The Recipe
Makes: 12 cookies
Preparation: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 10-12 minutes
Black sesame seeds have been a staple ingredient in Asian cuisine for centuries, and have been used in traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for their nutritional and healing properties.
Sesame seeds are a bit of a pantry staple for me.
I sprinkle them on salads, soups and even make a nice sesame salt with them. I always find I buy a big packet and they last for ages - I was cleaning out my pantry and I wanted to make a cookie similar to the one I had at Brickworks Bakery in Sydney.
They make a coconut and sesame cookie which was delightful - however, I am not a big fan of coconut so I threw in some cocoa to the mix which turned out to be a surprisingly good mix.
The coating is not as vibrant but the hint of rose makes up for this. Enough dibble dabble, I’m not a fan of recipes that have a whole essay to get through before the actual recipe!!
So here they are - easy, ugly, try them and let me know what you think!!
INGREDIENTS
70g cocoa powder
100g black sesame seeds (ground into a powder/flour)
80g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
80g melted unsalted butter.
2 medium eggs
fine sea salt
180g white sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
80g icing sugar.
5g dried rose flowers
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180’C and have a lined baking tray ready (you can use a non-stick tray as well!)
Blend the rose and icing sugar together until it is a fine powder, set aside in a shallow bowl.
Sift the cocoa, flour, baking powder and mix in the ground sesame seeds.
Whisk eggs, a pinch of salt, butter, sugar and vanilla extract together until combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture. Fold to combine. Have a taste of the batter - you may want to add a touch more sugar or salt.
Take a spoonful of the mixture and roll into balls. Squish down slightly (the cookies will be about 5cm in diameter).
Roll the squished cookies in the icing sugar mixture and liberally coat it in the icing sugar mixture. Place on the lined baking tray with a 2-3cm gap in between each cookie.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, and allow to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack or munching them.