by: Molly Baz
Cook Time
40 minutes
Prep Time
50 minutes
Yield
16 cookies
@mollybaz
Chef Molly Baz shares her delicate, melt-in-your-mouth Black Sesame Shortbread Cookie recipe from her first cookbook Cook This Book: Techniques that Teach & Recipes to Repeat.
Total Time
40 minutes
Prep Time
50 minutes
Yield
16 cookies
summary
Would it be possible to create a melt-in-your-mouth, tenderoni shortbread cookie without relying on an electric mixer and the whole butter-creaming thing? I certainly didn’t think so. I was sorely mistaken. This is the anti-cookie. The easiest cookie there is. There are six ingredients. Melted butter and tahini get stirred into a mixture of all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, and salt, and voilà , you’ve got cookie dough. Melting the butter means you don’t need any special stand mixers or electric beaters. Powdered sugar contains cornstarch, which lends a very fine, delicate texture to the shortbread without having to rely on the butter-creaming technique to achieve a tender crumb.
ingredients
- Dairy
- 10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks / 142g) unsalted butter
- Pantry
- 1 ½ cups (180g) all-purpose flour
- â…” cup (75g) powdered sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons (4g) kosher salt
- ¼ cup (35g) black or white sesame seeds
- â…“ cup (80g) tahini
- Granulated sugar, for sprinkling
directions
- Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut 10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks/142g) unsalted butter into 1-inch pieces. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling occasionally, about 3 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 ½ cups (180g) flour, ⅔ cup (75g) powdered sugar, and 1 ½ teaspoons (4g) salt.
- Place ¼ cup (35g) black sesame seeds in a small resealable plastic bag, seal it, and crush them by smashing them lightly with the side of a wine bottle or rolling pin. (If you have a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, use it.)¹ Add the crushed sesame seeds to the dry ingredients and wish to combine.
- Whisk â…“ cup (80g) tahini into the cooled melted butter, then pour the mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring with a spatula until a dough comes together in a rough ball. Using your hands, knead the dough lightly a few times until no floury spots remain.
- Transfer the ball of dough to the prepared baking sheet and use your hands to pat it into a ½-inch-thick, 8 x 8-inch square. Smooth the surface of the square with the bottom of a measuring cup so that it’s nice and flat.
- Use a fork to lightly prick the dough all over.² Transfer the baking sheet to the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes or up to overnight. If chilling overnight, lightly cover the dough with plastic wrap.
- Once chilled, cut the shortbread into 16 equal 2-inch squares. Space them out evenly on the baking sheet.
- Bake the shortbread until lightly golden brown all over, 30 to 40 minutes. While still warm, lightly sprinkle granulated sugar over the surface of the dough—just enough to evenly coat each square. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet completely before serving.
notes
¹ This will release some of the oils within the seeds and help flavor the dough.
² This creates little pockets for the steam to escape so that the cookies bake evenly, yielding a very crisp, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
