Cookie Sleuth (Sally’s Sesame Cookies)
Day 4 of the 12 Days of Cookies..surprisingly I’m on schedule…I think
I wanted to choose a song that fit this cookie recipe but instead, I picked a beautiful song that is so relevant to what is happening in our world right now. Someday at Christmas sung by Jack Johnson.
When it comes to cookies I border on obsessive. If a recipe doesn’t turn out as expected, I turn into Sherlock Holmes. The game is afoot to solve the mystery of why a cookie doesn’t taste quite right, why it spreads too much or too little. I tried different baking sheets and tested parchment versus Silpat. Maybe it’s the butter, did I cream it too much or too little? Auugh, enough to drive me bonkers. I do have a few friends that I commiserate with who will leave no cookie unturned. My friend Kristine is like that. In another life we would both be happily ensconced in America’s Test Kitchen furiously measuring, testing, mixing, tasting.
Swap Cookies and Tips
For our cookie exchange, Kristine made her always-popular sesame cookies. The recipe was given to her by her mother-in-law Sally. Much like Benne wafers of the South, these little gems are crispy, buttery, and jam-packed with sesame seeds, a sesame flavor bomb. Kristine first shared Sally’s cookies and recipe at our inaugural preschool cookie exchange. I loved them. I made a batch but they just weren’t the same. The bottom looked lacey with lots of holes, the texture was different, and the cookie was much too crunchy.
This happens randomly with both tried and true recipes and new recipes. I would then e-mail the author of the recipe, call King Arthur Flour’s hotline, or run it by fellow bakers. At our most recent exchange, though we hadn’t seen each other in quite a while, Kristine and I immediately launched into a conversation about the texture change in my batch of cookies. Obsessive? Crazy? You be the judge.
Luckily, Kristine’s batch was perfect!
This is the perfect holiday recipe. It is a slice-and-bake cookie. You can make the dough in advance, throw it in the fridge or freezer, and bake off cookies when you need them. It makes a boatload of delicious cookies (~ 100 of those bad boys).
Sally's Sesame Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 lb. butter 4 sticks
- 1 ½ c. sugar.
- 3 c. all purpose flour
- 1 c. sesame seeds
- 2 c. Angel flaked coconut sweetened
- ½ - 1 c. chopped almonds or walnuts.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300F.
- Cream 1 lb. butter and 1 ½ c. sugar until blended and smooth. Do not over overmix.
- Add all purpose flour, sesame seeds, coconut, chopped almonds or walnuts. Mix well. Chill; divide dough into four equal logs. Wrap each roll in plastic and keep refrigerated (may be frozen).
- Take out one roll at a time and slice ¼ inch. Leave ½” space between cookies.
- Bake for approximately 30-min. being careful not to over brown. I’ve never baked them the full 30-min.