Black Sesame Paste Recipe - Nutty, Easy & Delicious

Recipe: Black Sesame Seed Paste Recipe »

This homemade black sesame paste is rich, nutty, aromatic and so easy to make. Made with toasted black sesame seeds, rice malt syrup and sesame oil, this versatile Chinese-inspired paste is perfect for black sesame lattes, mochi fillings, ice cream, cakes and as an alternative to peanut butter.

About Black Sesame Seed Paste

Black sesame paste is a delicious alternative to peanut butter and made using ground sesame seeds. Nutty, aromatic and super delicious it is also versatile and can be used in desserts and drinks. It is an intense jet black colour and a rich, nutty flavour.

Why You'll Love This Black Sesame Paste

It's good for you! Sesame is a nutrient dense superfood that is said to be good for youthful skin, supporting hair health and boosting heart and bone strength. It is used in Chinese medicine as a warming food so it's great for winter. I personally love it as it I find it very warming and delicious.

We offset the light bitterness with rice malt syrup just to balance it.

It's versatile - it's a great flavour for lattes, cakes, mochi fillings, black sesame soup or ice cream!

Video How To Make Black Sesame Seed Paste

Video: Black Sesame Seed Paste Recipe

Ingredients For Black Sesame Seed Paste

Black sesame seeds - You can buy these from the supermarket or at the Asian supermarket (often better value here).

Rice Malt Syrup - You want some "liquid" to help blend up your paste rather than using sugar which is a dry ingredients. Rice malt syrup is available from the supermarket and is fructose free and vegan with a light caramelised flavour. I prefer this to using honey and maple as they have a stronger flavour.

Water - A bit of water helps the mixture grind up.

Sesame oil - A bit of white sesame oil (or black sesame oil if you have it) really helps to bring out the flavour.

Tips For Making Black Sesame Seed Paste

1 - A high speed blender or Thermomix and a coffee grinder is your best friend for making black sesame paste. A coffee grinder does the first step of breaking up the sesame seeds and splitting them open and then the blender or Thermomix grinds them further.

2 - Commercial black sesame paste is very finely ground and they use special industrialised grinders and crushers that you cannot replicate in a home setting. So while this is quite smooth, you will never achieve the smoothness of a commercial black sesame paste. Because they are crushing and grinding, they won't need to add any liquid like oils or sweeteners. I look at this like a version of peanut butter.

3 - Store sesame seeds in the fridge like nuts as they contain oils that can go rancid.

4 - I love this on toast with jam or another nut butter!

Black Sesame Seed Paste Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 25 minutes (5 minutes active time)

Cooking time: 3 minutes

Serves: Makes 200g/7ozs of black sesame paste

Ingredients Needed

• 100g/3.5oz black sesame seeds
• 70g/2.5oz rice malt syrup
• 45ml/1.5oz water
• 1-2 teaspoons sesame oil

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 TOAST - On low to medium heat dry fry the black sesame seeds for 3 minutes stirring constantly to ensure that they're evenly toasted. They should not spit (they'll become more bitter once ground).

Step 2 BLEND - Place in a coffee grinder and grind until you get a fine, fluffy powder. Place in a Thermomix or high speed blender for 20 seconds, speed #10 or maximum speed. Scrape down side and add syrup, water and sesame oil and set to 5 minutes speed #6. Scrape down and repeat 3 more time (20 minutes at speed #6 total). Place in jars and store in the fridge.

Personal Note

I ended up making around 5 batches of this sesame seed paste. Normally something as simple as this is easy enough but something really weird happened when we got back from our holiday. All the electronic devices malfunctioned in some weird way. Our brand new solar battery had issues, the wifi had issues, my watch charger stopped working and even something as small as my scale was playing up.

I noticed the first time that the weight would settle on a number but then it would flip back 27 grams. I thought I was seeing things so I continued on but then I realised that it would happen every second or third item I weighed. It wasn't resting on an uneven surface or on something, but it was just something that started happening after we got back from holidays! And no mercury is not in retrograde (because you can believe that is the first thing I checked!).

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever have a lot of devices fail all at once? Do you believe in the effects of Mercury in retrograde?