini Bites with Sesame Seeds
London-based bakery chain Gail’s has had sesame and chocolate on the menu “as long as I can remember” according to a recent retail associate I queried, as I was excited to see chocolate and sesame together in a very conventional bakery setting. In these Chocolate and Tahini Bites, tahini enriches the texture of what is otherwise a two-bite brownie, also subbing in for eggs, underscoring it with a subtle nuttiness, and offering a visual upgrade with an appealing smattering of sesame seeds. While I’ve not seen the equivalent in the U.S., (yet) — a chocolate sesame confection with that kind of commercial scale — perhaps there is hope for a sesame chocolate pastry coming soon to a Starbucks near you.