Cacao Nibs and Tahini Cookies

I'm a bit of a cookie-fiend... A fact I seem to confess to on a regular basis. I can easily hoover a batch or box of cookies all by my own self, and I never feel guilty about not sharing. Although I will happily give out my go-to recipe, don't expect to be fishing for biscuits in my cookie jar! I have, over the years, accumulated quite a few biscuit recipes, many have been tried and forgotten, others have stuck around for the long haul. Every now and again, new ideas crop up that are difficult to resist.



In case you haven't heard, tahini is living its best life at the moment. Long gone are the days when tahini was that dry store ingredient with only the one use: it is being added to just about any recipe you can think of, and you will be glad you did too. So when I heard that tahini could also serve as dairy-free substitute for butter, well my interest was piqued. After a bit of research, all indicating that it's simply a one-to one swap, I decided to try it out on my oatmeal cookie recipe with a few modifications. Tahini-based cookie dough can be crumblier than butter-based, so I've omitted the oatmeal, for now. I suspect that it may eventually creep back in once I've tested a few more renditions.



Seeing as the oats have been dropped, I've cut back the sugar content, and have used a combination of white sugar and molasses, mainly because I happened to have run out of brown sugar, but also because the sticky molasses aids in binding the dough together. Though feel free to use a well-packed ⅔ cup (135g) brown sugar, if that's what you have on hand - the dough may be a little crumbly, but it will all come together in the oven. As I am not a fan of most chocolate chips, I have opted for cacao nibs, but again use what you have on hand and like.



Cacao Nibs and Tahini Cookies
Makes about 20 cookies

130g/ ½ cup tahini
115g/ ½ cup sugar
65g/ 3 Tbs molasses
1 egg
130g/ 1cup flour
4g/ 1tsp baking powder
50g/ ¼ cup cacao nibs
35g/ ¼ cup chopped pistachios, optional
40g/ ¼ cup chopped cashew nuts, optional

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF
In a large mixing bowl, combine the tahini, sugar, molasses and egg until thoroughly mixed together.
Stir in the nuts and cacao nibs, if using.
Combine the flour and baking powder together, stirring well to break up any lumps. Add to the liquids, and mix.
The dough might not readily come together, but it should be sticky enough to form balls.
Use a small scooper or wet hands to form evenly sized balls, and place on lined baking sheets.
Smoosh the dough until each cookie is about 5mm (¼") thick.
Place the baking sheets in the oven, and bake 8-10 minutes.
The cookies should be golden brown around the edges, dry-looking and puffed up -they will collapse somewhat as they cool down.
Allow to cool down completely on the sheets.



This cookie dough will not spread out very much during baking, not smooshing them down will result in a more cakey biscuit. The baking time given is for soft and chewy cookies: it is important to ensure the cookies' surface looks dry: any oily sheen will result in cookies too soft to lift from the baking sheet.





Bon App'!