In my first cookbook, my pan-banging chocolate chip cookie recipe had a variation that included toasted sesame oil. The scent of toasted sesame oil gives me the same delicious feeling as the smell of brownies right from the oven, so pairing it with chocolate in cookie form seemed like the next logical step. The nutty oil is sweetened by the sugar in the cookie, and tastes amazing with shards of chocolate. I roll the dough in sesame seeds for a bit of crunch, and even more flavor.
For even more toasty nuttiness and textural contrast, I added white and black sesame seeds to the outside of the dough.
These cookies ended up in the pan-banging chapter of 100 Cookies, and have had rave reviews.
What are pan-banging cookies?
Bakers tapping their cookie pans in the oven isn’t new, of course, but my pan-banging technique is unique in that the pan is tapped in the oven every few minutes, creating ripples on the edge of the cookie. This creates two textures in the cookie: a crisp outer edge, and a soft, gooey center. I use this technique for sugar cookies and ginger molasses cookies, too.
What flour is best for making pan-banging cookies?
To reproduce the ripples and wrinkles that are identical to my cookies, I find that Gold Medal Unbleached All-Purpose Flour works best and is the most consistent. It seems that high-protein flour won’t allow for as much spreading and wrinkling.
Why I use aluminum foil to line the pan
I find that aluminum foil helps the cookies spread a bit more and creates a slightly crisper bottom. But parchment paper will work well, too.
Can I refrigerate the pan-banging cookie dough?
Cookie dough can be refrigerated overnight before using. Shape the dough into balls and cover with plastic wrap before chilling, and then bring it to room temperature before baking (when the cookies are chilled solid, they won’t ripple as well). Cookies that spend a night in the fridge will also have a more developed flavor, but also have a bumpier finish.
More Pan-banging Cookie Recipes:
- Pan-banging Sugar Cookies
- Pan-banging Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Pan-banging Molasses Espresso Cookies with Chocolate
Sesame Chocolate Chip Pan-Banging Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups (250) grams all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks or 170 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 ounces 85 grams bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped into bite-size pieces (averaging 1/2-inch with some smaller and some larger, optional)
- Black and white sesame seeds for rolling
Equipment
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven. Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line three sheet pans with aluminum foil, dull-side up.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, toasted sesame oil, water, and vanilla, and mix on low speed to combine. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Add the chocolate and mix until combined.
- Form the dough into 3-ounce (85-gram) balls (1/4 cup). Roll in the sesame seeds, and place 4 cookies an equal distance apart on each sheet pan. Bake the cookies one pan at a time. Bake until the dough balls have spread flat but are puffed slightly in the center, 9 minutes. Lift one side of the sheet pan up about 4 inches (10 centimeters) and gently let it drop down against the oven rack, so the edges of the cookies set and the center falls back down. After the cookies puff up again in 2 minutes, repeat lifting and dropping the pan. Repeat a few more times to create ridges around the edge of the cookie. Bake for 15 to 16 minutes total, until the cookies have spread out and the edges are golden brown but the centers are much lighter and not fully cooked.
- Transfer the pan to a wire rack. Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days (or refrigerate for up to 3 days).
21 Comments
Marte
Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 6:19 pmAbsolutely delicious and fun to create. Have made several times, but this is the first time I’ve used two colors of sesame seeds. Doesn’t change the taste, but elevates the presentation. The sesame oil takes this over the top.
Jessica
Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 12:12 pmMade these the other day but was nervous about 2 tablespoons of toasted sesame so I only did one. My coworkers loved them! They actually looked pretty close to the picture too, will definitely make again!
Ellen
Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 7:10 amHi Sarah! This is, as I have commented before, my favorite of all my favorites of your recipes. Thought you would be interested in this tidbit: I subscribe to Delicious Magazine, published in England. The January 2024 Issue features “Pan-Bang Cookies”. Although some of the techniques vary, it is all clearly, unmistakably inspired by you. I was surprised to see no reference to you at all in what I consider to be a very classy and inspiring publication. But it is really cool to see your influence in baking “across the pond”. If you have not yet seen it, here is the link:
https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/collections/cookie-recipes/
Esther
Thursday, December 28, 2023 at 5:14 pmI made these with mini chocolate chips. These were delicious! I love the crispy edges and chewy, soft center. Thank you for the recipe.
Sara
Thursday, December 21, 2023 at 12:32 pmI’ve already made these cookies twice and I AM OBSESSED!! I added a tablespoon of tahini (and a bit less of the sesame oil) along with chopped dark chocolate – the flavor combination is just otherworldly. I would like to bake some for the upcoming holidays and I wanted to know if I can prepare it ahead of time and freeze the dough? Thank you so much!!
Cheers
Sarah Kieffer
Saturday, December 23, 2023 at 9:04 amYes, you can freeze the dough balls!
Mary
Friday, November 10, 2023 at 7:27 amI had a lot of fun going to our local Asia Mall in MN to find the black sesame seeds so I could try making these cookies. It was also my first time trying your pan-banging method. Where I stumbled was I didn’t measure my cookie dough balls so the cookies all baked and banged together (at least the first pan did!) What a fun flavor profile, though, and it got my Midwestern cookie testers to say “now that’s different” when they tried this spin on a chocolate chip cookie! I think in this case “different” meant good but they’ll need a few more cookies to get to saying they are “really good”! Thanks for sharing your recipes and methods!
Sarah Kieffer
Friday, November 10, 2023 at 8:29 amThanks for trying the cookies, Mary!
Katie
Friday, July 14, 2023 at 2:21 pmI can’t get over these! What a great spin on this cookie. It’s like a chocolate chip cookie and halva or sesamiyeh had a baby in heaven. The sesame flavor is STRONG, like smack you over the head strong – LOVE! My Arab family demolished these and did not even leave crumbs in the container, it really looked like a tractor beam took the cookies away. Some of my friends were a bit lukewarm due to the unfamiliar flavor. If you want to slowly introduce sesame to newbies, to cut down on the intensity, I have had good results with half the amount of sesame oil and skipping the seeds. I of course prefer to swim in a sea of sesame 🙂 Great work Sarah!
Sarah Kieffer
Saturday, July 15, 2023 at 8:33 amSo glad you enjoyed them!
Ari
Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 4:54 pmCan I freeze dough if I want to make only a few cookies at a time? If so, so I roll the dough balls in sesame before freezing? Should I let the frozen balls come to room temp before baking or just simply bake from frozen but for longer time? Thanks!
Elaine St Louis
Monday, April 17, 2023 at 6:54 pmI bake a LOT. All things sweet. (using Swerve as a substitute) Pies, cakes, cookies, galettes, clafoutis, tarts, choux, ALL the things. My hubs has decided after one go-’round that these are his all-time fave. Making my second batch today. I use Guittard extra dark chips, as I like the size and flatness of them. Plus, no pesky chopping. THANK YOU for developing this recipe. ??
Sarah Kieffer
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 7:01 amI’m so glad you like them!
El
Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at 9:45 pmHi Sarah! I received your 100 Cookies book as a surprise gift, and am working my way through it with delight.
This was the first of your pan-banging recipes I tried (the very first was the chocolate sugar cookies, and with the cardamom sugar variation you listed, they are so many things I wanted, all at once). I live in a very humid part of the country, though, and had to do some troubleshooting with this recipe — at first, even with butter that was “room temperature for baking” (translation: still cooler than actual room temperature here much of the year) they spread so much that they had multiple holes and were too thin to properly have center softness. Refrigerating the dough didn’t help, but what did (I’m stubborn, and wanted this recipe to work for me) was adding about 1/4 cup of flour.
I thought it might be worth mentioning all this here in case other people, like me, live somewhere humid and need a little help. I just finished eating my first modified cookie; the crispy toasted-sesame edges are scrumptious, and the cookies have soft, chocolate-rich centers.
Ellen
Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 1:00 pmThese are my very favorite cookies in the book (possibly my favorite cookies ever, right next to The Cinnamon Roll Blondies). The black sesame seeds really dress them up. I do eliminate the chopped chocolate and make my cookies a bit smaller. Dough balls weighing 45 grams works for me. As said above the ripples are not quite the same. but either way the taste, look and texture of these cookies is unlike any other cookie you will ever make. Thanks so much Sarah for this and so many more of your amazing recipes!
Ameera
Friday, May 6, 2022 at 1:18 pmHaven’t made cookies like these before! Love them. The texture and taste are both phenomenal.
Sarah Kieffer
Friday, May 6, 2022 at 4:26 pmglad you liked them!
Sabrina
Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 10:52 amgreat idea for a chocolate chip cookie, love the sesame oil if just to cut the sweetness of the rest of the ingredients, like the texture too, thank you!
Chelsea
Monday, March 28, 2022 at 3:32 pmWould these work with gluten-free flour?
Patty
Sunday, March 27, 2022 at 11:09 pmCan I make the cookies smaller for a greater yield? Other than a lesser baking time would other adjustments need to be made?
This combination of flavors and texture looks so appealing.
Patty
Sarah Kieffer
Monday, March 28, 2022 at 8:42 amTo get the same wrinkled, ripply texture, you’ll want to make them the size written in the recipe.