Home Made Black Sesame Cashew Nut Cookies

I found this cookie in my Bangkok Thailand visit last year. I was attracted to the texture & color of this cookies at the souvenir shop, so I bought some back home to try. I found that not only It looks nice also it's taste and smell good. Soon I am tempted to get the recipe for home made.

It took me some time to get this recipe, as there is many sesame cookie recipes out there in the internet but not this one...

• 200 g (1½ cup) all-purpose flour
• 30 g (¼ cup) tapioca starch (see note)
• ½ tsp salt
• 45 g (¼ cup + 1 Tbsp) toasted black sesame seeds (for white cookies, use toasted white sesame seeds or roasted cashews)
• 125 g (½ cup) butter, unsalted, softened
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil or any other neutral-flavoured oil
• 100 g (¾ cup) icing sugar
• 25 cashews, raw or roasted, split
• 1 Egg yolk for glazing

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175°C and set the rack to the middle position. 

Toast the sesame seeds in medium heat, stir, until it popping sound . Once the popping is fast and quite aggressive, let them continue to pop for another 15 seconds. To check that they’re sufficiently toasted, check the seeds black skins have split opened, if the white seed inside has browned, they are done. Grind the sesame seeds using a coffee grinder until fine ( I prefer the cookies stronger color contrast so I grind it coarse ) . Be careful not to over grind them as they will start releasing the oil and become wet and clumpy.

Whisk together flour, tapioca starch, salt and ground sesame seeds until combined.

Solften the butter and beat for a few seconds just to break it up, add  icing sugar and oil and beat until combined.

Add half the dry ingredients and beat until mostly mixed, then add the other half and beat until the mixture looks homogeneous, The dough will be crumbly, this is fine. 

Transfer to a clean work surface and squeeze it together to form a smooth dough. If the dough seems too dry and won’t form a dough, you can put it back into the mixer and add a little more oil, 1 teaspoon at a time.

Use a rolling pin to smash it out into a 1-cm thick sheet. Knead the edges to smooth out and seal the cracks. Gently roll the dough with a rolling pin to smooth out the surface. Cut out cookies with cookie cutters and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Brush tops of cookies with a beaten egg yolk. Place one half of a cashew on top, then brush the cashew with more egg yolk. 

Bake the cookies for 20-25 mins until the bottoms are light golden brown.

Then let cool before serving and store in an airtight container to keep them fresh.

Recipe source : http://hot-thai-kitchen.com