An easy homemade black and white sesame chocolate bark recipe with a hint of smoked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Jump to recipe.
Peanuts were first. I’m not clear on exactly how it was discovered, but as long as I can remember I’ve been allergic. I was also allergic to tree nuts and avoided them, mostly. There was that one time on a plane when I ate that white chocolate almond-studded ice cream number. It was a cross country flight, I was alone, and a kid, so I ate the thing (though I did my best to pick out the almonds). Things turned out fine, but even then I knew I’d made a bad decision.
At 13, I became a vegetarian. With that, came the realization that I was allergic to lots of things besides nuts. My fifth time eating tofu was cause for a red light running rush to the ER; I arrived at the hospital in full-blown anaphylaxis. There were other missteps as I learned to navigate life with severe allergies. Thinking I could eat at Thai restaurants (another urgent hospital visit), being in the same room as cooking lentils (Who knew?), and countless times abroad or at home realizing I’d eaten something I shouldn’t have, crushing up the Benadryl, drinking lots of water, and hoping for the best.
I continued to be a vegetarian for a whopping thirteen years, but finally I realized that living on dairy was not great and actually, I really needed some protein. For now, my list of food allergies includes all legumes (with the blessed exception of pinto and navy beans) and all nuts (sadly including pine nuts, which were safe for me for a long time), and just to be completist about it, blue cheese, eggplant, and rhubarb, though those are “only” hive reactions.
My allergies have come up in passing before, but I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten in to it. I share them now with the hopes that you won’t use this knowledge to try and kill me, but also to maybe explain why we make the food we do. As a kid, I was often the only person anyone had even heard of with food allergies and of course that’s now not the case. I don’t make allergies a focus on the blog because mine are fairly cut and dry. I can eat most things and avoid the things I can’t. The one area where my allergies are the worst is with travel. There are entire continents I’m terrified of visiting and I’ve been forced to pass up some amazing opportunities because of them (I’m looking at you, China). Also, if you invite me over for dinner, we’re going to have to talk.
At least there are seeds aplenty. Sunflower seeds and pepitas are constants in my pantry, though recently, I’ve had sesame seeds on my mind. There’s something addictive about their distinctive flavor and it carries over beautifully into this bark. I tried a few iterations, even one with tahini (inspired by these brownies Nicole made), but in the end settled on this version with toasted black and white sesame seeds, birch smoked sea salt (so worth the splurge), black pepper, and just a hint of zest.
A note on chocolate. Standing in the baking aisle of Whole Foods these days is a kind of moral roulette. In fact all of our consumer decisions are fraught with moral implications. Where chocolate’s concerned, I do my best to buy the best product I can afford, and always make sure it’s Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance Certified. Even if single source isn’t in your budget, slave-free chocolate should be. Guittard is a brand I’ve come to enjoy recently – it’s affordable and Fair Trade, and that’s what I used here.
An easy homemade black and white sesame chocolate bark recipe with a hint of smoked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70 percent cacao)
- 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
- sea salt
- black pepper
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Line an 8-inch square dish with parchment paper or foil.
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Set a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Add the sesame seeds. Shaking pan gently, toast seeds just until they darken a shade and become fragrant, 2 – 3 minutes. Set seeds aside to cool.
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Chop up the chocolate, reserving 2 ounces. Set out a double boiler.
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Next you’ll want to temper the chocolate. This is best done with a chocolate thermometer, but I used a digital one and things turned out fine. Tempered chocolate stores better, breaks nicely, and is slower to melt in your hand. For detailed instructions, check out this tutorial from David Lebovitz or this thermometer-free one from The Kitchn. (Like all things having to do with sugar, tempering chocolate just takes a bit of practice. Try not to be daunted.)
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Stir orange zest into the tempered chocolate.
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Spread a layer of toasted sesame seeds on the bottom of the prepared dish. Sprinkle with a pinch each sea salt and pepper. Pour tempered chocolate over seeds. Top warm chocolate with remaining seeds and another pinch each of sea salt and pepper.
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Set dish in the fridge to set for 3 hours, then break into pieces and serve. Bark keeps best in the fridge, but wrapped in parchment in airtight container, it should keep well for about a week.
As a kid, I was allergic to tomatoes (a sad thing, really) and chocolate (SO much sadder!) but “all” I got were skin irritations. Luckily, over the years I grew out of those allergies and can nowadays eat everything. That said, food allergies can really be annoying and even terrifying. The story of “when food becomes your enemy”. But then again, we all do have our do’s and don’ts, right? There’s so much more than nuts and who even needs blue cheese? 😉 I’m glad to hear you’ve found a diet that your body accepts and needs.
But hey, sesame chocolate! I’m totally into sesame, so this treat basically calls my name. Love it!
Oh I remember you telling me about the food allergies at BHP. I was vegetarian for so long and came to that potent realization that I was basically living off of dairy too. Glad you’ve been hitting a healthy stride with eating and creating delicious food despite some of the mishaps (You know I always love what you do here). And chocolate! I mean, how bad do you need lentils when you can have chocolate instead? 😉
This bark looks lovely!! Love those sesame seeds!
Thank you so much for an honest, insightful, and thought-provoking post. (And oy, I know, China would be the worst nightmare for food allergies!) This chocolate looks absolutely divine — we just ran out of our leftover Christmas chocolate, so I could use a whole tub of this right about now. 🙂
i’m jumping on the “i always love what you do here” wagon. i was totally unaware that you had food allergies. i appreciate that the food you share is so wholesome and varied despite, but also that the way you food just feels so true and good. (i think food allergies and avoidances tend to take ownership of our language and sharing of food, sometimes). you inspire me! and thanks for plugging fair trade/slave-free chocolate. it’s important and real yet too easy to overlook. i’d like to be more mindful about that.
ohh, and this chocolate bark. chunked up hard candy stuck in chocolate doesn’t appeal to me, but these toasty sesame seeds… 🙂
Ooo…I love it! And thank you for sharing the brownie link 🙂 I remember you telling me about your nut allergies and being so surprised. The variety and beauty of the food you make here at Brooklyn Supper never suffers from the exclusions you mentioned. You’d just never know. I often use Callebaut chocolate (from the cheese/wine section at Whole Foods :)), but sadly never thought to check out its fair-trade/slave-free credentials. Do you happen to know if it is? I popped over to the website and didn’t find anything.
http://www.callebaut.com/usen/products/chocolate/fairtrade-certified-chocolate
Do you remember when I accidentally fed you peanut butter ice cream our first year in college? Ugghh. This post peaked my interest because after a year of feeling terrible, I finally discovered that it was the food I was eating. Sadly chocolate and sesame are two of the foods I don’t tolerate well!
Love this post, Elizabeth. Having been to naturopathic school, I’m very used to people in my life having food allergies or preferences that are different from my own. And I, also “always loving what you do here”, never knew that you had really serious allergies until BHP. You focus on what you can have in your diet and I love that philosophy, in general. I’m glad you can eat chocolate and seeds, both are such treats on their own and, of course, together as in this delightful combination. I can’t wait to try it!
I can only echo the comments of others; I had no idea that you had such serious allergies. It doesn’t define your food at all (which is great!) and I love the focus on what you can eat rather than what you can’t – it’s such a great + sensible attitude and one that I really admire. Plus chocolate + sesame seeds? Total match made in heaven!
I really appreciate your honesty in this post! I am allergic to soy and my husband and son are allergic to gluten which makes alternative vegetarian protein sources really hard. I am really grateful we can eat beans and am glad that at least you can eat 2 types of them. I just found out from an allergy test that my son is also allergic to egg whites so, we are rethinking everything we make and how we eat again.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful bark!!
I have some sensitivities (gluten and dairy), but no allergies. I feel for you, as I love eating out and especially eating out while traveling. I remember traveling in Argentina as a gluten sensitive vegetarian. They eat white bread and dulce de leche for breakfast, and as I don’t eat bread, I ended up eating caramel for breakfast a few times. I attended some barbeques too, which consisted of many cuts of beef on a grill, and I don’t eat meat, and nothing else but chimichurri. I ended up eating chimichurri like soup! Which the Argentinians found very strange.
This bark looks lovely! 🙂
I’m very impressed that you sticked with being a vegetarian for so long considering your allergies to tofu and beans. That certainly is a tough way to go!
This recipe looks wonderful- I love the use of sesame in this along with the orange zest.