As bakers, we derive a good deal of inspiration from nostalgia. Making sweet treats is a way to commemorate your childhood, a chance to shut up that sensible adult voice in your head telling you to eat more vegetables and do your taxes with a boatload of sugar and fats.
Black sesame, commonly used in both sweet and savory preparations in Thai and Chinese cuisine, is high on my list of nostalgic ingredients. I grew up loving desserts made with black sesame, from bua loi nam king, black sesame dumplings in sweet ginger tea, to fried sesame balls at dim sum restaurants, to black sesame granola bars sold at my mom’s favorite health food store. Nowadays, eating anything that contains black sesame is sure to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
These chewy black sesame cookies, inspired by Christina Tosi’s genius corn cookies, combines the warm, toasty, savoriness of black sesame with the buttery richness of an American style soft cookie. These treats are so comforting they are sure to satisfy your sense of nostalgia, even for memories you never had.
You can find black sesame seeds at most Asian grocery stores. You can get them pre-toasted, but I like to get them raw and toast them myself.
The Domestic Pig 