Salty Sesame and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

chocolate sesame cookies

Three (top notch) (totally awesome) (majorly job applicable) (important!) skills Iโ€™d like to add to my job resume.  (Yesโ€ฆ this is a place my mind wanders.)

โ€“  Outrageous use of punctuation and constant abuse of sentence structure.  While at first troublesome and awkward, the abuse does (over time) lend itself to a conversational and relatable tone.

โ€“  Able to catch any cell phone as it falls through the air towards the floor.  Itโ€™s a super powerโ€ฆ Iโ€™ve got it.

โ€“  Adept at combining busy prints with colorful plaids in office wear outfitsโ€ฆ without causing serious blindness.

Bonus!

โ€“  Consistent cookies at work.  I bring em.  I mean, come on!

Waitโ€ฆ do people still know how to write resumes?  Is that still a thing kids learn in school, or is everyone just building the Internet these days?  Whatโ€™s going onโ€ฆ and when did I start sounding like a kooky old lady!?

chocolate sesame cookies

These cookies are full of everything you would expect:  dark chocolate chips, pure vanilla extract, and sugars.

These cookies also have a few bonus ingredients:  black sesame seeds and soy sauce.

I put soy sauce in cookies.  Just a touch.  I think it adds a really subtle earthy saltiness.  Itโ€™s the little thing in these cookies that make you goโ€ฆ hm!!

chocolate sesame cookies

Butter and sugar is where it all begins.

If you donโ€™t have a stand mixer, feel free to use hand beaters or just a bowl and wooden spoon.

chocolate sesame cookies

Either way you mix it, youโ€™ll want  the butter and sugar to come to this creamy and fluffy consistency.

Add eggs and beat until thick and creamy.

chocolate sesame cookies

Simple dry ingredients.  Just flour, baking soda, and salt.

chocolate sesame cookies

Sesame seeds and a toothsome and just slightly savory quality to these cookies.  I like to add just a touch of coarse sea salt to the top of the cookies before they bake.

chocolate sesame cookies

These cookies are chewy-salty chocolate-sesame studded-good times.  Theyโ€™re different.  Theyโ€™re prettyโ€ฆ just like your shoes and your hair.

I have always been a major advocate of bringing fresh baked cookies to a job interview.  Tell people they have soy sauce in them, but only if you want to show off.

Sesame and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 20 to 24 cookies

Print this Recipe!

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 to 1 teaspoon soy sauce (donโ€™t be scared)

2 tablespoons black sesame seeds

1 cup dark chocolate chips

about 1/4 cup black sesame seeds for rolling and coarse sea salt for topping

Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside and weโ€™ll preheat the oven after we chill the dough.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the butter mixture with a spatula.  Add the egg and egg yolk and beat on medium speed until mixture is fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Beat in the vanilla and soy sauce.  Stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients, all at once to the butter mixture.  Beat on low speed until just combined.  Stop the mixer, add the sesame seeds and chocolate chunks, and fold together with a  spatula until well combined.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.

Just before youโ€™re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place about 1/4 cup black sesame seeds in a small bowl.

Scoop cookie dough by the heaping tablespoonful into your hand.  Roll into a ball, and toss around in the black sesame seeds.  The dough balls donโ€™t need to be completely covered in seeds, just coated well.  Place on prepared baking sheets.  Bake for about 12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges.  Remove from the oven, allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.  Store cookies in an airtight container.  Cookies will last for a day or two.  The oils on the seeds can tend to go rancid.  These cookies are best eaten within a few days.  That shouldnโ€™t be much trouble!

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195 Responses

  1. LOVE LOVE LOVE your cookie recipe! Someone I just met made the cookies and they were so delicious. So iโ€™m going to try them also. Thank you!!!

  2. just baked these. theyโ€™re super interesting and delicious. definitely not your average cookie. the soy sauce is subtle and adds a nice layer of flavor. mine took a little bit longer to bake (about 15 minutes) โ€” but my oven has a mind of its own. i also needed more black sesame seeds for rolling the cookies than the recipe calls for โ€” about 1/2 C. thanks for the recipe!

  3. Hello Joy, I just want to let you know that I made these Salty Sesame Chocolate Chip Cookies and posted them to my site, with full credit and link back. I found them deliciously intriguing and incredibly satisfying. Thank you so much for posting this recipe and for your beautiful web site. You can find my post at https://www.thefinercookie.com/salty-sesame-and-dark-chocolate-chip-cookies/2015/8/24/salty-sesame-and-dark-chocolate-chip-cookies?rq=sesame. When you have a moment, please come visit.

    All the best to you. Keep up the great work,
    Kim
    The Finer Cookie

  4. Mmmmm I was so looking forward to the salty earthyness professed by othersโ€ฆ instead these cookies taste like sugar. Recommendation: halve the sugar and you might get the benefit of the other cool ingredients ;)

  5. I made these for the staff at work and they DEVOURED them! Everyone wanted the recipe and couldnโ€™t tell there was soy sauce in there. Fantastic cookies!

  6. yes! this is what the japanese do with their sweets. a LOT of japanese food (savory and sweet) has shoyo (soy sauce) and sugar together. teriyaki is basically just those two ingredients and you can add garlic, green onions, etc. i love eating fresh, homemade mochi with sugar and shoyu.

  7. Just made these, so easy and really tasty! I couldnโ€™t wait to chill the dough for so long, and though it made for sticky fingers, it was fine. Thank you for another great recipe!

  8. Dear Joy,

    Just made these tonight for my bfโ€™s nut-free mama whoโ€™s coming to stay with us this weekend. I had thought that the pistachio, smoked sea salt, chocolate cookie recipe was my favorite to come out of the cookie part of your brain but These. May. Top. Those. Lady, these are good stuff. Relatedly, I donโ€™t mind not shelling lots of pistachios. Thanks for another winner.

    Fondly,
    d

  9. Has anybody tried freezing these cookies since the sesame causes them to spoil rather quickly? They are AMAZING and I want to contribute them to a get-together but would need to make them a bit in advance.
    Thanks

  10. These were great. Played around with the ingredients based on what I had, but I loved the idea of adding sesame seeds and soy sauce. Funny to see peopleโ€™s reactions!

  11. I made these last night to take to a holiday party today. Delicious! I love the addition of soy sauce. They did spread quite a bit though โ€“ I ended up cutting them into cookie strips and pretending I planned that all along.

  12. This recipe intrigued me (yea, you had me at black sesame seeds, but the soy sauce was the final straw). These might be the best cookies Iโ€™ve ever eaten.
    By the way, black sesame seeds can be found at low prices at many Asian markets!

  13. Great recipe, glad I found this on Pinterest. Where do you get your black sesame seeds? I get mine from EatSeed.com
    Great site. Thanks for sharing!

  14. Haha. Iโ€™m feeling you on the resume woesโ€ฆ although I havenโ€™t tried bringing cookies to an interview yet โ€“ maybe thatโ€™s my problem?

    Iโ€™m just about finished making these, though with balsamic reduction sauce rather than soy. Iโ€™ve eaten enough of the dough to know that they will be great! Awesome recipe, thanks for posting it :)

  15. Hi โ€“ I want to make these for a party โ€“ do I sprinkle the sea salt on top of the balls before baking?
    Thanks!!
    Sarah

  16. Thanks so much for this recipe Joy. My brother in law and I have a tradition of trying out one of your recipes every time he comes back home from University. We made these last night and they were incredible. The soy sauce was an inspired addition. You have very happy fans down here in New Zealand!

  17. What a fun recipe! I was very excited to try these, but got mixed results. While baking, the cookies spread out to fill both the cooking sheets- not very attractive, but still very tasty. Not sure what went wrong since I made the cookies slightly smaller than the recipe suggested (32 balls). Love the taste, but wish they didnโ€™t spread. :/

    1. I had this problem too! Iโ€™m fairly certain my problem was either 1) the fact that I used gf flourโ€ฆand a blend Iโ€™ve never tried before, so I had no clue how it would bake up, or 2) I chilled the dough for just barely 45 minutes because my boyfriend kept stealing spoonfuls of dough out of the fridge. I seriously canโ€™t wait to tell him the dough had soy sauce in it. :) But also, I know that accidentally adding too much sugar can cause cookies to spread, and the texture and flavor can make that pretty obvious.

      Joy, do you have any other ideas?

  18. I just baked these. Yummy!! But I think Iโ€™ll add just a bit more soy sauce and salt. The flavour didnโ€™t really come through.

  19. Oooh, sweet and saltyโ€ฆIโ€™m sold. You are so darn creativeโ€“soy sauce in cookies? My adventurous side is verrrry intrigued. This is happening.

    Also, you should totally add the brings-cookies-to-work thing to your resume. I may have mentioned I secretly possess the ability to toss pizza dough the other day in a job interviewโ€ฆand they told me I should put THAT on my resume. True story. So there. You should do it!

  20. I made these cookies Saturday night and my raw food-obsessed roommate could not get enough of them! She never eats sweets, so it was a pretty big deal for her to eat 5 cookies fresh out of the oven (oh, and she helped me lick the bowl clean, too!). They were such a hit that I made them again on Sunday, took them to a party, and everyone ADORED them. Thank you for the amazing recipe!!!

  21. Hi,

    just made the cookies yesterday for a danish easterlunch โ€“ and they were great! Forgot to frezze them, but they turned out really good anyways!!

    Thank you for some really good recepes!

    Tanja, from Denmark

  22. Yum, another food blogger friend posted about miso sesame cookies, which also work amaaazingly with honey and chocolate chips in place of sesame. Soy sauce would perform a similar function to the miso, so these look like a real winner!

  23. Joy!

    I ran out to scrounge up some black sesame seeds and dark chocolate disks for these cookies and they turned out amazing. Perhaps my favorite recipe of yours so far. These definitely inspire me to play around in the kitchen!
    Also your book stop in PDX was great โ€“ donโ€™t let the road wear you down too much!

  24. I just have to tell youโ€ฆ
    I think you are a wonderful person. I have not met you but i love your writing, your honesty as much as I like your recipes. You are your name ,and I wish you all the sucsess with your book and the many more I expect to come in the futureโ€ฆ. Yay

  25. I love lots of salty in my sweets so these cookies looked like theyโ€™d be right up my alley. I was right. They are SO GOOD. I made a batch last night, and knowing I would eat them all myself otherwise, I brought them in to work to hand out. I think my job security just increased by 1 tsp or so of soy sauce. Good decision all around. Another good decision: having a fourth cookie today, which Iโ€™ll go do now. YUM.

  26. These sound utterly amazing! I canโ€™t believe I missed your book tour in northern California. So disappointed. (Unexpected illness in the family) I hope you come this way again.

  27. I just discovered your blog for the first time and I was put to tears of joy just reading your blog and watching your videos. I love your storytelling of how your baking starts out with your Dad and became a passion and part of your life. I love how you continue to bake as a tradition for your Dadโ€ฆhis love for pies. Your Dad must be proud of you and he should be proud of himself for raising you up well. You are such a good daugter. Thank you for your blogging and sharing your stories, your life and your recipesโ€ฆand congratulations on your first cookbook. I will be purchasing one today!

  28. Joy, you have this crazy ablity to make your recipes look so easy and doable which makes me want to make them all! Iโ€™m loving this crazy combo of soy and sesame seeds.

  29. You are like the coolest person Iโ€™ve never met. Who else has the confidence and creativity to post a recipe for cookies that has soy sauce and get a hundred loyal fans dying to try it as soon as possible?
    can i be just like you when i grow up?

  30. You know, soy sauce isnโ€™t so strange. Iโ€™m a Classics scholar, and the ancients used Garum (fish sauce) as a form of seasoning . . . even in desserts! It doesnโ€™t taste like fish, in case youโ€™re wondering . . . it just adds a bit of savory-ness and umami, dare I say?

  31. These look so nom! I canโ€™t wait to try them.

    I used to work for a little indie coffee shop and we had a frozen blended drink made with black sesame seeds. It had that wonderful toasty sesame flavor. I alway thought it tasted sorta like the milk left over at the end of my honey nut cheerios bowl, lol. Delish. Iโ€™ll have to look up the recipe and send it to you. :-)

  32. Considering I love all these ingredients, I not opposed to try it!! Joy, U are so fun, and I havent even met YOU!!!!

  33. I think consistent cookies at work would be a welcome addition to any resume. Thatโ€™s one thing Iโ€™d look for in a job candidate. These cookies are out of control.

  34. Joy, Thank you for being you and for sharing your 3 awesome resume skills. It brings a smile to my face.

  35. Wow. Iโ€™ve never heard of using soy sauce in a cookie and I never would have thought of it! Thatโ€™s so interesting. Iโ€™ll definitely have to try it. :)

  36. When I first saw your opening picture, I definitely thought you made muffins. Then you totally blew my mind saying they were cookies! Gosh, I love surprises : ) Thanks for the great post!

  37. Is this chocolate/soy sauce combination adapted from your idea for popcorn with soy sauce, or just another ingenious creation entirely? (P.S., I got the wonderful privilege of meeting you in Chicago and you answered a question about a recipe youโ€™re trying to make work.)

    Speaking of that recipe: what if you did a salty/sweet caramel corn and incorporated the soy sauce by roasting peanuts in a sugary/soy saucy mixture? And then adding the peanuts to the popcorn and dousing it all in ridonkulous amounts of caramel and course sea salt and maybe a few chunks of dark chocolate(????)

    Thanks for this wonderful recipe! Best wishes :)

  38. Hey ! Your cookies look wonderfull !
    More than this cookies, your book is realy great ! I love it !
    Your are an inspration for my and many other person !!!

    If you come in France a day to sign up send my a email !

  39. Since I go to Bastyrโ€ฆ which is hippie food centralโ€ฆa friend used fish sauce to make her vegan cookies taste betterโ€ฆ So yeah, soy sauce in cookies, yes! Although I canโ€™t have soy since its not a-f, Iโ€™ll have to try it with coconut aminos some time!

  40. You had me at salty!! I LOVE salt and chocolate, but youโ€™ve definitely taken it to another level with the soy sauce. Iโ€™m so intriguedโ€“these look fantastic!

    xoxo
    L

  41. I am completely fascinated by these. For one thing I love sesame seeds, and I love chocolate chip cookiesโ€ฆso for me these cookies are like a โ€˜voila!โ€™ moment. The soy sauce is a little freaky, but I trust your baking sense and your tastebuds. Now I want to try making these. As for bringing cookies to job interviews, I totally almost brought some to an interview the other week but it just feels so much like a bribe- lol! Wellโ€ฆI guess it kind of IS. Oh well, next time. :P

  42. I just love the combinations you come up with, these look so good! And I wish I could have seen you when you were in St. Louis. You should come to Springfield, MO too, someday โ€“ even if you just come to my house and eat my inferior, boring food.

  43. Haha, I totally get the three skills thing! I always think that when Iโ€™m writing out a cv or cover letter. My skills may not be standard, but I have some random ones that might come in handy :)

    These cookies look delicious, I love the idea of adding in some soy sauce. Sounds fantastic!

  44. As someone who also uses a LOT of punctuation in her writing, Iโ€™ve always had the belief that as long as you have and follow a style guide (even if itโ€™s your own personal style guide that uses two spaces after periods and colons, made-up super-long-hyphenated words, lots of nested parentheses, and puts the period outside the quotation mark unless it was part of the actual quoted text, in which case you use a period both before and after the quotation mark!), your writing is totally correct.

    Ironically, I almost typed โ€œyouโ€™reโ€ instead of โ€œyourโ€ in that last sentence. Just goes to show you can have all the MLA or non-MLA style you want and still make dumb mistakes.

    Also, these cookies: awesome!

  45. Joy, youโ€™re the best! I love how grounded you are. I know that when you meet the public eye, you necessarily put the best foot forward, but you also bring yourself very uniquely and very honestly to each encounter. Itโ€™s a wonderful quality to haveโ€ฆ keep cultivating it!

  46. i like how you wrote โ€œdonโ€™t be scaredโ€ next to the soy sauce on the ingredients list. because when i saw soy sauce as an ingredient, i said to myself, โ€œthese look totally awesome โ€“ but thereโ€™s no way iโ€™m making them with soy sauce.โ€ howโ€™d you know iโ€™d be scared??! mind reading. another superpower to add to the rez.

  47. Love the cookies โ€“ also love the list of skillsโ€ฆI think I need the superpower that lets you catch your phone before it smashes to the floorโ€ฆmy poor phone well letโ€™s just say itโ€™s met my tile floors one to many times.

  48. Salty and sweet?! Amazing. As a big fan of sesame seeds and cookies, this combination is absolutelyโ€ฆ divineโ€ฆ *dreamy sigh*

    As for the resume, I think people are mostly moving to LinkedIn now. The nice thing is that they DO have a pretty awesome skills section, so you can totally add those in ;-)

  49. ummmm i have a job interview this afternoonโ€ฆ..i did not make cookiesโ€ฆbut i shall let them know that their office will never lack fresh baked goodness!

  50. Whenever I think, โ€œOkay, sheโ€™s done. thereโ€™s nothing more that Joy can dream up that Iโ€™ve never heard ofโ€ you come out with something totally crazy and new. Go you! These lookโ€ฆ interesting? But in a good way!

  51. Aw Joy, youโ€™re not kooky, but a cookie old lady (aha, pun..)! Youโ€™ll be one hellofa grandma someday. And I mean that in the best way possible.

  52. Hey cookie woman! These look speck-tack-u-lure!!!
    About resumes. Yes, they do. Write them. Our 10th grader just finished her very 1st resume last night. The assignment was to to the resume for her future age 30 (!) self! And Gabe did his first resume as a Junior in High School for an event called Job Shadow Day.
    xoxoxoxoxoxoxox,
    jk

  53. Wow. I think I may have heard of sesame seeds in a cookie, but never soy sauce. This looks really interesting, and Iโ€™d be willing to try it (plus I really like the taste and texture sesame seeds bring to foods :P )

  54. Hmmmm, these sound really intriguing! I love the combination of sweet and salty together in one bite, so I definitely am going to give these a try. If anything, itโ€™ll be so that I can figure out what a cookie with soy sauce tastes like. They look great!

  55. Hold the phoneโ€ฆ Hold. The. Phone. Missy. These are coolโ€ฆ Really cool. Like superhero cool. Sesame seeds and dark chocolateโ€ฆ. In cooooookies?

    Wow. Justโ€ฆ. Wow.

  56. OMG! I canโ€™t wait to try these and amaze my friends with their deliciousnessโ€ฆ. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes!

  57. whoa craziness! I just posted a recipe for black sesame cocoa brownies with salted caramel ganache and black hawaiian salt today! Apparently chocolate, sesame and salt are a winning combo today! Those cookies look droolworthy!

  58. Joy!

    Iโ€™m super interested in various alcoholic beverages as of right now.
    & the one Iโ€™m most interested in is Melomel!
    & brewing delicious homemade fruity mead sounds like you.
    Please do it & show me how easy it is for you so I can work up the courage to do so!

  59. Wowza! No more need to dip a chip in ice-cream! Yep, thatโ€™s right! Satisfying my crazy salty-sweet cravings right in a cookie!! Who knewโ€ฆ.soy sauce!? They sound magical and for that reason, Iโ€™m baking some up today!
    Love your great stuff!
    Wish weโ€™d see you in NCโ€ฆ.maybe somedayโ€ฆโ€ฆ

  60. โ€œI have always been a major advocate of bringing fresh baked cookies to a job interview.โ€

    Wow, I guess I have been living under a rock; why the EFF did I not think of thatโ€ฆโ€ฆ.sheesh. NEXT TIME!!
    Thanks for the tip!!

  61. For the record- proper sentence structure is totally overrated (I might also feel that way because I hail from Pittsburgh). Yesterday I found myself looking up how to use a semicolon vs a colon and then realized that there is life to be lived insteadโ€ฆ and apparently cookies that need to be baked!

  62. this is soโ€ฆodd. But somehow I really want to eat them! Sometimes I wish I could taste things over the internet!

    x
    Angie
    sundaybelle.com

  63. I am intriguedโ€ฆ. first by the sesame seeds (love them), then by the soy sauce. OH, and by the dark chocolate, but dark chocolate always intrigues me. I can picture how these babies taste, but I think I might have to make a batch just to confirm my suspicions that they are as delicious as they look!

  64. I LOVE the sound of these! Intrigued by the soy sauce but can imagine it works as I love all that salty sweet flavourโ€ฆI SO have to bake these this weekend.

  65. Soy sauce in cookies!!?? I was going to bake some regular old chocolate chip cookies this weekend but youโ€™ve got my interest piqued. Iโ€™ll be trying these instead. :)

  66. I can relate to the outrageous use of punctuation! I use exclamation marks way too much! I think it makes me sound super excited though, so itโ€™s all good. Iโ€™m just enthusiastic! Love the cookies!

  67. Letโ€™s hope this is the secret to landing a job/internship for the summer! Bonus: if not, I get to keep the cookies. Canโ€™t wait to make these. Thanks again Joy; canโ€™t wait to see you in NYC!

  68. These cookies are defiantly something I have never encountered? Soy sauce and sesame seeds? You come up with the best concoctions. I have to try them because I am so curious.

    The thing I love about blogging is not worrying about grammatical stuff. My 12 year old actually corrects my writing quite often, Oops!

  69. Hm, my interest is piqued! I love soy sauce and I love chocolate. Think I have to make these soon! Thanks, Joy!

  70. These cookies look delicious! I love sweet and salty combosโ€ฆ in fact, there are some days when I crave corn chips and chocolate together. These cookies are right up my alley. P.S. I made your poppy seed crackers with the half and half and your orange cream cheese pound cake. Delicious beyond imagination! You are awesome!

  71. i love blog writing because i can just talk aloud and type, add punctuation wherever.i.want, make up words, type sounds, and most of all ignore all rules regarding capitalization.

    and I love your writing!

    and that cookie idea, soy sauce is sure to impress!

  72. Excellent looking cookies! Sweet, savory, and tons of texture..all in one.

    And blog writing is not like writing a term paper or a thesis. Itโ€™s conversational, itโ€™s fun, and it involves rampant use of punctuation errors and grammatical errors that would make one flunk out of college English but that makes your readers love you and be able to relate :)

  73. Um, I totally told my current boss and coworkers that if they hired me I would bake for them. I should have put it on my resumeโ€ฆ I maintain that the promise of butter and sugar on a regular basis is why they hired me to be a big fancy website designer.

    These look totes amazing. I love the idea of savory ingredients with my sugar โ€“ I can pretend that it is a real dinner :)

  74. I often think that my constant cookie supply should be enough to hire me anywhere. Google? Apple? Wieden+Kennedy? Are you listening?

    Seriously though: these look awesome. Iโ€™m all about them. Iโ€™m also all about your book tour, which makes me sad because this little town doesnโ€™t get your lovin! No harsh feelings: I wouldnโ€™t stop here either.

    Keep up the yummy recipes and hilarious anecdotes!

  75. Stop it. Sweet and salty?? Youโ€™re killing me! This is my dream cookie right here. D-R-E-A-M. Do you know what Iโ€™m saying? I going to need you to apply at my job and bring these. Iโ€™d hire you to do anything.

    And Iโ€™m super sorry I couldnโ€™t make it to the Chicago book tour stop. But know that you were in my heart of hearts and I was cheering you on out here in the Midwest.

    Love your face, Joy!
    -Kasey

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