This is a dish I enjoy preparing for guests because it can be prepared in advance up until the final baking stage. The orange flavor is milder than you may imagine, and it has a beautiful and stunning appearance. When accompanied by a leafy salad, brown rice, and asparagus, this is a wonderful, classy, and healthful lunch.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 17 mins |
| Total Time: | 32 mins |
| Servings: | 60 |
| Yield: | 5 dozen cookies |
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons anise extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk, or as needed
- 1 cup sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and anise extract until well blended. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well incorporated. If you are using a stand mixer, let the dough mix for another minute to add lightness to the dough. The dough will be soft, but will hand roll easily.
- Pinch off pieces of dough slightly smaller than a walnut, and roll them into small logs. Dip in milk, then roll in sesame seeds. Place cookies one inch apart on a cookie sheet. Cookies will not spread very much.
- Bake for 17 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until bottom and sides of cookies are lightly toasted. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 72 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 7 g |
| Cholesterol | 11 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 31 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 4 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These cookies are the best I’ve tasted. I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup plus I rolled and cut the dough into small logs instead of rolling them one piece at a time. I also added a little more of the anise extract because I love the flavor. They came out perfect better than store bought. Will make this again and again. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
Recipe was spot on. Didn’t have to do anything. Now my wife says I have to make for all occasions now!! They taste great right out of the oven!! Thanks!
Very good. I do like these cookies slightly more toasted, but delicious! Thank you!!!!
Delicious…just like nonna used to make! Made exactly as the recipe is written
Love these cookies! Will probably be on all my Christmas cookie trays. I followed the recipe as written, but lightly toasted the sesame seeds first and skipped milk. Baked for 21 minutes on parchment. Fabulous, tender cookies!
These are good cookies. I used my smallest cookie scoop and broke the dough in half to make perfect sized logs. Portion and roll the dough before dipping, it will save you a world of mess. The seeds adhere nicely after baking. I substituted 1/4 teaspoon anise oil for the two teaspoons of anise extract. A very nice cookie.
Loved these! They have a real light delicate flavor and so easy to make. I might play with the flavoring next time but then again I might just stay with this exactly as written. Will be hard to improve
Great recipe! I toasted my sesame seeds first, because not toasting looks a little like maggots. I didn’t need to dip in milk, I just rolled the dough through and they were fine.
excellent ! no different than the ones from the Italian bakery
Yummy
This will definitely be my go to recipe for Sesame Seed Cookies!
best ever!
Omg!! They are so delicious.thank you for this recipe.
Taste wonderful, smooth like a shortcake cookie.
Perfect for coffee, was a hit for the family. Was told that “these cookies are different” which tells me these are the kind of recipes I’m looking for.
My partner said the best cookies he’s ever had!! Followed the recipe except eliminated the milk!!
These are fabulous!!! My only complaint is that I can’t taste the anise extract—but I will just increase it in the next batch. They are light, crunchy, and are fully flavored with the sesame seeds. Yum!!
Fabulous ~ delicious
Delicious!! I have Celiac so I replaced the flour with a 1:1 gluten free flour – so yummy!!!
loved these, Just like my grandma used to make. I ran out of sesame seeds so I used poppy seeds for the remailning which also tasted good but were black so not as pretty for Christmas. I think a cinnamon sugar would probably work also.
I followed the recipe exactly and they were just what I expected. Didn’t need the milk at all as the seeds stuck pretty well on their own. The only issue I had (if you consider it an issue) was that the dough didn’t spread at all. So the little logs I rolled stayed just that…logs. The pics from others seem to be somewhat flatter cookies. No big deal but they look more like mini breadsticks than like cookies!