Black Sesame Cookies
By: Joy Zhang
Published: Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 10:58am

Ingredients




Ingredients for Black Sesame Cookies:

3/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups black sesame seeds, ground

Preparation

1 Preheat oven to 375F. 2 In a large bowl, beat shortening and sugar with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy.  beat in vanilla and egg.  In another bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda.  Slowly incorporate dry mixture with wet mixture, be careful not to over beat the batter or it will change the texture of the cookie.  Dump in the ground sesame and mix until evenly dispersed throughout cookie dough.  Drop tablespoonfuls 2-inches apart onto greased cookie sheets.  Bake 8-10 minutes for chewy cookies or 11-13 for crisp cookies.  Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.  Makes 3 dozen cookies.

About


I started getting gray hair when I was 12, and now at 24 I’m about a quarter gray.  I am lucky to have a mother who’s a hairstylist that dyes my hair to hide my secrets, she is worried I will go completely gray before her.  The time a person develops gray hair is dependent on your genes, but my mother is convinced it’s because I have a deficiency in my body.  So for years she made me eat black sesame seeds claiming it would restore pigment into my hair.  Going back home this time around she gave me another tub of ground sesame seeds “You don’t forget to eat hei zi ma (black sesame seeds) it is good for grey hair!” I never argue with my mother, I hear they know best :)