Buttery bitterness blended beautifully (now try an say that 5 times at twice the speed!)
I've been wanting to make a tahini cookie for a while. I love tahini in desserts - its sesame bitterness brings a savoury, earthy note to bakes which I love.
I also wanted to find a recipe that was egg free, not for any particular reason other than it's easier to scale a recipe up and down if you don't have think about how to divide an egg by 3! Therefore, this recipe is suitable for vegan friends and can also be made gluten free by using ground almonds or GF flour in the recipe. However, don't be fooled into thinking these are 'healthy,' I mean yes they have tahini, yes they haven't got any butter, but just take a sneaky peek at the amount of sugar. However, I always think, if you're going to have a cookie - just have a cookie.
I've also worked hard on the texture for these, I want a cookie that is crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. The white and brown sugar ratio helps with this.
A note on tahini: different tahini has different consistencies. This means that depending on the type you use, you might end up with a different texture of cookie. I've put in some things to help with that, to get as much consistency as possible. This usually looks like varying the milk quantities in your mixture to create a looser or stiffer dough.
A note on chocolate: personally I think the darker the better. I'm a 95% gal, but I know that is not most peoples cup of tea. The bitter dark chocolate brings out the tahini flavour beautifully - but you do you!
Tahini and Chocolate Cookies
Makes 24 medium sized cookies
Ingredients
180 ml (3/4 cup) tahini
60 ml (1/4 cup) oil (I use vegetable/rapeseed oil)
150 g white sugar
50 g brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
120 ml (1/2 cup) milk, plus extra if needed
175 g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt, or to tast
150 g dark chocolate
(notes, variations and substitutions below the method)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180oC/160oC (fan) and line a baking tray with non-stick paper.
Beat together tahini, oil and both sugars with a spoon or whisk for 1 minute. Add in the vanilla and milk, and beat again to combine.
Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt. Mix until just combined, do not over-mix this. The mixture should be of a spooning consistency, rather than a rolling consistency. If it's a bit stiff just add a dash more milk.
Using a spoon, place walnut sized balls of mixture on your baking sheet.
Bake in the oven for 8-9 minutes until they are just turning golden. Leave to cool on a rack.
Notes, variations and substitutions
Tahini: the consistency of tahini will vary so you might need to adjust how much liquid you add to the recipe, see step 3 for info.
Oil: if you want to use coconut oil or butter, make sure that you melt it first.
Flour: If you don't have plain, you can use self-raising flour - it will just be a slightly different texture.
Sugar: The white sugar brings the crunch, brown sugar brings the chew. If you change these ratios the texture and shape of the cookie will change but feel free to use whatever you have! I also like using dark brown sugar.
Milk: I use normal milk, but you can use nut milks too.
Chocolate: the darker the better in my opinion (70% plus).
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