Mar 9, 2010

I HAD TO CROSS THE POND TO FIND BLACK SESAME SEEDS...

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Can you believe it? I have been on a quest for black sesame seeds for ages, and I have not found any place that sells them here in Paris (unless I have serious issues with my eyesight?!) So the other weekend I hopped over to London and while walking through Brick Lane doing my supermarket inspection (yes, I have a thing for visiting supermarkets when I travel- especially asian/foreign type supermarkets) I finally found my black sesame seeds! Goodness, I didn't realize that I had to take the Eurostar to find some...

Anyway, so as usual, once the ingredient has made its way back to my kitchen, the next step is always "well, now what??" Of course I have seen plenty of recipes of black sesame ice cream, cookies and cupcakes coupled with matcha, so on and so forth (all of which I plan on testing out) but the truth is that I'm trying to go on a "sugar break" so I need to make something savoury out of these black sesame seeds...and preferably healthy too (plus I've been reading all the super health benefits black sesame seeds have!)

I am going through something of a vegeterian phase right now and so I love to munch on crackers- but not the buttery salty kinds, the organic-i'm-a-health-nut-kind, made from pumpkin, flax, sunflower seeds, so on and so forth.

It would be nice to try something a bit different though, no? What about healthy (at least I think they are) black sesame crackers? I did a little search on the net to find a recipe, and so I went ahead with Peter Reinhart's Four-Seed Snapper Crackers recipe that I found on Pascale Week's blog. A few variations and my crackers were ready to be crunched away!
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Obviously you will need black sesame seeds for this recipe
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And a mixture of pumpkin, sunflower, and flax seeds. Hurray for super (healthy) seeds!
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Grind all your seeds until they become powdery
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On their way to the oven..
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And crunch away!

Recipe for Black Sesame Crackers (makes a LOT of crackers- you might want to half the recipe)
90gr mixture of seeds- make sure to include pumpkin seeds though.
60gr black sesame seeds
240gr whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon salt (5gr)
2 tablespoons honey (40gr)
2,5 tablespoons vegetable oil
15cl (150ml) water- maybe a bit more if necessary

Finishing:
1 egg whisked with 5cl water - note: I have a bad thing with eggs when they are used this way, so I replaced this with milk and it worked perfectly fine!
Black sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 150C. Grind the seeds mix and black sesame seeds together until it becomes powdery. Then add the flour, salt, honey and vegetable oil and grind again. Finally, add the water, mix, until you get a good doughy texture. Roll out thinly and cut into shapes, transfer cut out shapes on a pachment paper lined baking tray and brush crackers with the egg mix, sprinkle with black sesame seeds. Bake for 15 mins.

7 comments:

joy said...

I would love to try to make my own crackers. Were they a similar texture as the ones in the store. I am hoping they are better homemade. Yours look great.

MizThreefivesix said...

you lucky girl - just popping over to London!!

rosemary said...

Je cherche aussi des graines de sésame noir à Paris... En vain !

Et maintenant je cherche en + de la pâte de sésame noir pour une boisson ! (je pensais trouver dans les épiceries bio mais elles n'ont que de la pâte de sésame blond). Une piste toutefois: les épiceries japonaises aux alentours de la rue St Anne...

Anonymous said...

Just made these! They're very addictive and leave a lovely clean taste in your mouth, unlike store bought crackers which always leave a sour aftertaste. I think the bran in the whole wheat flour overpowered things a little, although it's so much healthier! Cheers, will blog about this in the near future :)

Julia Gaw said...

Hi Marianna,

Great blog. I have a publishing proposal I'd like to email you, if you could be so kind as to provide me with an email address?

Many thanks.
Julia
juliag@slatterymedia.com

Marianna said...

Hi Julia
Thanks for checking my blog out- I sent you an email about a week ago...have you received it by any chance?
Marianna

rosemary said...

J'ai trouvé des graines de sésame noir chez K-mart, le supermarché japonais de la rue st Anne. Infusé dans du lait de soja chaud, c'est délicieux !