Black Sesame Chocolate Chunk Cookies from a Nerd
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.
Black Sesame Chocolate Chip Cookies
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.
