Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Tea Break

Black Sesame Seed Cookies with Green Tea

The fact that I'm posting this at this time of the day means that I'm not at work this morning. Yep, I only need to work at night today, and as you can probably figure out from these photos, it's a nice, sunny day. I finished doing my laundry and now I'm going to spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon posting this and responding to the comments to my blog. And these cookies are the munchies to accompany the green tea while I'm sitting in front of my laptop.

These are supposed to be healthy, guilt-free, low-cal cookies with no eggs or dairy products used. The recipe is here (Japanese) if you're interested, and all the ingredients are just flour, sugar, black sesame seeds, salt and canola oil. Healthy, isn't it?

But when I first tried out this recipe, I thought these cookies were a little too crumbly. And though I liked the simple taste of sugar and sesame seeds with the salt as an accent, I couldn't help feeling that I'd rather add one more ingredient -- something to harmonize the sweetness, saltiness and sesame flavor. So what I chose as a relatively healthy solution was adding a little soy milk. I think it was not a bad idea, though not the best. Next time I might add less amount of soy milk and substitute the sugar with maple syrup.


Oh, BTW, this mat in these photos is the one I made myself at the weaving workshop years ago. (Actually, 2005.)


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11 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A great tea break! Nice cookies!

Cheers,

Rosa

J P Hays said...

I would be sure they would be crumbly, being held together with nothing but a few scant tablespoons of canola oil. I would, at the very least, add some water or milk to it, maybe something else to add a bit more flavor, like a few drops of vanilla or almond extract. But that's just me. I'm probablly going to translate the recipe, and try it out on my own.

K and S said...

what a delicious way to spend your morning :)

Anonymous said...

Yummmm! Black sesame cookies with a hint of salt, you are right up my alley there! There are these Korean biscuits I buy and I would kill for a recipe that yields something similar to that. I am going to try this recipe now, let's see how well google translates ;-)
Enjoy your cookies obachan!

Anonymous said...

It even looks like cauliflower. Great!

Anonymous said...

Lovely little treats! While I prefer chewy cookies to crumbly, I'm sure a chewy classic sugar cookie with black sesame seeds would be delicious. Recently, while looking for a chewy Fleur du Sel chocolate chip cookie recipe, I came across this article from last summer in the New York Times newspaper: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/09chip.html There is a lot of good information, and I can't wait to try the recipe. I thought you might find it of interest too. The immediate gratification of baking cookies when you want them is postponed by 24-36 hours of dough resting time, but I am convinced it must be worth it. I'm off to the store after work to get the ingredients. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Lastly, should you ever come to Portland, Oregon, I'll have to introduce you to Elizabeth and Anna at Two Tarts Bakery. They make the best cookies I've ever had. www.twotartsbakery.com

Marcela said...

I'd love to try these cookies. What proportion of soy milk did you add to them in this case?
The mat you made is really beautiful...
Saludos,
Marcela

Implosion said...

These look so fluffy and light!

obachan said...

Rosa
Thanks.

Sirpaul484
Yeah, I chose soy milk, thinking that it would be more nutritious and flavorful than water but less fatty than milk. Your ideas sound good, too.

K & S
It was a nice tea break, after all.

Basak
I wonder how yours turn out. Hope you enjoyed your black sesame cookies.

Yudy
Now that you said that, yeah they do look like cauliflowers with lots of black... uh.. never mind.

Mora
Thanks for the link. It sure is an interesting piece of information. (I wonder how old the author is to mention Hulk Hogan. LOL)

I do hope that I have a chance to visit Portland someday -- if I could find a rich, old husband or something.

Marcela
Sorry I didn't respond to you sooner. I added 1 tablespoon of soy milk, but next time I might make it 2 teaspoons because I want the cookies to be just a little more crumbly.

Implosion
Yeah, they're light, so I kept on eating them until I had a slight headache. Hahaha...

Marcela said...

Don't worry Obachan, there was no rush...
I'll try this recipe soon. Thanks a lot,
Marcela

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