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No-bake desserts

Greek-style sesame and honey balls

Name: Greek-style sesame and honey balls
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: About 40 pieces
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Ingredients: 300 g Honey; 300 g Tahini (ground sesame paste); 50 g Hulled sesame seeds (for coating, or use 300 g instead of tahini); Vegetable oil (sesame, sunflower, or olive oil)

Sesame and honey balls made with tahini or dry-toasted sesame seeds, shaped by hand and rolled in whole sesame seeds. Makes about 40.

Mediterranean cuisine · Quick recipes in 35 minutes · Translated from Slovak · October 24, 2026

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Recipe at a glance

Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5–10 min
Total time: 20 min
Servings: About 40 pieces
Difficulty: Easy
Cuisine: Mediterranean

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This sesame and honey paste is a simple sweet known in ancient Greece and the Middle East as pastel, a sesame-and-honey confection. The treat is also mentioned in Homer's Iliad and is sometimes called a Greek breakfast. It is made with honey and tahini, or with dry-toasted hulled sesame seeds combined with a little oil. The mixture is shaped into balls and rolled in whole sesame seeds. You can also mix in ground nuts or almonds to taste.

Ingredients

Honey 300 g
Tahini (ground sesame paste) 300 g
Hulled sesame seeds (for coating, or use 300 g instead of tahini) 50 g
Vegetable oil (sesame, sunflower, or olive oil)

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Instructions

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To make the homemade paste, first toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan without any fat for 5–10 minutes, taking care not to burn them. Then mix them with the honey and oil in a bowl.
Work the mixture until it forms a paste of the desired consistency. While mixing, add ground nuts, almonds, or hazelnuts to taste, if desired. Do not heat the paste again.
Shape the paste into balls and roll them in whole sesame seeds.

Tip: Transfer the toasted sesame seeds from the pan to a bowl immediately; they would continue to toast in the hot pan and turn bitter. Lightly oil your hands before shaping the balls to keep the mixture from sticking.

Nutrition facts

Approximate values per piece, calculated from the ingredients

Energy: 76 kcal
Protein: 1.6 g
Carbohydrates: 7.9 g
of which sugars: 6.2 g
Fat: 4.8 g
of which saturates: 0.7 g
Fiber: 0.5 g
Salt: 0.0 g

Calculated from the raw ingredients, without frying oil. Where an amount is “to taste”, typical amounts are used. Food composition: USDA FoodData Central and product labels.

This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Sezamová pasta s medom podľa starogréckeho receptu