Oh my goodness!  My kitchen smells divine, like a bakery.  These Black Sesame Cookies are another treat for you to add to your table or just enjoy with a cup of tea, coffee, some port – you get the idea.  A 2025 Christmas Treat – Black Sesame Cookies.

My wife found this recipe when thinning out some of my recipe magazines.  Soon as she saw it, she knew it would make a wonderful addition to the table.  We both love sesame seeds – in all forms, Salted Maple Tahini Brownies – https://wp.me/p3eGgf-eUg – etc.  My preference is more on the savory side but I could very easily cave in for this sweet treat.

I made these with roasted black sesame seeds as the base but decorated the top with both the white and black seeds.  I find the roasted seeds add depth to the sesame taste.  This isn’t a sweet cookie but definitely satisfies that cookie craving.  I would like to try it with some sesame oil, not much, just a tablespoon or so with the next batch I make (maybe a spicy infused sesame oil).  I have other sesame treats on my website, too many to list all of them here but just enter the word “sesame” in the search bar and find sweet and savory treat recipes.  I have two repeat favorites from cookie lovers that I am always asked to make Espresso, Black Sesame and Kinako cookies –  https://wp.me/p3eGgf-fxD/ and Korean Ginger Sesame Seed cookies – https://wp.me/p3eGgf-1cw, do give these a try as well. 

This cookie tastes great. a few ingredients and so much fun to make with someone or on your own.  My wife even helped with the decorating on the top of the cookies.  As usual, I did make them into small balls about the size of a nickel in diameter and yes they do spread to almost 2″ in diameter – I know, what a bonus!  This batch gave me about 50 cookies.  The cooking time was 21 minutes with the rack rotation once through the process at about the 8 minute mark.  Seems like a long time but do the “nudge” test, if it moves it’s ready, if not leave it in for a few minutes longer.  As always – enjoy!

Ingredients
 3/4 cup roasted black sesame seeds
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup cold salted butter, cubed
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Topping
2 tbsps roasted black or white or both sesame seeds

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350f, line 2 trays with parchment paper – set aside
In a small plate, sprinkle the sesame seeds for the topping – set aside
Using your food processor, pulse the sesame seeds, flour and salt until well mixed and finely ground
Add the vanilla and pulse
Add the butter through the feeding tube and pulse – do this until all the butter is done and pulse (10 second pulses) until mixed and the dough starts to form a ball of dough around the blade
Scoop 1 teaspoon of dough and form it into a ball, dip in the sesame seeds and place on the cookie sheet
Use your thumb or the bottom of a glass to slightly flatten the cookie – repeat until all the dough is used up
Bake for 20 – 24 minutes – mine took 21 minutes, I could still “nudge” it and it moved, but with a slight dent – they harden more as they cool
Sample one or two for quality assurance – store the remainder in the fridge until the big day