Lemon Sesame Twists

 

I made these little cookies for D&D last week.  McDM seemed impressed, so I count them a success.  Tired of the same old butter-sugar-flower cookies I make at work, I picked these because of the honey and tahini in the recipe.  They are not particularly sweet, and they have a slightly dry and crumbly texture, but that makes them even better for dunking!  

Adapted from Sweetness and Light by Kip Wilcox and Lisa Cowden

• Preheat your oven to 350ºF. 
• In a big old bowl mix together 1/2 c. tahini, 1/4 c. honey, 1/4 c. oil (I used olive, cuz that's how I roll).
• Mix in 2 large eggs, 1 tsp lemon extract, and the finely chopped zest of one lemon.
• Stir in 1 c. sesame seeds.  The ones I found at Giant Beagle came in a 3.7 oz jar, which ended up being just slightly less than a cup. 
• Stift in 5 Tbsp confectioners' sugar, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt. Stir it up!  If you don't use a sieve you might get some lumps of confectioners' sugar or baking soda, and then your life is forfeit - or your cookies will have little lumps in them, whatevs. They're made of seeds anyway, right?
• Finally, sift in 1 3/4 c. flour.  Might be you'll need more or less, that's how these things go.  If it gets real difficult to stir there towards the end of incorporating that flour you'll want to knead it in with your hands.  Which is kind of cool, because it should feel almost like Play Doh. If you don't want to touch the dough with your hands, quit reading right now and never come back here again.  Not really, but you better find somebody who isn't averse to touching the dough because these bad boys are shaped cookies and every single one of them will have to be touched. With your hands. At least twice.
• Pinch off about a teaspoon of dough and roll it into a snake about 6 inches long.  Curve it into a U shape and then twist it up.  (see photo above) OR you could wind it into a spiral, that might be cute.  These would also probably come out just fine if you rolled them into teaspoon sized balls, then flattened them into discs.  Mess around with the shapes if you want, that's what I did. They seemed to come out better smaller rather than larger. 
• Put your cookies on a Silpat or parchment lined baking sheet.  I always use a silicon liner, but If I were doing these on parchment I would give the paper a little spray with oil just to be on the safe side.  These cookies don't expand too awful much, so you can place them a half an inch apart.  Bake for NINE minutes, or till lightly browned.  Bigger cookies might take longer.
• Cool slightly on a wire rack while you make the glaze.
• Find that lemon you zested earlier.  Roll it back and forth on the counter with the palm of your hand, pressing gently.  Like giving that poor naked lemon a massage!  And then cut it open and squeeze all it's lovely juice out into a bowl.  You are BAD!  Now stir in enough confectioners' sugar (a tablespoon or two at a time) till you have a nice glaze.  Brush it over your lovely cookies with a pastry brush.  If you don't have one you could use a paintbrush that is really really clean,  which might work out ok for you if your kids are still so little that they use all non-toxic paints.  Or go buy a pastry brush, because they are so useful and you really ought to have at least one.