Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie

These cookies flew off the shelf like hot cakes! Well, hot cookies! Slightly exotic/uncommon tahini added great flavor to the classic chocolate chip cookie, topped with coarse sea salt – there’s a recipe for an instant hit with a hint of gourmet twist. It is also a fun little home baking experience to combine some sweet and savory for some crowd-pleasing effects.

I got this recipe from a friend a few weeks ago. I have been putting it off, since these days I tend to opt for the lazier cookie making methods – aka buying the cookie dough pre-made and simply cutting them before baking and yell “I baked!” Dough boy does just fine for those late night cookie cravings. But making a fresh batch of cookies is infinitely more special, highly customizable, and fun. These cookies sounded awesome, and I had to try it on the weekend.

What you need: (about 24 cookies)

- 1 ¼ cup flour

- 1 tsp baking soda

- ½ baking powder

- ½ tsp salt

- ¾ cup brown sugar

- ¼ cup white sugar

- 2/3 cup tahini – runny, no flavor

- 1 egg

- 1 tbsp vanilla extract

- ½ cup butter, melted

- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip (or dark, or sweet – there are no rules when it comes to chocolate)

- Pinch of sea salt – coarse (but not in big chunks, see notes below)

Recipe:

- Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugars together. You want all the dry ingredients to mix together first, evenly.

- Add tahini, egg, vanilla extract, butter and mix into the dry ingredients. You should get this ball of dough that’s a bit crumbly.

- Roll the dough into a log shape, using some saran wrap for help for the shape and holding it in place. Pop it into the fridge for 30min to an hour. You want the dough log to be hardened a bit and easier to divide.

- Cut 1-1.5 cm thick dough logs and form them a bit to form a disk-like piece. Sprinkle a bit of coarse seasalt on them. I didn’t want to over-do it, 10-15 grains are good enough.

- Bake 12-14 min at 350F. Cool on rack.  

Notes:

- Tahini is sesame butter. Typically used for middle-eastern dishes, usually a dip. But did you know the actual tahini you can buy in grocery stores don’t have additives like sugars and salts and oils, you can make the dip, well you can use it for cookies. Think about it, it’s just like peanut butter, but fancier!

- The coarse sea salt I bought are actually a bit too coarse. I had to use a bowl to grind it down a bit more. No mortar? Not problem. If you have a bowl and a blunt ended wooden spoon, it does the job just fine. I didn’t want to use the finer sea salt as that will melt right into the cookie. The slightly coarse salt (not too coarse, definitely not big chucks rocks of salt) is perfect for a bit of taste and texture. If you have flaked salt that’s great too, if not, just do this little trick I did.

- Melting butter doesn’t have to be complicated either – pop it into microwave, 15-30 seconds does it just fine.

- See original inspiration: https://flourist.com/blogs/recipes/salted-tahini-chocolate-cookies . The portions of sugars are a bit much, so I made adjustments to use less sugar, which is just fine! 

Buy a jar of tahini and do it already! So hard to keep mah hands off of these, as you can see my photo here is missing a couple of cookies already. Oh well, cookies are made for eating, am I right?