Benne Wafers

I keep starting this post and deleting what I've written, because it just doesn't seem adequate. Or particularly verbal. But then I try to come up with something more...grown-up or legible, and fall short. Standards, you know? Sigh.

Do you want to see what I've deleted so far? Fine, here:

1. OMG.

2. Aaaaaah!

3. Best. Cookies. Ever.

4. Oh my goodness, you guys!

See what I mean? I think these cookies have possessed my brain or at least the parts of it that used to know how to write. But seriously, we need to talk about the cookies. Seriously. Pull up a chair!

A few weeks ago, I was sent a copy of the Gourmet Cookie Book. You know, the one that features the "single best [cookie] recipe" from 1941 to 2009, according to the editors at Gourmet (sigh). It's a funny little book, with very stark pictures of the cookies on black, white or red backgrounds, arranged almost architecturally. The most recent hyper-baroque style of Gourmet is nowhere to be found. So it's not the most sensual cookie cookbook ever designed or photographed, but it is...efficient. After all, each recipe gets a photo, which is rather nice. And the starkness of the photography means you get to really get in there and see the texture of a toasty almond or a spray of powdered sugar. Also, the editors did all the heavy lifting in culling out the very best recipes over the years, which, you know, is a big plus.

The headnotes, if you're into food history, and into Gourmet, which I am on both counts (double sigh), are lovely little reads. You go to the page about Norwegian Butter Cookies, also known as Spritz, and find out they were the favorites of a former food editor's pioneer mother. Or you turn to the Curled Wafer page and find out that there were only four cookie recipes published in Gourmet during all of 1963 - and none of them were American. Or you can go to the recipe for Scotch Oat Crunchies and read that those buttery discs sandwiching jam were cooked up during the war, when the staff at the magazine, along with housewives the nation over, I suppose, tried to come up with ways to make oatmeal palatable. Huh.

(My quibble with the book is that I wished the recipes had more consistent information about how long the cookies keep and how they should be stored. After all, most of us will be using this book around the holiday season, when shipping and storage times are crucial bits of information when planning what to include in a cookie tin.)

When I first leafed through the book, I made a list of the cookies that I wanted to make:

1. Speculaas
2. Bizcochitos
3. Glazed Pain D'Epice Cookies
4. Cottage Cheese Cookies
5. Basler Brunsli

Now this didn't seem like a very long list. After all, I was expecting to dogear half the book. That's disappointing, I thought. But that's how it goes with cookbooks sometimes. And besides, wasn't I the person saying just the other day that if you find one good recipe in a cookbook, it's worth the price of the book? So I went and made some cookies. First, the Cottage Cheese Cookies, which are tender, cakey little things with agreeably crispy edges and a fine, plain flavor. Max popped one in his mouth and commandeered the entire tray for the rest of the week. Then I made the Speculaas, which were a dream to make - the softest, most aromatic dough just needed to be rolled out into a rectangle and cut into little squares or rectangles before being topped with slivered almonds and baked. The cookies were fabulous. Buttery, crunchy, full of Christmassy flavor, just like those great little Biscoff cookies you get on airplanes, only better. (These would be great crushed into a pie crust, too, by the way.) This time, I was the one who hoarded them.

And then I started re-reading the book. I'd ignored some recipes on the first go-around, but now I couldn't them get out of my head. Like the Gianduia Brownies, which I'm thinking will be a hit at our Bavarian Christmas this year. Or the Walnut Acorn Cookies, just because they combine chopped walnuts and butter and melted chocolate to what looks like splendid effect. Or the Old-Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies, which sound like such a snooze, but upon reading the headnote ("what you end up with are cookies that are incredibly crisp and so flaky they almost seem to float away") you realize you can't really live much more than a few hours longer without trying them.

People, I am up to my eyeballs in cookies this year. It's December 2nd and I've already made six, no, seven different ones. By any normal stretch of the imagination, one look at a cookie book should have me shrinking away in horror. And yet, I can't seem to keep away. They keep sucking me in, these Fig Cookies, Jan Hagels, and, oh, the mighty Benne Wafer.

Or, lo! The Mighty Benne Wafer!

So, now we're back where we started, with me apparently struck dumb or incapable of putting into lyrical type just how good these cookies are.

SO. GOOD. Is that better? I'm sorry.

Let me tell you a little bit about them, maybe that will help. First of all, you need hardly anything to make them. An egg, a pat of butter, two spoons of flour - do you see where this is going? If you're the kind of person who stocks sesame seeds in her house, you can make these cookies...whenever you want! (Every day, you'll want to do them every day, believe me.) You cream some brown sugar and that little nugget of butter together, though creaming is not exactly what happens, since there's so little butter to the amount of sugar. Beat until they're combined and no longer lumpy and the sugar is fluffy and a little lighter than before. Then beat in the egg, some vanilla, the flour and half a cup of sesame seeds. And a little pinch of salt! That is it. What you're left with is what looks like the measliest amount of cookie batter ever. It should be loose and a little drippy, but only barely.

You drop little rounds of the khaki-colored stuff onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and then, using a knife that you repeatedly dip in ice water, flatten them out a bit. Don't do what I did on the first round and make the dough drops too close - you'll end up with large rectangular Benne Wafers. These go into the oven for six minutes. Six! That's it. Any more and you'll have charred edges, any less and they'll still be a bit too chewy. I like to pull the parchment paper off the sheet pan directly onto the cooling rack. If you have just a little bit of patience, then, you'll be able to gently tug the cookies right off the paper. They set up into these caramelly, crispy wonders - pop one in your mouth and you'll wonder how you ever lived all these years without eating a single Benne Wafer before.

I was planning on including these in my cookie boxes for friends, but after I brought Max one to try and we stood there looking at each other, chewing dumbly in stupefaction, he begged me not to let them leave the house. "But, but, think of the Christmas spirit!" I protested weakly.

I think I'm making another batch.

In the end, did I actually manage to tell you just how insanely good these cookies are? They are delicate and taste like caramel. They have this alluring crunch both from their crispy edges and the toasted sesame seeds. You can make them when you have barely anything in the house. And you could eat, I don't know, ten of them in mere seconds. (Even though there are currently fresh drifts of ankle-deep snow on my balcony, right at this very moment, I keep having visions of them stuck into a scoop of ice cream at a summer dinner party, too.) They are so good they've sort of instantly become my favorite cookie. Superlatives can be so annoying, I know. But I just can't help it. The might Benne Wafer is here to stay!

Benne Wafers
Makes about 4 dozen
Note: Some people reported having issues with the texture of their cookies; please remember that the butter you use must not be warm or room temperature, but cool to the touch and still quite firm before you begin to cream it with the sugar. Here's an article on butter in baking for your reading pleasure.)

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cool but not cold
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sesame seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and well-combined. Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the flour, salt, vanilla extract and sesame seeds. Mix until all the ingredients are combined.

3. Drop small spoons of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Flatten the wafers with a knife dipped in ice water.

4. Bake for 6 minutes. The cookies should be a golden brown with deeper golden edges. Pull the parchment paper off the sheet pan onto a cooling rack. After about 5 to 8  minutes, gently pull the cooled cookies off the parchment. Reuse the parchment for the next batch.

5. Cool completely and store in a tin for up to 2 weeks.

Comments

[hande]

i also had form-issues with these. the taste is lovely, but both parchment and silicon mat were reluctant to release the wafers and when they did come off, they were really soft and never hardened up. followed the recipe to the t. my dough looked softer than yours, too, no need to flatten with knife, think that was a problem. next time you make these, maybe you can weigh and tell us the metrics? i converted using online tools (no spoons & cups here), afraid not accurate.

[Katie@Cozydelicious]

OK, your enthusiasm convinced me! I am having a holiday cookie baking party next week and these are totally going on the list!

[Julia of Randomly Yours, Julia]

I do, I DO keep sesame seeds in my cupboard! I will try these soon!

[Luisa]

Hande - I'll try to do that next time, but it is really strange to me that so many had issues with the texture, since the recipe is so straightforward - not sure that exact metric amounts is going to make a difference. I have a feeling it's possibly more an ingredient issue or perhaps people aren't creaming the sugar and butter together long enough. I'm wondering: did you use American brown sugar, the kind that's moist and clumpy?

[Mairi @ Toast]

So going to try these ones, they look and sound amazing and so simple! Thank you :)

[Sally]

Oh dear me Luisa, I just can't stop thinking about those Speculaas cookies. I can almost smell them just by looking at your lovely picture (and imagine the nutty crunch of the almonds too). I've googled and googled and googled and can't seem to find the recipe from the Gourmet Cookbook anywhere (and don't trust any of the other recipes I've found so far - you are one of the few bloggers whose recipes I know will always be the best). Can you please, pretty please with sugar on top post the recipe?

I'm in Australia and don't think I can get the book here and even if I could it would be a conversion nightmare like so many US cookbooks unfortunately.
BTW loving all of your recent posts. Almost makes me wish I was somewhere cold where I could justify lots of baking.

[dervla]

thanks L, now i know exactly what to make for everyone this year. But they probably won't leave my kitchen :-)

[linda]

I made these and they are delicious. Do they come out of the oven in very irregular shapes? No matter what perfect circles I had as they went in the oven, they cooked into very odd shapes.

[Tracy]

My oven is not cooperating this holiday season. It figures. So many things I want to bake. Benne Wafers made the list...

[Caitlin @ Amuse-Bouche]

Oh my these sound wonderful! Thank you for sharing!

[Jessica]

Ah! I used to be obsessed with these! I have to make these!

[Liz]

Just made these and I have to say they are fantastic, the easiest bake I have ever done, the only problem now is trying to stop eating them all..Im already onto my sixth! Many thanks Louisa for the great recipe suggestion, definitely a keeper.

[Anadrol]

Love your way of writing and the pictures look delicious. I am definitely trying this recipe.

[Jess]

Hi, Luisa. I have also fallen under the spell of the sesame cookie of late. I've been baking Alice Medrich's version, which is inspired by halvah, and uses sesame seed paste in the dough. As Molly mentioned, above (I had the pleasure of visiting with her over the Thanksgiving holiday in my parents' hometown), they really are tops. And now yet another excuse to dig in to my sesame seed stash! Thank you. I can't wait to try these. xo.

[Hungry Girl]

Even I, who rarely bakes, might make those cookies. Your prose is inspirational.

[Luisa]

Linda - no, mine weren't perfect either, as you can tell - they got a little ovoid. Is that what you mean by very weird? I don't know how Gourmet got such perfect o's.

Liz - glad you liked them!!

Jess - so, I'm not the biggest tahini or halva fan. I think it's partially a textural thing and partially the taste - though I love plain sesame seeds. Is that weird or what? x

Hungry Girl - thank you! That is lovely to hear. I hope you like them.

[Jess]

Nope, not weird at all. Eli feels the exact same way: yes to seeds, no to paste. It's definitely a texture thing, for him.

[kathleen]

Yum, Louisa! I made these this weekend - the batches I cooked long enough (dark brown all the way through) were delicious and toasty. My first batches were slightly undercooked (dark brown on the edges but not in the center) and the cookies were quite sticky. It took a little bit longer than 6 minutes for them to brown enough in my oven (more like 7-8) but they got there. :) Also, Reformhaüser might have molasses, I found it at Basic most recently.

[Kathryn]

Kathryn again - @hande, my dough was runny too! i had very very soft butter and used regular american brown sugar. that mixture never really creamed. there was way too much sugar and way too little butter. i added the eggs and sesame seeds and flour and it seemed to come together, but like you, i had no need for flattening. but then, totally stuck to parchment and spread to a huge gooey mess. maybe less soft butter? lower oven temp? a little more flour? i love cookies like these and am determined! :)

[Beth]

For the first time ever, I made a recipe on you blog on the very same day I read it. Actually I made TWO batches on that same day :) OMG they were AWESOME! Shape, schmpae! Who cares if the the first batch spread out in some areas and we ended up cutting part of the pan into chewy-crispy strips? They were almost-orgazmically fantastic. We got the hang of it in the second batch, and they came out almost perfectly round. It's a keeper, without doubt. Tonight...ROUND THREE!

[Clara]

Oh my! Running to pre-heat the oven now...

[Luisa]

Kathryn - ok, well, using very soft butter is your culprit, right there. You've got to use, as in all cookie recipes, butter that is still firm to the touch - still cool, so to speak. Not fridge cold, but cool. If the butter is too soft, the creaming process simply liquefies it and then, of course, your cookies will spread and not hold their shape. The ratio of butter to sugar in this recipe is just right - these are meant to be almost little caramel confections. Here's a great article on this subject: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/dining/17bake.html?pagewanted=all

Beth - wow! That's the spirit! :)

[Hande]

Luisa and Kathryn, too: I did have coldish butter and American brown sugar. I googled and found a version of the Gourmet recipe that contains more flour, and many that include baking soda (???). Am still thinking the conversions I made might not be right. Will definitely try again, maybe with a tiny bit more flour and colder butter. These were so yummy, I need to succeed! (if I am to serve them to anyone other than hubby & me - we ate it all no matter what happened to them!)

[Kristi]

I made some cookies for an office party yesterday, and they were a HUGE success. They satisfy both the cookie eaters and the candy eaters. I will definitely toast the seasame seeds next time, just to see what happens, but it's nice to have a new go-to cookie recipe. Thanks for passing this along.

[Kathryn]

Thank you Luisa for the coldish butter tip! I knew the amounts were correct, but I could not figure out why it wasn't creaming. I'm so going to try these again...Kathryn

[Kathryn]

wow Luisa, sorry to post again, but that is a **Great Article** on butter - I had no idea! THANK YOU.

[Joanne]

I've seen this book around, but thought there was no better than Rose Levy Beranbaum's Christmas Cookie book, so I was going to pass it by. Read this piece and was convinced to give it a go. Spent about 2 hours last night reading and re-reading it.

Thank you for the compelling recommendation. I look forward to trying many of these to share with my family and co-workers.

[Beth]

Oops...forgot to add that we beat the butter by hand...but it really worked anyway! Not sure why, but it did.

[Angela]

So unlike some other recipes for baked goods, when Luisa says parchment paper here it absolutely means USE PARCHMENT PAPER (or silpats)! I thought I was saving time by using all of my cookie sheets at once but I only have 2 silpats, so I thought I could do one batch on my non-stick gold sheets. Wrong! ...though the shards I could get off were delicious. The ones on the silpats worked wonderfully.

[Joanne]

Ok - I'm going to fly in the face of the advice given above: I made these before reading the comments and used butter that was really warm and squishy and they turned out great. It was not so warm as to dissolve the sugar, but was warm enough that it looked glossy and droopy.

Also, mine were really pretty and circular when I baked them on silpats but I tried one batch on parchment and they were all funky shapes.

And lastly, my oven also took 7-8 minutes. I baked the first batch for 6 and they were really sticky. I was going to toss them and thought I'd just pop them back in the oven and see what happened. They came out perfect about 4-5 minutes later! :) You can't tell them from the cookies baked fully in one go.

Had lots of fun playing around with these. Thanks for recommending!

[Bea]

I would love to try and make these. Could you please tell me how much is 1 and 1/2 tablespoons in grams? I have a feeling it is a small but crucial amount!

[Luisa]

Bea - according to the internet, 1.5 tablespoons of butter weigh 21.26 grams.

[Chef Ricky]

Very yummy. These cookies were wonderful. Thank you for sharing them with us.

[tasteofbeirut]

love sesame seeds and these cookies are a classic!

[Ziu]

Well, it turns out I am a kind of person who holds a cup of sesame seeds in the kitchen :)) These wafers are AMAZING! So simple yet delicious! A keeper - to say the least!!!

[Kate]

I put a plate of these out at work the other day. I came back a few hours later, expecting to take some home, but alas they were so crispy and wonderful that the plate was completely empty. Thank you for the recipe!

[Brittney]

luisa, i made the benne wafers and i can't thank you enough for sharing this recipe... my first batch didn't work out -- i recommend that readers grease the parchment paper and use very, very tiny spoonfulls... once i did that, they were a breeze and amazingly delicious! happy holidays and thank you for writing such an amazing blog!

brittney from www.hushnwonder.com

[Kristin]

Hi Luisa! As you may know, I'm not usually a baker, but your talk about making all the cookies for the holidays got me in the mood. So I made these last night and loved them! Not sure if I should admit this....but as of now (24 hours later) I only have 2 left. I know. So good, though. Thank you :-)

[Marsha Calhoun]

Tried to respond earlier - Typepad wouldn't let me. Sorry.

[Salena]

I had great luck with these! I'd never had them, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Maybe that is part of the problem people had? I was expecting cookies but they came out more like... wafers. :)

I had the best luck with them when I dropped seemingly tiny amounts onto a silpat and sort of rubbed them with my finger into a round shape about the size of a silver dollar. When I did that, mine stayed round. Mine took only 5.5 minutes but our oven runs hot. I only had issues with sticking when I tried to take them off before they were cool, or when I made them too big.

[Rhiannon]

making these now. first small experimental batch disappearing fast. yes, would be great with ice cream. followed recipe exactly. carefully broke up chunks of sugar before measuring and packed moderately loosely, probably erred on the side of packed rather than loose ... they are yummy!

[Katy]

mine turned into benne pancakes, even when the balls were really small and spaced out. i wonder if i got the butter temp wrong?

[rebecca]

wow these look so simple to make and amazing love your blog and style of writing

[Anopencookbook.blogspot.com]

These look sooo good..especially the sesame component!

[Robin]

These were good and so easy! I have had bad luck in the past with this kind of thing sticking irredeemably, but I baked mine on buttered parchment and had no trouble. I was especially excited to be able to share these with my nut-allergic husband, since he has to miss out on all the nice nutty desserts out there (which is my only complaint about the Gourmet Cookie Book, by the way...very nut-heavy, although I am thinking of making a batch of Speculoos w/o nuts). Thanks, Luisa!

[Trina Hilton]

Could this work with roasted flax seeds? Gonna try it and let you know.

[Katy]

success!! it was a disaster last night, but after learning that
1. parchment paper is different than wax paper
2. "cool" butter seems to equal around 1 hr out of the fridge
3. don't over-mix the ingredients
i now have perfect little benne wafers!
yay!

[Tammy]

ok I cant stand it this sounds too good and easy. I am out of regular sesame seeds right now I just discovered all I have is the black, but I see where someone said they worked with walnuts and I happen to have some extra chopped up walnuts from where I was making baklava. So I have the butter out of the fridge and the oven heating up and I cant wait to try this!!

[Faythe]

The cookies look absolutely fabulous. And, I have a ton of sesame seeds in my kitchen. I'm always hunting for new ways to use them up. Thanks for posting.

[Eileen]

Dear Luisa,
Love your blog. And these cookies. Each batch came out a bit differently depending on how conscientious I was about size (most were too big), shape (most were ghostly looking) but the taste was great, especially when I got the timing right. If they weren't all the same size on the pan, it made it difficult. Baking it long enough was the key to having crisp rather than chewy cookies, which were still delicious.
Now, would you mind if I posted a link to this page along with the recipe on my recipe blog?
Thanks,
Eileen