BAH HUMBUG BLACK SESAME BUTTER SABLES

bah humbug black sesame butter triangles

You know what? I'm getting to think this Vanilla Butter Cookie is so flexible that I can do whatever the heck I want with it. Today, I looked at the recipe for Greenspan's Anise/Vanilla Cookies and thought, "I don't wanna wait 24 hours for you to rest!"

Bah Humbug!

So, I decided instead to replace the cookie with the much easier, streamlined, never-fail, buttery delicious, tender-crumbed Vanilla Butter Cookie recipe I like so much...but with another variation. I'm gonna add Black Sesame seeds! Yup. You heard it right here: a nasty looking grey sable cookie; black-flecked with toasted ground sesame seeds that'll look like bits of soot from the chimney!

it's not so hard making this unique triangular cookie shape

When baking for giving, I always double the recipe and use the full 1 pound brick of butter. I mean, let's not kid ourselves. I might as well double the recipe and use the full pound instead of going back into the fridge again to make the recipe again when I realize I've munched on too many of the cookies so that I don't have enough to give away.

Here's my new recipe--invented on the fly--because I'm too lazy to make a different recipe. You know how they say "necessity is the mother of invention"? Well in my case, my philosophy is "laziness is the mother of invention".

Cakebrain's Bah-Humbug Black Sesame Butter Sables

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/4 cup toasted black sesame seeds

¾ teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon pure toasted sesame seed oil

½ cup fine sanding sugar

*cakebrain's N.B.: ensure when baking these cookies that they become a true golden brown...otherwise they won't taste so sweet, crunchy and fragrant. I sometimes even try to push the time past 20 minutes to get it as brown as I can without burning them! They're so much more flavourful this way!

1. Put the black sesame seeds into a food processor with half of the granulated sugar. Pulse until the sesame seeds are cracked up but not altogether too powdery.
2. Put butter, the sesame/sugar mixture and the rest of the granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg, sesame seed oil and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt and mix until combined.
3. Halve dough; shape each half into a log. (I shape mine in trianglular "logs" using a bench scraper to help form it). Place each log on a 12-by-16 inch sheet of parchment. Roll in parchment to 1 ½ inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Transfer to paper towel tubes to hold shape, and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Brush each log with egg white; roll in sanding sugar. Cut into ½-inch thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

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