Serves: 35
Total Calories: 46

1 teaspoon oil
2 1/2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
1/2 cup lard
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Heat oil. Add sesame seeds and toast lightly (stir constantly to prevent burning). Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together lard and sugar in a bowl. Beat egg then blend in. Stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons of the toasted sesame seeds.

3. Sift flour, together with baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Gradually add to bowl and blend in. Then knead the dough well: push it away with the palms of the hands, pull it up with the fingers, and fold the dough back over, repeating the process a number of times. (If the dough is too stiff, add water a drop at a time to make it more pliable.)

4. Refrigerate the dough several hours to chill.

5. Lightly flour a pastry board. With a rolling pin, roll the dough to a thickness of 1/8-inch then cut with a cookie cutter.

6. Grease a baking tin with peanut oil arrange cookies on top. Sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds press these in gently. Bake until cookies are browned (about 15 minutes).

VARIATIONS:
* For the lard, substitute either butter or 1/2 cup peanut oil.
* In step 5, instead of rolling the dough, shape it into a long cylinder, 1/2 inch in diameter. Then cut into 1/8-inch rounds. Or pinch off the dough in small pieces and roll these into balls between the palms of the hands. Then, using the bottom of a glass that's been covered with a damp cloth, press these balls into flat wafers, about 1/8-inch thick.
* Separate a second egg. Beat the yolk and brush lightly over the cookies at the beginning of step 6. Then turn the cookies over and top with the sesame seeds. Brush lightly with egg white then bake.

The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook. ©1994 by Gloria Bley Miller.

Nutritional Facts:

Serves: 35
Total Calories: 46
Calories from Fat: 2

More Recipes from the Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook Cookbook:
*Sweet Dishes
Almond Cookies
Almond Float I
Almond Float II
Banana Gelatin
Eight Precious Pudding
Eight Precious Pudding: Fruit and Nut Combinations
Eight Precious Pudding: Sweetened Water
Ginger Soup
Ginger Soup: Dumplings
Glazed Chestnut Balls
Glazed Whole Chestnuts
Green Pea Pudding
Honeyed Apples
Honeyed Apples: Syrup Mixture A
Honeyed Apples: Syrup Mixture B
Honeyed Apples: Syrup Mixture C
Honeyed Bananas
Honeyed Crab Apples
Hot Lotus Tea
Peking Dust I
Peking Dust II
Peking Dust: Glazed Fruit
Pineapple Gelatin
Sesame Seed Cookies
Spiced Roasted Peanuts
Steamed Pears
Steamed Red Date Cake
Steamed Sponge Cake
Sugared Chestnut Balls
Sugared Walnuts
Sweet Almond Tea I
Sweet Almond Tea II
Sweet Almond Tea III
Sweet Grapefruit Tea
Sweet Orange Tea I
Sweet Orange Tea II
Sweet Peanut Soup
Sweet Pineapple Tea
Sweet Walnut Tea
Sweetened Water
Turkish Barley Pudding
Water Chestnut Pudding