Sesame Cookies with olive oil from Sparta

1. Boil 2 cinnamon sticks in a cup of water for about 5 minutes.
2. Set aside about 1/2 cup of the cinnamon stock and let it cool.
3. Toast sesame seeds in a dry pan over a low flame for a few minutes, until golden.
4. Set aside and cool.
5. Sift flour (approximately 10 cups) and baking powder into a bowl.
6. Whisk sugar with oil for 5 minutes in the mixer, until the oil turns white.
7. Dissolve baking soda in orange juice and add to oil, together with the cinnamon stock and the tsipouro.
8. Then add the flour, 8 cups all at once and the rest gradually, until the dough becomes oily and soft (more or less 10 cups in total). Not much kneading is necessary because the cookies will become stiff.
9. Shape cookies and dip them in the toasted sesame seeds.
10. Spread out on baking trays.
11. Preheat oven to 320 F on the convection setting, and bake for 35 minutes until slightly golden.

Tips:

• Hold the cup over the mixer bowl as you dissolve the baking soda in the fresh juice because it will bubble and may spill over. Add to mixture immediately.
• Beat the sugar and the olive oil very well to ensure the sugar dissolves completely before placing the cookies in the oven so that it caramelizes.
• Toasting the sesame seeds brings out their flavor and aroma.
• The less we knead the dough, the fluffier our cookies will become.
• The oilier the dough, the crunchier the cookies.
• Do not use agourelaio (it is extra virgin olive oil that is pressed from the first olives harvested, which are green and not fully ripe.) The cookies will become too heavy.