Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle)
Toasted sesame seeds set in caramelised honey and cut into crunchy fingers, a sweet found in every Malian market.
Malian · easy · serves 6
prep 10 min · cook 15 min
~468 cal · 7g protein · 55g carbs · 28g fat · 5g fiber · 46g sugars · 8g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Meni-meniyong is the sesame-and-honey brittle that turns up on every market table in Mali, a crunchy little sweet bought after the shopping is done and shared over tea. Mali grows a great deal of sesame, one of its larger exports, and this is the simplest and most popular thing to do with it: toast the seeds, fold them into caramelised honey, spread the mass thin and cut it into fingers as it cools.
The whole art is in the caramel. Boil the honey and butter too briefly and you get a soft toffee; boil it a touch too long and it sets rock hard. Malian cooks judge it by dropping a little onto a cold plate, waiting for it to firm, and reading the snap. Honey gives it a depth that plain sugar cannot, which is why the older recipes insist on it.
Reminiscent of the benne wafers of the wider region, meni-meniyong is a treat for children and elders alike, kept in a jar and pulled out with a glass of sweet tea. Crisp, nutty and glossy, it is Mali's answer to a candy bar.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup honey
4 tbsp butter
1 pinch of salt
Instructions
1
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat, shaking often, until they turn golden and start to jump, then tip out to cool so they do not scorch.
2
Melt the butter with the honey and salt in a heavy pan and boil, stirring, until it darkens to a deep caramel, about 5 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Test it by dropping a little onto a cold plate. It should firm up hard within a few seconds, if it stays soft, boil a minute longer.
3
Stir the toasted sesame into the caramel off the heat until every seed is coated, then quickly spread the mass about a quarter inch thick onto an oiled tray or sheet.
4
While it is still just warm, cut it into finger-sized pieces, then leave to cool completely and harden before breaking apart and serving.
Bamako market sweet.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Bamako. Tigadegena and Senegalese maafe are related but not the same dish, and treating them as interchangeable is a common error. The Malian version is traditionally thinner and goes with to, a stiff millet dough, or with fonio, and unrefined shea butter is used where another kitchen would reach for oil.
🗺️
Mali. Mali calls its peanut stew tigadegena, and it is not quite the Senegalese maafe it is usually conflated with: the Malian version is traditionally thinner and made with unrefined shea butter, and it goes over rice or millet rather than rice alone. Getting the two apart matters, because the same nut behaves differently in each pot.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mali
MaafeA rich West African groundnut stew of peanut butter, tomato, and root vegetables simmered around tender meat.
MaasaMalian pancake-doughnuts: lightly fermented rice-and-millet batter fried into golden puffs and dusted with sugar, sold hot from roadside pans.
FakoyeA slippery jute-leaf sauce with meat and smoked fish, served over rice or with tô, a Malian and Sahelian favorite.
Browse all Mali recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle)?
Toasted sesame seeds set in caramelised honey and cut into crunchy fingers, a sweet found in every Malian market.
Where does Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle) come from?
Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle) is a Malian dish from Bamako, Mali.
Can Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Meni-Meniyong (Sesame and Honey Brittle) take to make?
About 25 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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