Black Sesame Shortbread Recipe (2024)

A tasty and delicate-textured cookie...thanks Genevieve. When baking these in Denver (altitude 5280 ft) you need to reduce the baking time to about 17 minutes and add about 4 teaspoons of a liquid (I added an extra half tsp of vanilla extract and a Tbsp of water) to avoid excessive crumbliness. It's difficult to tell when the edges and top are browned because of the black coloring from the sesame seeds, and in my opinion that is too long (one tray came out overdone and slightly bitter-tasting).

I just recently discovered a trick to make sure your chilled dough remains "round" (see link below) Use a tube from a paper towel. It is unfortunate that recipes do not include this easy and helpful hint.How to Bake Perfectly Round Cookies - Kitchen Conundrums with Thomas Josephhttps://youtu.be/L2cXkLdJaG8

Watch the NYTcooking YouTube channel for a walk through of the recipe. Not sure why video is not in this story. https://youtu.be/LPnNW4_50VU. I followed the recipe exactly -- measuring ingredients by weight and cookies came out exactly as pictured. For those complaining that the dough fell apart -- make sure in the first step that you process the seeds and sugar/salt until you get nice clumps. You want the oil from the seeds to come out and bind everything together.

Can I use black tahini instead? My sesame seeds have been around for awhile and I can't tell if they are rancid.

in my experience, tahini doesn’t have the same nutty taste that toasted sesames seeds do. I expect the cookie would not be as good.That said, it should be easy to tell if your sesames seeds are rancid. Just eat a few - if that taste “off” or just don’t taste good, then you know.

Is there any way to make this recipe without a food processor? Tips are appreciated!

I'm not sure how pastry chefs do it but I put the cookie dough into a cylindrical container, like those tubes that pringles chips get sold in. I leave the container upright for a couple hours then take the dough out and continue to let the cylinder rest upright - by that point its stiff enough to not fall over. You can leave it in for longer but sometimes it gets hard to remove. (especially if it was a tight fit going in)

Used what I had - white sesame seeds, oven toasted - went scant (120 g) on KA flour as just noted below, added a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil as dough seemed to need it. Since I was changing it up anyway I skipped refrigeration. Rolled into small balls, dipped in seeds and pressed into discs on parchment. Only baked 15 minutes, more would have burned them, and let them set a bit on parchment as the first one I prematurely lifted off crumbled. So of course I ate it - delicious.

Yes - i used black sesame power and they came out great.

These cookies are tender and delicious! With the sesame seeds, they are also very impressive looking. I found that they were not crumbly, but quite soft and fatty. This may be because I followed KAF's recommendation and used 120g of flour instead of the recipe recommended 132g. They still turned out great, but if using KAF I recommend strictly following the recipe for weights.

I used brown rice flour and the cookies came out great.

I used black tahini instead of black sesame seeds. Otherwise followed the recipe as stated. The cookies were delicious. They were very delicate and crumbly probably because the tahini had more liquid than the seeds. Would definitely make again.

None of the shortbread recipes that I have, and use successfully, have an egg. Nonetheless, they hold up very well and don't fall apart. Perhaps your cookies had not cooled adequately.

I've never had so many people decline a homemade cookie, and so many others ask for the recipe. The black sesame seems very polarizing, but was also exactly what I was so excited about! Absolutely delicious. A perfect nutty, sweet, and slightly savory treat. Even my Chinese student and paraprofessional both loved them.

I chilled the dough in a rectangular block and sliced into dice and pressed each corner in to make kinda round and dipped in sesame and baked and they came out great. I made probably twice as many. Don’t worry about slicing round. The dough is very forgiving.

* use vitamix to blend sesame seeds until almost a paste (add a bit of the butter, melted, to help the blender out)* combine melted butter with sesame paste, and mix into dry ingredients* yielded about 15 cookies

Followed recipe and they came out perfect. Used silicon brush to lightly coat top of each cookie half with egg white, before covering that half w/ white seeds. I put the white seeds in a small bowl and used a dipping action to coat. For a perfect seed edge, it helped to lightly push them against a thin knife blade, tho on baking the cookies spread a bit, slightly disrupting the look of the seeds; maybe fridge first? Nicesesame flavor; dramatic look; more delicate texture than usual shortbread.

Too salty for me and I love salt! I thought 3/4 t salt sounded like a lot and I used salted butter so reduced it to 1/2 t and it was still too salty. Are the meant to be super salty or was it just the butter?

I cooked 18 minutes at sea level and the bottoms were scorched really keep an eye on them after 15 minutes!

I love this recipe. Now I'd like to make a batch for my sister who cannot eat wheat flour. Has anyone had success with a flour substitution that they can recommend?

I like this recipe. It's the first sesame shortbread recipe I have found, and I use sesame often. I used sesame powder, as it's convenient and inexpensive in my country. However, I should have reduced the salt to 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon - it was too salty with 3/4 cup of sesame powder in place of the sesame seeds.

I took other recommendations and used only 120 g of flour. I also rolled the dough out longer for smaller cookies and baked for only 14 minutes. Delicious and easy!

A lot of people mentioned dry/crumbly dough: It shouldn't happen if you dump the seeds into the food processor until the powder starts to clump/stick to the sides. Process them well or when you bake them, you can see small grains and won't bring out all the flavor (5 min). The dough should be moist from all the oils after the addition of butter.Hard to tell when the edges are browned but the edges will set and slightly turn a different color from the black.

Incredible. Received rave reviews from everyone in my office. An unusual/surprising cooking but universally delightful. I made with ingredients exactly as directed. Only note is that I had raw sesame seeds and took far longer than 2-3 minutes to roast them in a pan. The roasted seeds should be extremely fragrant and crumble easily between your fingers. Maangchi has good instructions on how to do it properly (but I usually skip the washing step).

I followed the advice of other posters to use a little bit less flour following KAF measurements, since I find KAF very reliable. The dough was easy to work with and the cookies turned out DELICIOUS! Maybe my oven runs a bit hot but my cookies were done at 13:30 -- I could see browning at the edges and they looked and felt done. What a pretty and tasty cookie to add something different to the cookie platter at teatime!

I used black tahini instead of black sesame seeds. Otherwise followed the recipe as stated. The cookies were delicious. They were very delicate and crumbly probably because the tahini had more liquid than the seeds. Would definitely make again.

100 g butterPaper towel cardboardBake full time

Watch the NYTcooking YouTube channel for a walk through of the recipe. Not sure why video is not in this story. https://youtu.be/LPnNW4_50VU. I followed the recipe exactly -- measuring ingredients by weight and cookies came out exactly as pictured. For those complaining that the dough fell apart -- make sure in the first step that you process the seeds and sugar/salt until you get nice clumps. You want the oil from the seeds to come out and bind everything together.