Well, I am proud to say, I did it.  I have watched the Olympics every day for two weeks. I made a big effort and achieved. That’s me done with sport for four years.

I have also conquered (well, nearly) Sesame Snaps.

As you all know, Celia, from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, started me off with her post on Sesame Snaps.  I tried her recipe and was spectacularly unsuccessful  – remember that photo?

So I went in search of another recipe to try.  After looking around on the net, I found this recipe at Canadian Living.  I liked the look of it because:

• it included a tiny bit of lemon juice – the addition of acid is to prevent crystalisation, which is what happened to my first batch;
• you take the toffee off the heat before you add the sesame seeds.  My first batch went horribly wrong after I added the sesame seeds; and
• it tells you the temperature the toffee should be.  I didn’t want to take any chances with this lot.

The only downside to the recipe, for my taste, is that it includes honey and that flavour does come through.  This could be a plus or minus, depending on your taste.

I used my Thermopen to gauge the temperature of the toffee.  If you are vaguely interested in cooking, put a Thermopen on your Christmas list.  It is fantastic.

It has a temperature range of -49.9°C to 299.9°C.  It measures to 0.1°C and it reads the test temperature within 3 seconds.  How brilliant is that?  I also have a jam (candy) thermometer but I never use it.  With the Thermopen’s temperature range, all jam and toffee temperatures are covered.  You can buy them in Australia at Ross Brown Sales.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• ¼ cup honey
• ¼ tsp lemon juice
• 1⅓ cups (325mls) sesame seeds
• pinch of salt

1. Dry fry the sesame seeds until they begin to turn a golden colour.
2. Pour sesame seeds into a bowl.
3. Add the pinch of salt, mix well and set aside.  I think it is important to mix in the salt now.  If you add it to the boiling toffee when you add the sesame seeds, you may not have a chance to stir it through evenly because everything happens very quickly.
4. Oil a baking tray or have a silicone mat ready.
5. Oil a metal or silicone icing spatula.
6. Have a glass of water and a pastry brush handy.  You may also wish to have another pair of hands available, one pair to pour the toffee onto the tray and the other pair to spread it out with the spatula.
7. In a moderately large saucepan over a low heat, combine the sugar, water, honey and lemon juice.
8. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
9. When the syrup starts to bubble, do not stir anymore (stirring will cause your toffee to crystalise).
10. Get the pastry brush and dip it into the water, wash down any sugar crystals on the side of the pot.  Do this whenever you see any sugar crystals form.
11. Boil until the toffee is a dark amber colour (the recipe indicated 155°C).  This will take about 15 – 20 minutes.  I took mine out the minute it reached 155°C which, in retrospect, might have been a bit soon.  My Sesame Snaps are a little bit chewy and not really dark amber.
12. Take the pot off the heat and immediately stir in the sesame seeds and salt mixture.
13. Immediately, pour the toffee onto the greased tray and spread with the greased spatula, working mixture as quickly as you can.
14. Using a greased knife, score squares into the toffee and then score each square diagonally.  Again, you have to work quickly.  I didn’t get the whole lot done before it went hard.
15. When cool, break along the scored lines.  Store in a container between sheets of baking paper.