Manna Bakery’s caramelized butter honey sesame cookies are outrageously good—and we’ve got the recipe
Here’s a post-pandemic Instagram bakery you don’t want to miss.
Unless you’ve been trawling Instagram for baked goods, you likely haven’t come across Manna Bakery, the online bakery from 24-year-old Saif Manna.
A recent Temple grad raised in Dubai, Manna started baking when he was 8 years old and he’s been dreaming about opening a restaurant or bakery since he was tween. He was in his junior year when it occurred to him: What am I waiting for? He launched Manna as an on-campus business in 2021.
Now baking out of a commissary kitchen, Manna whips up more than just cookies — there are airy brioche doughnuts, sumptuous cakes, and pillowy focaccia — but cookies are bound to be his calling card. That’s because they’re big (often a whopping 6 ounces), beautiful, and absolutely delicious. Take the Levant cookie, made with ground and chopped pistachios, dolloped with dark chocolate chunks, including one so large it melts into a puddle. Or there’s the Giant, an inch-thick chocolate chip-walnut cookie inspired by cookies from Levain Bakery and Famous Amos, of all things.
Manna was kind enough to create a new cookie for the Inquirer’s holiday cookie edition: a chewy caramelized butter & honey sesame cookie sprinkled with chopped pistachios and crushed dried raspberries. You can buy it from his bakery directly if you wish, but he wrote a very detailed recipe — pan-banging instructions included — that makes an excellent replica at home. They’re one of our eight show-stopping, slam-dunk cookie recipes for this year — contributed by local bakers, restaurant owners, and even a cheese shop.
Manna is eyeing up brick-and-mortar spaces downtown, but in the meantime, you can order treats for pick-up on North Broad Street.
Saif Manna based this recipe on crunchy barazek cookies, which he sometimes had (but disliked) as a kid visiting his grandparents in Jordan. He’s reinvented them as gooey but crisp-edged sesame-coated cookies that have beautiful rippling thanks to the “pan-banging” method he’s borrowed from baker Sarah Kieffer. If you haven’t browned butter before, Manna suggests staying by the stove while it cooks — first melting, then boiling, then foaming — to avoid burning it. Whole spelt flour adds complexity to the cookie’s flavor; you can swap it out for whole wheat or all-purpose if it’s too hard to find.
Buy it instead: Manna Bakery sells honey-sesame cookies for pickup at the link in its Instagram bio (@mannabakery1324).
Yields 12 large cookies
120 grams (1 stick plus ½ tablespoon) butter
100 grams (5 tablespoons) honey
105 grams (½ cup) white sugar
105 grams (½ cup packed) light brown sugar
1 large egg
170 grams (1⅓ cups plus 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
30 grams (⅓ cup) whole spelt flour (or whole wheat or all-purpose flour)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
30 grams (3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons) sesame seeds, toasted
¼ cup freeze-dried raspberries, crushed into a coarse powder (optional)
2 to 3 tablespoons pistachios, roughly chopped (optional)
In a small saucepan over medium, melt the butter, then cook — it will boil, then foam — stirring occasionally, until it smells caramelized and the milk solids in the butter are browned, about 5 minutes total. Once the butter begins to foam, it should only take 20 to 30 seconds for it to caramelize. Tilt and swirl the saucepan or use a spoon to check the color of the milk solids at the bottom; you want them to be a deep golden brown. Remove from the stove and add the honey. Set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, spelt flour (if using), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
In a large bowl, combine the white and light brown sugar. Add the butter-honey mixture. Whisk together to combine. Add the egg and mix until smooth and homogeneous.
Add the dry ingredients to the sugar-egg mixture and fold everything together with a spatula until no streaks of flour remain. The dough will be sticky. Place in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably for a few hours and up to overnight. (If you are in a rush, place in the freezer for 20 minutes.)
Using a scoop or a tablespoon, measure out 50 to 55 grams (2 generous tablespoons) of dough and roll into a smooth ball. Dip each dough ball into the toasted sesame seeds; only the tops need to be coated. Arrange 4 balls on a parchment-lined sheet pan, evenly spaced. Place in the freezer while the oven heats. (You can also store shaped dough in the freezer for up to a month in sealed plastic bags and bake whenever. Let frozen dough balls stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before baking.)
Heat the oven to 350°F. Bake for 5 minutes, then carefully remove the pan and bang it on the counter a few times. Return to the oven and bake for another 5 to 7 minutes, until the edges are browned and crisp and the centers are set.
Remove the cookies from the oven and bang the pan on the counter again a few times. Allow the cookies to cool a few minutes more. Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and crushed freeze-dried raspberries, if using.
