The Cookie/Cracker/Salty/Sweet Stick: Sesame Sticks

The first recipes in Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy cookbook are sticks, i.e., thin, crisp cookies that are formed as a loaf, chilled, sliced, and baked in long, slender shapes. I've made Medrich's Hazelnut Sticks and Coconut Sticks and both are exceptional. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to trying her Sesame Sticks recipe. 

You can make the recipe by hand or in a food processor; I used the food processor. I combined flour, sugar, toasted sesame seeds, almond flour, and salt; pulsed in cold, cubed butter; drizzled over cold water and vanilla; and pulsed the dough formed damp crumbs that stuck together when pressed. You're supposed to press the dough into a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan, but I made a double batch and pressed it into a 9-inch square pan. I chilled the dough overnight.
The following day, I cut the square of dough in half to get two 9-inch by 4.5-inch blocks of dough, and then sliced each block into very thin slices. I got 100 cookies from my double batch. While I tried to cut the slices to a uniform thickness, many ended up slightly uneven. As a result, they did not brown evenly, and the edges in particular were prone to getting very dark. They also did not maintain a neat rectangle shape as they baked, and came out looking somewhat rustic.
 
I loved these cookies so much. They were very crisp, light, and had extra flavorful, caramelized bottoms. The cookies bordered on being savory and seemed almost like a cross between a cracker and a cookie; the well-salted toasted sesame flavor made me think of the Asian grocery snack food aisle. I couldn't taste the almond, but I found these cookies to be absolutely addictive. It's a good thing this recipe produces so many cookies, because it's very tempting to eat them by the handful!

Recipe: "Sesame Sticks" from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich, recipe available here from King Arthur Flour.

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Raylene said…
I take this to mean you will now pick up where you left off, and will start baking your way through Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy? Chuckle. Fantastic posts as usual ... thanks for reviewing her 'stick' cookies, which are a great reminder to whip up a batch of any stick cookie by Alice Medrich :) I find it so much easier to bake treats like this, now that nut flours are readily available at my local supermarkets. Happy Baking!
Lol, I would love to bake my way through this cookbook! Unfortunately, I've been unable to bake anything for three weeks now (the latch on our range needs to be replaced and while I wait for the replacement part, I am literally locked out of the oven), so I've had to get creative with no-bake recipes! I hope the oven gets fixed soon!