don’t cry for me argentina, nostalgic sesame blossoms

 

What’s a little nostalgia between friends? After all homemade cookies are meant to be shared.  I haven't noticed that ingredients for homemade cookies have been difficult to find right now, plenty of flour, baking powder, sugar etc. stocked in my local market.  I think Chocolate Kisses will always be available, but tahini and sesame seeds? I don’t know, we might have to hoard those.  We loved these updated blossoms and ate them all leaving just a bag with a few sesame seeds in the bottom.  I did share a dozen or so with friends, just to remember what it was like before the quarantine when we used to host Christmas 🎄 cookie 🍪 exchanges, those were the good old days, sigh. Sesame blossoms would have been a holiday cookie exchange contender.  If you love halvah with a chocolate swirl, you'll love sesame chocolate 🍫  blossoms.  And this year I’m going to cry for Argentina 🇦🇷 

Ingredients and Recipe for Sesame Blossoms

Makes 40 cookies

1 & 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

7 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into bits

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 large egg at room temperature 

2/3 cup well stirred tahini

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1/2 cup un-toasted sesame seeds, for rolling the cookie balls-place in a shallow bowl

40 unwrapped chocolate kisses

Stir together flours and baking soda in a small bowl, set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugars and salt.

Beat on medium speed for a minute until well combined, not fluffy.

Beat in the egg, tahini and vanilla on medium speed until combined and smooth for about 30 seconds.  Scrape down the bowl as needed to combine ingredients.

Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until dough just comes together.

Give the dough a good stir with a spatula to make sure everything is combined.

Cover and refrigerate for about one hour and up to several hours.

When the cookie dough is ready preheat the oven to 375F.

Line two rimmed sheet pans with parchment paper.

Scoop the dough into 40 smooth evenly formed balls, I used a small 1 tablespoon ice cream scoop, roll in the sesame seeds, roll again with your hands to make sure the seeds are sticking to the balls, evenly space, with a few inches between each ball- on baking sheets, they will spread a small amount.

Bake one sheet in the center of the oven for 10 minutes, or until cookies are slightly browned and puffy.

Remove from the oven and center a chocolate kiss over each warm cookies- gently but firmly press into the cookie.

Return cookies to the oven and bake for two additional minutes, remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes before removing cookies with a small metal spatula to racks to continue cooling.

Repeat with the next tray of cookies.