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Black Sesame Chocolate Chunk Cookies from a Nerd

Black Sesame Chocolate Chunk Cookies from a Nerd

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The flavor of the day is toasted black sesame seeds.  They’re delicious-earthy, nutty, and bolder than white sesame seeds.  They add texture, color, and zing to cookies, cakes, and just about anything.  During the holidays I made black sesame shortbread, a tasty rift on shortbread. So, when Black Sesame Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cooking Therapy skittered across my feed, “so making these” was imprinted on my brain.

A couple of “what if I add this or change that” moments resulted in a few tweaks to the cookie as I was trying them. This is the latest version of Black Sesame Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

The Process

I tried both commercially bought Sesame Seed Powder (they do the grinding for you) and grinding my own sesame seeds after toasting.  Most recipes call for seeds that you measure out and then grind to a powder.  The dilemma is how much powder is equivalent to whole sesame seeds.  I weighed half cup of seeds and then half a cup of powder. Powder weighed 40gms,  1/2 cup of seeds weighed 60gms.  Hmmm, for some reason I thought powder being more compact, would weigh more for an equivalent volume. Guess not, bottom line, go by equivalent weights you can’t go wrong BUT that’s 30% more powder or a cup and a half of powder to 1 cup of seeds. My head is about to explode.  Think I’ll just use equivalent volumes.

The first tweak was adding toasted sesame oil, I didn’t notice a significant flavor difference.  Maybe I should have added more.  If you have made Jesse Szewczk’s Toasted Sesame cookies (phenomenal cookie), or Sarah Kieffer’s Sesame Cookie, both use sesame oil to pump up the flavor.

Tahini Paste was the next tweak.  In place of the sesame oil, I added 1 tablespoon of Tahini Paste.  In a stringent scientific experiment, my test cohort (co-workers, lol)  concluded the they could taste the sesame flavor in these.

Looking for a flatter, less cakey cookie, I weighed the amount of flour and stopped at 250gms.  This is where I tell you, implore you, to get a SCALE…

And an ice cream scoop!

A Google search led me to a blog called Crazy for Crust which had an entire section on how to tell when you cookies are done. There is nothing I like more than baking nerds!  For instance, the tendency for me is to bake just a little too long.  Her invaluable tip-when the glossy sheen or wet look is gone and the edges are golden brown, your cookies are done is now my mantra for drop cookies.

Out of the Oven

Cookies continue to “bake” for about 20 minutes after removing them from the oven.  A “just right baked” cookie will fall as it cools creating those lovely crevices.  If you prefer cripsy, round cookies, continue to bake for a couple of minutes,  or if you like raw cookie dough take the cookies out a little earlier.  Your choice, me? I’m like Goldilocks, I want it just right.

Use chocolate chunks, pastilles, or break up chocolate bars/slabs into pieces.  Much more visually interesting than chips.  to go the extra mile, reserve some of the chocolate pieces and place 1 or 2 on each formed cookie dough ball before baking.

Cookie Monster Would Approve

Less flour, Tahini paste and Fleur de Sel to finish the cookies, resulted in a tender, gooey, chocolatey, sesame-y cookie with a bit of crunch from the sesame seeds.  Put this on your bucket list.

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Black Sesame Chocolate Chip Cookies

A chocolate chip cookie with toasted black sesames for a new twist on an old favorite!
Course cookies, Dessert
Cuisine Asian-American
Keyword black sesame seeds, Chewy Toasted Sesame Cookies, chocolate chips, Sesame chocolate chip cookie, sesame seeds
Prep Time 35 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Calories 244kcal

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

  • 2 cups all purpose flour (King Arthur flour) 250gms
  • ½ cup black sesame seeds, powdered I measured toasted black sesame seeds, 1/2 cup = 60gms. I used black sesame seed powder 40gm which measured 1/2 cup in volume. See notes.
  • 1 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, browned
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1.5 tsp toasted sesame oil or 1 tablespoon Tahini paste

Adds

  • 1 ½ cup dark chocolate chips sub semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Combine flour, sesame powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix until combined and set aside.
  • Brown butter in a small sauce pan. Heat butter over medium high heat until the butter melts and then lower it to low. Cook the butter until golden brown and small brown solids start to appear. Remove from the heat and set aside.
  • Combine granulated sugar and light brown sugar in a large bowl. Add the brown butter. Whisk with a stand mixer or hand mixer until just combined.
  • Add the eggs and whisk until a smooth creamy mixture forms. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and sesame oil or Tahini paste and mix until just combined.
  • Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix with a spatula/wooden spoon until just combined.
  • Add chocolate chunks and mix until just combined.
  • Let the cookies rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a 2 tablespoon (medium-sized) cookie scoop to scoop cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart.
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are light brown.
  • Rest for 10 minutes on the baking sheets and then another 10 minutes on a cooling rack before serving.

Notes

So, I have commercially available toasted black sesame powder and I have toasted black sesame seeds.  I decided to try both to see how much it impacted the texture of the cookies.  I weighed the toasted sesame seeds and whirled them in a grinder.  I stopped at a pretty finely textured powder.  If you go too far you will end up with a paste. 
There wasn’t a significant difference in texture between the two.  The sesame does give the cookie a rougher texture, similar to adding a bit of cornmeal, but subtler.
The self-ground sesame seeds to powder cookies seem to have a touch more flavor but I did also switch out the sesame oil for Tahini paste, so it remains to be seen if the seeds were the difference.  I just failed my science class, lol.
“Open Sesame” Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookie Revealed

“Open Sesame” Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookie Revealed

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Holiday Cookie List: Number EIGHT. Very LATE. But worth the WAIT!

My friend Mel mentioned a recipe she had tried recently from the NYTimes for Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies.  She could not stop raving about them, light, crispy, buttery, hint of sesame, they sounded scrumptious. Always on the lookout for riffs on classic cookies, I immediately made a mental note to put the recipe on my Cookie Bucket List.

I checked out NYTcooking and noticed the recipe contained only granulated sugar which may account for its crisp texture.  I like a crispy and chewy chocolate chip cookie so I googled chocolate chip tahini cookies.  Judging by the number of recipes that popped up in my search, this cookie is a winner. The grand dame for this cookie recipe appears to be from Danielle Oron’s Modern Israeli Cooking: 100 New Recipes for Traditional Classics.  I settled on Davie Lebovitz’s version which calls for both granulated and brown sugars.  Perhaps the moisture in the brown sugar would add a bit of chewiness to the cookie.

Sherlock Wanna Be

My aspiration to be an ATK food investigator.  I baked the first sheet of cookies on parchment paper and the second on Silpat.

The difference was small but noticeable.  The cookies baked on parchment were just a bit thinner and had a crackly top.  The Silpat cookies did not spread as much and the top did not have the crackly appearance.  Both were delicious and texturally quite similar.  Of note about a minute before the cookies were done I rapped the pan on the rack which causes the cookies to deflate giving them the signature crackly top. The parchment-baked ones appeared to have more cracks.  A trick I learned from SaraBeth’s Kitchen baking book.

Cookies on the left were baked on parchment, the cookies on the right on Silpat

It is super important to chill the dough.  The dough is very soft and light and benefits from the time in the fridge.  I used a 2 tablespoon scoop for a bit smaller cookie and baked the cookies for approximately 12 minutes.  As soon as the cookies are removed from the oven, sprinkle them with a mix of fleur de sel or flaky salt and black and white sesame seeds.  Cool on a rack.

BAKE THESE COOKIES NOW

They are delicious. Crispy edges, a little bit of chewiness in the center, buttery, chocolatey (there’s my fake word again) with a subtle hint of sesame. So, so, good.  The Tahini seems to lighten the cookie.  If you want a crisper cookie I would use granulated sugar only.  A definite keeper.

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“Open Sesame” Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookie Treasure Revealed

A delicious twist to chocolate chip cookies by adding tahini
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookie, cookies
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

The Stuff to be Creamed First

  • 8 tablespoons 115g, 4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup 120ml tahini, well stirred
  • 1/2 cup 100g granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup 90g packed light brown sugar (For a crisper cookie omit brown sugar and use 200gm granulated sugar or 1 cup)

The Wet Stuff

  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Dry Stuff

  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons AP FlourThe 150g
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher Diamond Crystal or sea salt (DL uses a french sea salt which is similar to a kosher salt, it is not like our sea salt, if using table salt use 1/2 teaspoon, if using Morton's kosher salt use 3/4 teaspoon)

The Bling

  • 2 cups 280g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chunks (I used TJ's chocolate chunks)
  • flaky sea salt such as Maldon or fleur de sel
  • black and white sesame seeds

Instructions

  • 1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and kosher or sea salt, set aside.
  • 2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, tahini, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until fluffy.
  • 3. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides. Add the egg, the yolk, and vanilla, and continue to mix for another minute, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl during mixing
  • 4. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients until just combined, then add the chocolate chips. Do not overmix.
  • 5. Cover the dough and refrigerate overnight.
  • 6. Preheat the oven to 325ºF (160ºC). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
  • 7. Form the cookies into rounds using an ice cream scoop. For small cookies make each 1 1/2-inch (3.5cm), for larger cookies, 2-inches (5cm) diameter. Place them evenly spaced on the baking sheets, 3-inches (8cm) apart.
  • 8. Bake one sheet at a time, so you can keep an eye on them, use themiddle rack of the oven.
  • 9. Bake the cookies, turning the baking sheet midway during baking, until the cookies are golden brown around the edges but still pale in the center. For small cookies, about 12 minutes, for larger cookies, about 14 to 15 minutes.
  • 10. Remove from the oven, sprinkle cookies with a bit of flaky sea salt and sesame seeds.
  • 11. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet.
  • Storage: These cookies will keep for two or three days at room temperature, but are definitely better the same day they're baked. The unbaked dough can be refrigerated for up to one week, and frozen for up to two months.