chocolate sesame cookies

these are some pretty good and rather interesting – not in the negative-euphemism sort of way – soft cookies, rather a sort of asian-western amalgamation. sesame seeds are very seldom used in european/american cooking, and usually only as toppings (on buns) or lost in the beauty that is hummus (as tahini), and it’s really nice to see a non-asian recipe that uses them as a focal point, much like this cake I made a while back.

they baked up large and flat – the sesame seeds providing good texture in the soft give of the cookie, and luscious dark and milk chocolate (yes, I do think milk chocolate has its place sometimes – don’t judge) in every bite. easy to make, and made further interesting by the inclusion of soy sauce – which gives just the right amount of savoury earthiness – these were some good cookies, though I likely will try to make them a little firmer and crunchier next time.

I made them as part of a busy day’s baking – recipes for butter cake-muffins coming up soon! – and they were welcome enough by family and friends. I was frequently asked if these were hum chim peng – chinese round fried dough fritters topped with sesame seeds and stuffed with something-or-another – because of the resemblance, but you likely wouldn’t get those questions unless you live in singapore or malaysia.

I also did like the mix of flavours here: the sesame, chocolate and soy sauce all have parts to play and they do it valiantly, but I think what I’ll do next time is take a crunchier cookie recipe (like this one) and integrate those same ingredients. these baked up rather too soft to my liking, a little limp because they were so large, and while that doesn’t detract from how tasty it was, I’d rather something a little more discernibly cakey or crunchy. perhaps the idea is to replace more of the brown sugar here with white sugar – or remove it completely. let me know if you try this and get a different result?

p.s. if you use a mixture of white and black sesame seeds, they’ll likely turn out prettier – but it doesn’t make too much difference taste-wise, so just use what you have on hand (or is cheaper at the store!)

white sesame chocolate cookies (adapted from joy the baker)

127g all-purpose flour
0.5 tsp baking soda
scant 0.5 tsp salt
113g unsalted butter, softened
75g brown sugar
85g castor sugar
1 egg
0.5 tsp vanilla
scant 0.5 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
75g dark/milk chocolate chunks (I always cut mine from a good eating bar)
sesame seeds for rolling, untoasted (I leave them untoasted in case they burn otherwise)

1. note: this dough needs chilling for about an hour. beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy on high, about 3 minutes. add the egg and beat on medium until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2. add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix until just combined. fold in the dark chocolate and toasted sesame seeds. wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.
3. preheat your oven to 175C just before you’re ready to bake.
4. roll the chilled dough into balls (I got 12-15, and I recommend using a scale to get even pieces) and roll them in the untoasted sesame seeds. arrange on a baking sheet, about 1.5-2 inches apart.
5. bake the cookies for 12 minutes or until they are lightly browned at the edges – you can see I let them go a little further than that – and then cool on the shets for 10 minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.