Tahini Chocolate Chunk Cookies (with Rye Flour)

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...What I love most about these cookies is that they’re endlessly versatile. I like to add rye flour to the batter for extra nuttiness, and flake salt before baking for a pop of flavor and crunch, but you could easily use entirely all purpose flour and leave the flake salt out completely. If you’re not into chocolate, you could substitute the two cups of chocolate chunks with two cups of chopped dried fruit or chopped nuts. If you’re feeling adventurous (or frisky?) you can even use all three. In keeping with romantic cliches, just as in matters of finding true love, these cookies benefit from patience. If you chill the batter overnight the cookies taste even better when you bake them off the next day. But between you and me, you can break the rules and succumb to instant gratification and make the cookies the same day and they’ll still work out just fine.

I always hope that Valentine’s Day can be less a celebration of coupledom and traditional forms of romantic love, and more of a an excuse to celebrate all love-filled relationships, including with one’s self. I can assure you that whether these are made for your partner, secret crush, lonely hearts club band, or for you yourself and only you, making these cookies in all their tahini-chocolate goodness is a rich expression of love and all things good.

Tahini Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

¾ cup all purpose flour

¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons rye flour (optional, can substitute this with all purpose flour)

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup tahini

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 cups (8 oz) chopped chocolate chunks or chips

Flake salt, as needed (optional)

Directions:

1.     In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, rye flour if using, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Reserve.

2.     Using a stand-mixer or handheld electric mixer, cream together the tahini, butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. You can also do this by hand, but it will take slightly longer.

3.     Add in the egg, and mix until well incorporated.

4.     On a low speed, slowly add in the flour mixture to the tahini mixture. Mix until just incorporated, be careful not to overmix.

5.     Stir in the chocolate chunks until just incorporated. Ideally, refrigerate the cookie dough for 24 hours or overnight. If you can’t wait that long, let it chill in the fridge for at least one hour.

6.     Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

7.     Scoop out the dough, one heaping tablespoon at a time, and roll into equal-sized balls. You can also use a small ice cream scoop to do this. Place the dough balls on the baking sheets a few inches apart - they will spread as they bake. Sprinkle the dough with flake salt, if desired.

8.     Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden around the edges. Allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

9.     Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Tahini Cookies

I've been interested in these tahini cookies since I first saw them in Bon Appetit last November.  I love tahini, and I always keep a jar of the stuff on hand for dips and salad dressings. My personal favorite is the Whole Foods brand organic tahini; it runs about 6 dollars and lasts for many months in the fridge.

Having finally made these cookies, I think they're prettier looking, and nicer sounding than their actual taste. They're not bad, but they remind me a lot of Halvah (the sesame seed paste based dessert common across the Middle East). To be fair, I also tried to modify them a little. I used coconut oil instead of butter. I love the taste of butter, but I was interested to see if these cookies could be made vegan (they can). I also added some almond butter; I wanted more nut flavor and less flour. I think that modification actually worked pretty well, but it isn't necessary. 

Having said that, why am I posting them here? 1) To review it for the curious. 2) These are super easy cookies to make and bake 3) To suggest some un-tested modifications. At the end of the day, I love the idea of this. I love sesame seeds. I love a good nut-butter cookie. One of my favorites is a recipe my friend Kari showed me that is a flourless peanut butter cookie (peanut butter, eggs, sugar, that's about it). I am going to include the recipe below, but if I make these again I would probably make them with less flour and slightly less sugar, too.

If you don't like sesame flavor, skip this. These cookies live up to their name. They capture all that "tahini" taste and texture.

Tahini Cookies
Recipe by Claire Saffitz for Bon Appetit (November, 2014) - With some very slight modifications

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (I omitted)
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup tahini
1/4 cup room temperature unsalted butter (or coconut oil)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
1 tablespoons white sesame seeds (or substitute for all black sesame seeds)
2 tablespoons demerara or Turbinado sugar

• Preheat oven to 350°. 
• Pulse flour, pine nuts, powdered sugar, tahini, butter, and salt in a food processor until dough forms a ball around blade. (I made this with my hands in a bowl.... it seemed to work totally fine).
• Mix black sesame seeds and demerara sugar in a small bowl. Form dough into 1” balls and roll in sesame seed mixture. Place on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet, spacing 2” apart, and flatten slightly. Bake cookies until lightly golden, 20–25 minutes.

Transfer to a rack and allow to fully cool before serving. Lasts 3-4 days in an air tight container.