Baking by Memory
Sesame cookies, Greece, and the grandmother I never knew
I was 22 when my mother and I traveled to Greece for the first time. By then, I had been on an airplane a handful of times, even taking an International trip to the Philippines. But my mother hadn’t been on an airplane since she was a small baby. Her first flight departed her birthplace of Athens, Greece, bound for its final destination - Selma, Alabama.
My grandfather, a U.S.A.F. pilot, had been stationed in Greece for ten years. Just before returning home, my grandparents adopted my mother. Aside from the emotional gravity of our first trip to Greece, what I remember most was a general sense of things feeling familiar. The way people assumed my mother spoke Greek, simply because she looked like them. She once told me that growing up, she never looked like anyone around her - not family, not in school. Selma in the 1960’s was black and white. There were no other little brown girls to be found.
Of course, we danced. We sat on the beach. We walked everywhere - through Athens, up to the Parthenon. We drove along roads lined with olive trees. One day, we had lunch at a little cafe tucked into a village in Corinthos. I ordered a greek salad, expecting it to be like all the ones I knew up to that point. I will never forget those plump red tomatoes and the creamy feta. Topped with oregano, sweet and floral - everything glimmered beneath fresh olive oil. Every tomato salad I’ve eaten since, has been compared to that one.
I remember being surprised that there wasn’t much baklava on display. Until that trip, I had only experienced greek pastries at our local BBQ joint in Selma, which was owned by a Greek family. The wife always had her baklava available for my grandparents. I had also attended the Greek Festivals at the Greek Orthodox Church in Birmingham, where mostly baklava and kourabiedes were served for sweets.
My uncle once gave me a Greek cookbook and I cooked from it obsessively, especially a grated zucchini pie I made nearly every week one summer. I read that book so much that it fell apart at the spine, it’s been my sole education when it comes to teaching myself how to cook Greek food.
So when Dimitri asked me to make desserts for Greek Night at No Comply, I immediately said yes. Though I knew I didn’t want to make baklava. I wanted to make something that felt like the memories of Greece I have been carrying around with me for the past 20 years.
Baking by Memory
I recalled standing in front of a bakery in Athens and staring though glass at a display of large circular cookies, all lined up in a row. They had a soft sheen and were bedazzled with sesame seeds. I wish I had eaten one, but of course - I let the moment pass by.
For the pop-up, I wondered if I could reinterpret the traditional Greek butter cookie, also called S cookies, into a more interesting shape, like the one I remebered from our trip. It took a couple practice rounds to get the shape right (& to hold in the oven), but it eventually it held. I added crushed anise seeds to the dough and used labneh to bind it together.
It’s the combination of anise, orange juice and sesame that makes you feel like you could eat 10, or maybe 20 of these cookies. They are not too sweet and perfect for dunking into strong coffee or packing into picnic boxes.
Whenever I make Greek food, I find myself thinking about my real Greek grandmother. I know nothing about her.
Only an imaginary story written in my head - about how she must have been young and scared to have a baby on her own. She was just 16 years old when she was pregnant with my mom. That letting go of a baby girl must have felt like the only way to offer her a better chance of happiness. That hopefully, in making that tough decision, she also gave herself a chance.
Sometimes, when I’m rolling dough or brushing melted butter on phyllo, I imagine my Yia Yia out there somewhere, moving through her kitchen, hand rolling cookies, and thinking of me too. Her granddaughter, baking from a memory.
And because memories are meant to be shared, here is the recipe.
Sesame Anise Cookies
Fragrant with anise, with a light snap from butter and finished with toasted sesame.
Ingredients
225g butter, room temp
180g sugar
orange zest from one orange
2 whole eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
40g labneh
40g orange juice (from one orange)
1.5 tsp vanilla
3g anise seeds
25g olive oil
500g A/P flour
5g baking powder
2g baking soda
4g salt
1/2 cup sesame seeds
Method
Toast the seeds
Over low heat, gently toast the anise seeds. Less than one minute, just until fragrant. Set aside to cool. Gently crush them with your hands.
Over low heat, gently toast the sesame seeds. Stirring constantly, until they begin to hop around in the pan and take on a little color. Set aside to cool.
Dry Mix
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and crushed anise seeds.
Activate the soda
In a little bowl, combine the baking soda and orange juice. Let it fizz.
Cream the butter
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar, orange zest and butter. Cream until smooth and cohesive - lightened but not whipped.
Add the eggs and yolk, mixing on low speed until incorporated. Then add the labneh and mix until fully smooth. Scrape the bowl before next step.
Add the liquids
Add the orange juice and baking soda mixture, plus the olive oil and vanilla extract. Mix low until combined.
Form the dough
Add the dry mixture all at once. Mix on low speed until dough comes together. Stop as soon as when dry flour remains. Rest dough, covered with a towel for 20 minutes.
Shape the cookies
Portion dough into 30g pieces. Roll into ropes, approximately 6 inches long. Shape into circles and place on a parchment lined sheet pan. Leave slight space for spreading. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Finish & bake
Pre-heat oven to 350F
Just before baking, brush the cookies with egg wash and sprinkle with toasted and cooled sesame seeds.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly golden at the edges. Cool completely.
Some recipes are passed down, others are made from memory. Enjoy with coffee.
And think of your grandmother, your Yia Yia.
Beautiful Erica! 💙