Black Sesame Biscuits (Langues de Chat)

These biscuits were inspired by some I bought at the Japan Centre last year: little brown, crisp, buttery biscuits with bits of adzuki bean. They were ridiculously moreish and I scoffed the lot at my work desk in under an hour. I had to recreate them and after a bit of investigation discovered that they were just smaller, slightly overbaked langues de chat (cat’s tongues). This and finding toasted black sesame seeds at the Japan Centre led to a modification of that biscuit.

Inspired by this post, I made spoon shapes to give away for Christmas – they’re much cuter than the original shape and would also be adorable presented with a scoop of ice cream. For myself, I made little one-bite dots that disappeared alarmingly quickly…

Oh, and they’re perfect with a cup of tea!

Black Sesame Langues de Chat
adapted from Bouchon Bakery’s recipe.
makes about 48 traditionally shaped ones.

4 tbsps/60g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed icing sugar (85g)
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup/75g flour
black sesame seeds

Cream the butter, sugar and salt together until well combined and very creamy and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract and the egg whites, adding them one at a time and combining well after each addition. Fold in the flour until well combined. Stick the mixture into the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 180C.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone line. Fill a piping bag with a 1/4 inch tip or a plastic bag (snip the corner after filling) with the batter and use to pipe lines (for a traditional shape) or blobs (for circles) or lines with a large blob at the end (for spoons) on the baking sheet. (See the photos.) Leave at least 3cm between the biscuits as they’ll spread a lot. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds. Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until the edges are just tinged brown; don’t be afraid to let those edges brown – if not, they insides may still be a bit chewy. Halfway through baking, turn the baking sheet around – I found that this helped with even baking in my oven. If you’re using two baking sheets at the same time, switch and turn the sheets around halfway through baking.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. I doubt they’ll last that long!