These white sesame seeds biscuits are quite easy to prepare and also they are made with poor ingredients unlike other most famous Sicilian desserts like Cassata or cannoli. However their goodness can’t be disputed. It’s a simple dessert, but tasty at the same time. I want to give you an advice: accompany these biscuits with a glass of Passito wine of Pantelleria or a Marsala wine, but if you are not used to drinking alcohol, choose a good tea! You can listen to the Italian recipe, told by me at Cafè Bleu, the radio Bistrot of RBE.
Ingredients for 700 grams of biscuits:
- 250 grams type 00 flour
- 125 grams butter or lard for desserts
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- 3 tablespoons of milk
- 5 grams ammonia baking powder as a leavener
- A pinch of salt
For the decoration:
- 150 grams white sesame seeds
- ½ glass of milk
Method
Put flour, sugar,diced butter, salt in a planetary mixer and then add the seeds of the vanilla bean. Remember that you must cut vanilla bean lengthwise and the pulp must be extracted by scraping with the tip of a knife. Run the machine and knead for a few minutes, in this way the butter incorporates well. Add the egg and continue to knead. In the meantime, dissolve the baking ammonia in the milk and after pour the mixture into it. Mix well. Remove the dough from the planetary mixer and continue kneading by hand. Form a ball, wrap it with cling film and put in the fridge for about an hour.
Form some sticks of about one cm in diameter and cut them into 5-7 cm long chunks. Brush each piece with milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cook in the preheated oven at 200° Celsius degrees for 10 minutes. Then cook at 160° Celsius degrees for about 10 minutes. Leave to cool and serve.