Open your eyes to taste of sesame
Seed straddles line between savory and sweet
Few ingredients cross as many international boundaries as the sesame seed — the ambassador of seeds, if you will. Classic but trending (Trader Joe’s currently offers at least 20 sesame items from salad toppers to coconut sesame clusters), sesame oils, pastes and spice blends crowd the shelves of international grocery store aisles, and chefs and home cooks are cooking with them in exciting new and traditional ways.
Sesame seeds originated in Egypt or Persia — the sesame bush with its mini banana-shaped seed pods grows wild in tropical and subtropical regions and is now cultivated globally.
The seeds made their way across continents as ancient and modern civilizations learned to cook deliciously with them, originally as a tasty, clean source of cooking oil. In the Middle East and Mediterranean, bakers coat breads with the seeds, adding protein and crunch to the predecessors of our “every-
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl; add to the butter mixture carefully, mixing until just combined. Gently mix in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate the dough, 6-8 hours or overnight. (If you have room, you can shape the cookies and refrigerate them on a baking sheet overnight instead.)
Nutrition information per cookie: 128 calories, 7 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 17 mg cholesterol, 16 g carbohydrates, 11 g sugar, 2 g protein, 87 mg sodium, 1 g fiber