black sesame & kinako cookies

The first (and only) time I had warabi mochi, it was still warm. Small scoops on a plate, still jelly-like and delicate, covered with a generous pile of kinako. The kinako was powdery, lightly sweet and wonderfully toasty.

Two things to take away: first, there is a world beyond what I know of mochi, and second, it can be important and eyeopening to eat mochi freshly made, and let’s add a last one: kinako.

Roasted soybean flour, a bit peanut buttery but better (but I am biased because I don’t really like peanut butter that much). And just how often are interesting ingredients in powdered form? It’s so liberating! There are so many possibilities which don’t require messy steps like infusing your milk or butter or making doubtful substitutions and loose purees which make your batters go strange and bake up oddly. It’s not overly acidic or overly sweet either. The last time something this great happened was cocoa powder…

Here is one application of kinako, which I think is very tasty. These cookies are based off of whatever you like to call them: Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes, I used to call them snowball cookies (though now they’re more like dustball cookies). They are usually tender and coated in powdered sugar which condenses into a sweet coating around the cookie.

In this variation, the nuts have become toasted black sesame and chopped walnut and I’ve used kinako for the coating, a manner which is remniscent of the way kinako is often used in dessert – heavily dusted overtop of warabi mochi or dango and rolled around yomogi mochi. The kinako helps keep the sweetness down of a cookie rolled in sugar, and it is all toasty on toasty on toasty. (They are also dry, but in a good way (?) if that makes sense.)

black sesame and kinako cookies

• Servings: 15-24 cookies, depending on size
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I think they taste very good! Adapted from Epicurious. The cookies imaged are made larger (about 20g each) which is my preference for a nice mouthful! But instructions are included for smaller cookies as well.

• 110g butter at room temperature
• 24g powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 72g all-purpose flour
• 65g whole wheat flour
• 13g finely ground toasted black sesame
• 30 g finely chopped walnuts (OR: one could use a total of 25 g ground black sesame in place of the walnuts, but I think it makes the cookies a bit drier)
• to roll: an extra 30g each powdered sugar and kinako

Cream the butter with the 24g of powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Add the flours and ground black sesame, mix until just combined. Lastly, mix in the chopped walnuts. Cover the dough and chill completely, a couple hours or so.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400F. Take a walnut- to hazelnut-sized pieces of dough and roll into small spheres–you can make around 24 smaller cookies (12-13g each), or 15 tbsp-sized ones (20g each). Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake 8-15 minutes or until just about firm to the touch. The baking time will vary depending on the size – the larger 20g cookies can take up to 15 minutes in my oven, the smaller 12-13g cookies can take 8-10 minutes.

Sift together the 30g each of kinako and powdered sugar in a shallow dish to coat the cookies. Let cookies cool couple minutes before rolling until coated in the kinako-powdered sugar mixture. Place on a wire rack, let cool completely and roll in the coating once more.

Note: to expedite the chilling process, you can roll the dough into balls right away, place on a tray and chill while the oven preheats. (This just requires enough fridge room to fit a tray, or a balcony and cold weather…

Last updated February 2023.

The original version of this cookie started off very dry – something to do with the ground black sesame, I think. It has since been remedied, but here are old recipe notes to that effect….

Edited: Nov 2017 – Having repeated these cookies again, this time with part sesame and part ground almond, I think the key is indeed not overbaking. Unfortunately, I seem to almost always err on overbaking, so it’s been a bit challenging for me to suppress the urge to bake just a couple more minutes. The smaller the cookies are the more likely it is! This time I made 16 cookies, each around 1 tbsp in volume and baked them for around 14 minutes. You can tell by the firmness–check once you noticed the cookies have become dull (i.e. no longer the sheen of melting butter), give them a little prod. At first they’ll be soft and give away, but then eventually they’ll get just firm, but you can tell they’re still a bit soft underneath.

Edited: Dec 2017 – Having repeated these cookies yet again, this time with part chopped walnuts and part ground black sesame, I do really like the addition of the walnuts. They’re a soft and oily nut which helps keep the cookies from being too dry, and they’re quite subtle but nice with the sesame. And yes, don’t overbake!

Edited: April 2018 – I officially love these cookies more and more every time I make them. Same advice as before–be careful not to overbake, and go with the walnut/black sesame option. They will always have a bit of a dry feel due to the kinako, but the cookie will be buttery and the excess of savoury-roasted flavours will justify all of it.