Candies, sesame crunch

Sesame crunch candy, often sold as sesame snaps or sesame brittle, is made by toasting sesame seeds and binding them together with a cooked sugar or honey syrup that hardens into thin, crackly bars or bite-sized pieces. The result is a candy with a distinct nutty, toasted flavor and a satisfying crunch, closer in texture to peanut brittle than to a soft candy. It is typically eaten straight from the package as a sweet snack or broken up over yogurt or ice cream for added crunch, and it shows up often in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean sweets aisles alongside halva.

Because the sugar syrup can soften in humidity, sesame crunch keeps best in a sealed container at room temperature away from moisture, and it can go slightly sticky if left in a warm car or near a stove. A 1-ounce (28 g) serving comes from a food with 516 calories and 31.2 g of sugar per 100 g, so it reads as a candy first, with 7.7 g fiber, 60% DV magnesium, and 49% DV calcium per 100 g coming from the sesame seeds themselves rather than the syrup. It works better as an occasional sweet treat than a regular snack, given its sugar and calorie density, with 11.6 g protein per 100 g also coming from the seeds.