I’ve been hooked on black sesame since I tasted it in ice cream (kurogoma) from a Japanese stall. I love love love it! Nothing compares to the taste of that earthy, nutty and fragrant seed. While its flavor is more bitter than the creamy white sesame seed, black sesame seeds are no less impressive.
Sesame seeds hark back to 3000BC, notably in the Middle East.
Scheherazade was the first person to give the sesame superhuman powers when she held her Arabian caliph spellbound for one thousand and one nights with her tales of intrigue and adventure. Because sesame pods readily burst open at the slightest touch when they are ripe, Scheherazade provided Ali Baba with the magic words, “Open Sesame” to instantly open the cave, a robber’s den, in her exciting story about “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.”
In the Orient, sesame seeds are roasted, releasing oils that enhance and enrich the flavor of the seeds. Black sesame seeds, in particular, are prized for their intense nuttiness. These can be used as is or ground into powder or made into a paste.
Black sesame makes an appearance in all types of food across Asia: in ice cream in Japan, as fillings and coatings in mochi and the Chinese tang yuan glutinous rice balls. The paste is spread on toast, sweetened with sugar or drizzled with honey. For an afternoon treat, there’s always the traditional black sesame soup that’s widely available in South East Asia. It looks like just-mixed cement. Believe me, it tastes anything but!
The cookies I made are a trial of sorts. My objective was to find a versatile cookie base, one which would lend itself to different fillings, toppings, ingredient pairings, etc. I stumbled on this peanut butter cookie recipe from Dine With Leny, and replaced the peanut butter with black sesame. I didn’t even attempt the original recipe since 1) I didn’t have peanut butter; and 2) I needed to use my black sesame paste before it expired. For this recipe, I used black sesame paste or nerigoma. Do not use black tahini: this is made from unroasted black sesame seeds and tend to a more bitter taste.
The cookies look rock hard. In fact, they look like rocks. Literally. But they are crumbly and melt in your mouth. A bite here, a bite there and soon you find yourself addicted. Needless to say, these were a success as evidenced by the fact that the cookies were gone within minutes!
BLACK SESAME COOKIE BALLS
Difficulty: Easy20
minutes12
minutesIngredients
180g all purpose/plain flour
80g icing sugar
½ teaspoon salt
100g black sesame paste or nerigoma (not black tahini)
80g peanut, olive or other vegetable oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175C/350F. Place the oven tray in the middle rung. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Sift flour, icing sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add in the black sesame paste and oil.
- Stir with a spatula or fork until the dough comes together in bits and pieces. With your hand, gently knead the dough until it comes together and then continue kneadindg until the color is uniform throughout.
- Pinch enough dough to make about 1-inch balls , can be slightly smaller or bigger. Whatever the size, make sure that the dough balls are more or less the same size so they are baked uniformly. Place them an inch apart from each other on the baking sheet.
- Bake the cookie balls for 10 to 12 minutes until the cookies crack. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet.
- The cookies will keep for a week in an airtight container.
