When the poor Persian woodcutter Ali Baba overheard the leader of a band of thieves stand before a cave and say “open, sesame,” it changed his life forever. Those magic words unlocked unimaginable ...

Want candy that’s good for you? Consider halva. Made primarily from sesame seeds, the confection is an excellent source of minerals. (A cup of sesame seeds has more iron than a cup of broccoli.) There ...

Zoë Komarin's halva-topped chocolate chip cookies are perfumed with cardamom. (Portrait by Christina House / Los Angeles Times; cookie photo by Silvia Razgova / For The Times; food and prop styling by ...

Katie Gurvin plunges her aqua-gloved arms into the bowl of hot tahini-sugar-fluff mixture and begins to work her magic. Hints of vanilla, caramel and sesame waft up as the young halvah maker ...

Rumored to possess mystical powers, the sesame seed goes above and beyond. The oldest oilseed crop has roots dating back centuries. Sesamum indicum, the cultivated sesame seed, originated in India.

Katie Gurvin plunges her aqua-gloved arms into the bowl of hot tahini-sugar-fluff mixture and begins to work her magic. Hints of vanilla, caramel and sesame waft up as the young halvah maker ...