Meni-Meniyong
Overview
Meni-meniyong is a Malian sesame and honey brittle, cut into rectangles and sold from stalls in every market in the country. It is three ingredients and a piece of temperature judgement, and it is eaten as a sweet with tea or simply as something to buy while the shopping is being done. Mali is a substantial sesame producer and the crop is one of its larger exports, so the seed is local rather than imported, and the brittle is one of the more direct expressions of that. The traditional form is rectangular, which is how it appears on market stalls, though the shape is a convention rather than a rule. Honey is what it should be made with. Sugar is increasingly substituted because it is cheaper, and the difference in flavour is noticeable to anyone who has had both. The temperature of the honey and butter mixture is the thing that decides whether it works: cooked too long and the brittle sets rock hard, not long enough and it stays as toffee rather than setting at all. A batch that will not firm up can be returned to the pan and cooked further, which makes it more forgiving than most sugar work.
AFN Heritage Note
Meni-meniyong is a sesame and honey confection from Mali, sold in the country's markets. Mali is a significant sesame producer and the seed is among its larger export crops.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Preheat the oven to 230°C. Spread the sesame seeds on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
- 2
Remove and let them cool.
- 3
Heat the honey and butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until the mixture bubbles and darkens somewhat, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- 4
Stir the toasted sesame seeds into the honey mixture.
- 5
Spread the mass onto a buttered baking sheet to a thickness of about 5mm.
- 6
Cool until it is just warm, then break or cut it into finger sized pieces.
- 7
Cool completely and serve.
Africook’s Notes
- The boiling time decides everything. Too long gives a brittle that is rock hard; too short and it never sets, staying as a toffee.
- If it has not firmed up after cooling, scrape it back into the pan and cook it a little longer. This is the rare sugar work you can correct after the fact.
- Cut it while it is still just warm. Fully cooled it shatters unevenly instead of cutting.
- Watch the sesame in the oven closely. Twelve minutes at that heat is close to the limit and burnt sesame is bitter.
- Use honey rather than sugar if you can. Sugar is the cheaper substitute now common in Mali, and the flavour difference is real.
- Rolling the cut pieces in extra toasted sesame gives a coating that keeps fingers less sticky.
Reviews
6 reviews
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reminds me so much of the selit candy we get back home, though this version with butter is richer. I couldn't find good raw sesame at Safeway so I picked up a big bag at the East African market in Rainier Valley. Be careful when bubbling the honey and butter together because it hardens very fast once you spread it onto the pan.
230C is way too hot for sesame seeds my friend, burnt my first batch in 7 minutes flat. Dropped it down to 180C for the second try and toasted them for about 10 mins until golden. Used Clover butter and raw fynbos honey, came out super lekker and crunchy once it cooled down completely.
This is just like the ridi treat we make in Jos, pure honey and sesame seeds. Only thing is 5 minutes on medium heat wasn't enough to get that deep golden caramel color, I had to stir for almost 8 minutes so it would set firm and not stay sticky. E sweet well well sha.
abeg watch your oven closely o, that 230 degree heat almost scorched my sesame seeds. I boiled the honey and butter together until it darkened and smelled rich, then spread it out thin on the tray. Very crunchy and delicious, my kids finished everything before evening.
chale if you don't grease the baking sheet properly with extra butter you will struggle to get it off. My grandmother used to make something similar with peanuts instead of sesame paa. Make sure you score the mass into squares with a knife while it is still warm, otherwise once it hardens it just shatters into random pieces.
I just made this and it never set up, hardened. The only mistake I may have made is that I heated the honey in the microwave for several seconds so it would come out of the bottle more easily. Could have that been it? Is it worth another try?