Black Lace Sesame Cookies (or candy!)

I love sesame in all forms, whether it be in seeds, oils, pastes, body lotions, face masks, etc.  While mulling over whether to order General Cho’s (Tso’s..whatever) or sesame chicken from Chinese take-out the other night, I decided to go with the former and save the sesame for sweet, as in those crunchy honey sesame candies I’m sure you’ve all had at some point in your lives.

Black Sesame Lace Cookies, or Candy

SO…

I started surfing the web to find a good recipe for those yummy treats, my most fond memory being grabbing handfuls and handfuls of them from the jar they were kept in at a local penny candy store when I was a child.  About 5 billion results for this candy came up, but the first one to catch my eye was actually a cookie at Epicurious.com.  Remember, it had to be a simple recipe I could fit into my 1980’s hand me down electric fondue pot, since I still can’t stand at the stove and cook, and this one fit the bill.  OK, now we’re making cookies..or are we??

Black Sesame Lace Cookies, or Candy

The candies may not be pretty, and most would think they’re some kind of black licorice, but they’re really, really tasty!

Here’s the deal, the batter for these cookies (minus the flour) firms up and can be cut into delicious candies which taste exactly like those penny candy store honey sesame candies. albeit softer and chewier.  However, I decided to use most of the batter for the cookies, adding my own twist to them by using black sesame seeds and adding a little five spice powder to the cooked batter. Sandwiching some of them with white chocolate ginger ganache didn’t hurt, nor did rolling some of them into cigars and little cannoli like tubes or slightly wider cigarette russes (while they were still warm and pliable; the duration a little longer than the tuile cookie.) then filling them with white chocolate ginger ganache and dark chocolate mousse, or whatever you want to fill them with!

Black Sesame Lace Cookie Sandwiches Black Sesame Lace Cookie cigars with white and dark chocolate mousse.

If you love sesame, these are the cookies for you.  Not only are they gorgeous, but they’re light and crispy sesame delicousness, or soft and chewy sesame candy that more than rivals those crunchy candy store memories.

Black Sesame Lace Cookies, or Candy recipe. These are Black Sesame Lace Cookie cigars with white and dark chocolate mousse.

Before I post the recipe for these amazing cookies, I must brag about my award.  Sometimes the things you least expect in life come knocking on your door.  In this case, one came knocking at my blog.  I received an award.  I never thought my scrappy little blog would attract anything more than a few comments, but lo and behold, Angela, from A Spoonful of Sugar thought of my blog when passing on the Triple Award.  Thank you so much, Angela! I’m incredibly flattered and more than honored to pass it on!`

triple_award

The rules for each recipient are as follows:

  • Include the award logo in your blog or post.
  • Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
  • Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
  • Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
  • Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Here are the wonderful bloggers I’m passing this award to:

It’s a long list, but believe me, there are a thousand more I’d love to pass this on to, but I want to keep this entry a little more brief than my last one! Hmmm..it’s close!

Black Lace Sesame Cookies

Black Lace Sesame Cookies or Candy
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Yield: Makes about 60 cookies, 30 sandwich cookies and uhh, a lot of candy!
 
ingredients:
  • 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 cup black sesame seeds
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour *
  • ¼ to ½ teaspoon 5-spice powder (optional)
directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line 2 large baking sheets with a silpat or parchment paper.
  2. In a 1-quart heavy saucepan (or electric fondue pot lol) bring confectioners' sugar, butter, honey, and water to a boil over moderate heat, stirring, and boil 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and stir in sesame seeds, flour, 5-spice powder (if using), and a pinch salt, until mixture is combined well. Cool batter to room temperature.
    If you want your cookies super lacy like the photo of the lone cookie above, don't let the batter set to the point where you can roll it into balls cleanly or form it into candy. You want to start spooning ½ teaspoonfuls hot, soupy batter onto the cookie sheet after cooling about 1 minute. Since the batter will start to firm as you spoon it onto the cookie sheet, keep warming it up so it remains kind of soupy, and continue to do so every time it starts to firm as you drop the batter.
  3. For less lacy cookies, roll level ½ teaspoons of the cooled batter into balls and arrange 4 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake cookies in batches in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, 7-8 minutes, (4 to 5 minutes if you used soupy batter for extra lacy cookies) or until cookies are flat and golden or in this case,sort of golden in between the black sesame seeds. Transfer parchment with cookies to racks to cool.
  4. If you want to make candy instead of cookies, eliminate the flour from the ingredients, then mix and cook as instructed above, but do not bake. Let the batter cool until it's firm enough to roll into a long, thin log, then cut into pieces, or individual balls.
  5. \If you want to roll and fill them as cookies, wrap them around a slender spoon handle as you would a tuile cookie, when they're slightly set but still pliable.
notes:
* If making candy, eliminate the flour.

Whipped White Chocolate Ginger Ganache and Easy 2-Ingredient Dark Chocolate Mousse
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Yield: Enough to fill 60 cookie tubes
 
You can halve the recipe for the cookies above and this ganache to make 30 filled tube instead of 60.
ingredients:
Whipped White Chocolate Ginger Ganache
  • 12 ounces chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips
  • ¾ cup heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons freshly and finely grated grated ginger (use a microplanefor best results) or 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
Quick Dark Chocolate Mousse
  • 12 ounces chopped dark or semisweet) chopped chocolate or chips
  • ¾ cup heavy cream
directions:
  1. Place the white chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
  2. Heat the cream in the microwave until almost boiling.
  3. Pour hot cream over white chocolate and let sit 1 minute, then stir until creamy and uniform. If the white chocolate is not completely melted, give it a few pops in the microwave for a few seconds at a time until melted completely.
  4. Store in ginger, cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge until cold and set.
  5. Remove from fridge and beat with a hand-held mixer until light and fluffy.
  6. Place in a pastry bag with tip of your choice (small enough to fill the narrow tubes of the cookies) or a zip lock bag, snipping the end off. Fill both ends of the cookie tube, and repeat with the rest.
For the Easy Dark Chocolate Mousse
  1. Do the same as you would for the white chocolate ginger ganache above, omitting the ginger

 

 

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29 Responses to Black Lace Sesame Cookies (or candy!)

  1. estherreeves says:

    Thanks for the award I’m honoured you thought of me particularly as I’ve only recently found your blog. Those sesame cookies/ candies sound fantastic and should convert to gluten free very successfully. We love sesames here too !

  2. Deb says:

    Thanks Lisa!!! I am honored to be on this list! I will do you proud and pay it forward 🙂

  3. John (Eat4Fun) says:

    Lisa… You have a great looking blog and you’ve put a lot of work into it. Thank you for thinking of my blog for the award. 🙂

    John

  4. Lisa says:

    Not only do you have the COOLEST NAME EVER but you continually blow me away with your creativity when it comes to your baking.. I love coming to see what you’ve made next 😀

    Congrats to you on your award- it’s very deserving!

    And thank you for passing it along to me, sweets.. you’ve put a big silly grin on my face first thing this Monday morning! 🙂

    Hugs!
    Lis
    xoxo

  5. Elyse says:

    These black lace cookies are delicate and perfect-looking! I’m a huge fan of anything with sesame seeds, so I can’t wait to try these!

  6. ingrid says:

    Congrats on your award and thanks for passing it along!!!!

    That’s really impressive that you’re able to make all of that despite not getting into your kitchen.

    Btw, Devon read Jason’s posts. He’s going to comment tonight as he ran out of time last night. (bedtime) I wish you could have heard his mutterings to some of what Jason wrote…..too,too funny! He’s pretty impressed that you have Jeter on your header. 🙂
    ~ingrid

  7. lisamichele says:

    Esther, John, and Deb – Thank you, Thank you and Thank you..and you’re all very welcome!
    —–

    Elyse – I’m glad you’re going to try them! Let me know how they turn out for you!

    ——-

    Ingrid -Thank you! However, it’s getting harder and harder to do it, believe it or not. I can’t do things the way I want to since I can’t just get up and grab things as I go along, so it’s resulting in a lot of sloppy results..not to mention the photos. Can’t get behind a tripod or set up a photo with pretty props, plus, I have no natural light to begin with, and my one Lowel Ego light is not really cutting it. Oh well, I have to remember this is temporary!
    —–
    That said, I can’t wait to see what Devon writes! That is too cute that he’s impressed with DJ in my header 😀

  8. These look so delicious – you know I love those sesame candies!! I will have to make a version of these 🙂 Thanks so much for the award – you’re a sweetheart! I hope you are healing up well 🙂 xoxo

  9. Monica says:

    Thank you for the award! I’m delighted to be included in the sites that you enjoy. And thank you for sharing this list.. what a lovely group of foodies! I’m adding a few more blogs to my list of favorites. 🙂
    Your black sesame lace cookies look delicious. As soon as I get my hands on some black sesame, my oven will be rolling. 🙂

  10. Lesley says:

    Wow, I’m honored! Especially since I’ve been, ahem, ignoring my blog of late.
    Thank you Lisa!!

    Love the sesame seeds.

    Lesley

  11. A&N says:

    Thank you! The cookies look lovely, and A will be elated that his love for Yankees is bearing fruit in ways he had not fathomed 😉

  12. Lisa they’re soooooooooo perfect! I can almost feel the crunch on those! And thanks so much for the nice award!

  13. BitterSweet says:

    Wow, these are beautiful! I’m bookmarking the recipe right now. 🙂

  14. Catherine says:

    How many times can I say yum, before I’m annoying? What did you fill those temptuous tuilles with?

  15. Esther says:

    Hi I just came across this ice cream recipe and though of you
    http://icecreamireland.com/2009/02/24/black-sesame-ice-cream/

    I really understand you saying it is getting harder and harder for you currently. I remember when I had SPD just wanting to scream at times because I just wanted to be able to cook one thing without pain or being unable to get to something or knowing I’d be bedridden the next day if I tried. Hang in there.

  16. Dana says:

    LISA, I MADE THESE LAST NIGHT AND NOT ONLY WERE THEY A HUGE HIT, BUT EVERYONE WANTED THE RECIPE1 THEY ARE SO LIGHT BUT WITH SO MUCH FLAVOR! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE RECIPE!

  17. Denise says:

    It was so good seeing you the other night, but where were these cookies-slash-candies???? I luv, luv, luv sesame, you know that! Your site looks great!

  18. awoz says:

    Hello there, fellow daring baker.I would have traded my plate with yours without any doubt.Your cake and ice cream looks amazingly good)

  19. Arlette says:

    hello again

    these cookies looks very yummy iam going to try them

  20. Jaime says:

    ooooh how neat!!

    (btw – unfortunately TWD is not taking new members right but keep your eye out on the homepage – every once in while they open it back up for a brief period of time and you can join!)

  21. lisamichele says:

    estherreeves – I forgot to mention, they definitely can be converted to gluten-free with ease! Some super fine almond flour, perhaps?

    Catherine – I did a ton of different things with the tuiles, which you can see in my Tuileapalooza entry. one being a limoncello curd meringue filling. As for the black lace sesame cookies, white chocolate-ginger ganache and white and dark chocolate mousses for the ‘tubular mon!’ ones lol

    Esther Thanks so much for the link to the recipe for black sesame ice cream! I bookmarked it and am looking forward to trying it. Also, I start outpatient therapy next week, so that should help get me back into the kitchen soon..I hope (twice a week home therapy is not enough – and I just can’t inflict pain on myself with the intense 90 degree bending! – someone who knows what they’re doing has to help me along for that!). although it took Tiger Woods 8 months to heal from a lesser knee injury and surgery! EEK!
    —–
    Lesley – I’d noticed you hadn’t been around in a while. I Hope you get back into it soon..love your blog and recipes!
    ——
    Jaime – That figures! Oh well, I’ll just pilfer the reciipes until something opens up ;D

    Denise – You know I have to bribe my ‘helpers’..LOL Those babies were gone within an hour! lol

  22. Lisa says:

    Thank you Lisa!!! That’s so sweet of you to pass on the award to me! I’ll get around to following through – eventually… but I wanted to at least make my way over here to thank you!

    That recipe is fantastic too – cookies, but if not, candy? That’s incredible!

  23. lisasdblog says:

    Thanks Lisa! I think we should start a “Lisa Club” for all my creative, talented friends named Lisa! I picked up the black sesame seeds at the commissary last week, so I’m ready to make these now. I think this is something my Dad will really like.

    Thanks for the award and compliment!

  24. MandyM says:

    I’m trying to figure out where to find black sesame seeds just so I can try this! Lovely, absolutely lovely.

  25. rita3ko says:

    wow! these look really good! i really oughtta try this recipe!

  26. Lulu says:

    These look amazing!!

  27. Hali says:

    reetings. I follow your site to wish you continued success.

  28. Lauren says:

    Oh these look fantastic! I adore black sesame seeds!

  29. Pingback: Holiday BAKINGPALOOZA, and my fear of THE TRIPOD. - parsley sage sweetparsley sage sweet

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