Ahhh, tahini(a)! Will I ever get tired of you! Judy in my afternoon PC Cooking School, “What’s for Dinner” class at Bayview Village said it best! I said, who would have thought of putting it in sweet recipe? She said “when you think about it, it’s just like peanut butter”. Now that’s thinking out out of the box! Love the fact that she thought of it that way and it makes perfect sense.
As I’ve said before, we all have a jar of this stuff in our cupboard from when we made hummus right? If not, go out and buy one. The taste of this cookie is so worth it. Even the chocolate filling has tahini in it. So really – dust that jar off or just go buy one. Nice recipe, everything comes together well. Made it a couple of times and the second time around, I added some Nutella. It did not need to be added, but why not try it! Don’t forget to stir the tahini well before using it. There are some brands which really don’t need that much stirring as they have done something to keep everything suspended evenly. Not sure I like that, so I prefer the one that is far from its expiry date and needs to be stirred to get fully incorporated. The taste is stronger as well.
This is a flavor packed cookie as tahini is no slouch in the taste department. It’s nutty, it’s smoky, it’s unctuous on the tongue (oh come on now, Nigella would say that if she were writing this blog!) The original recipe made a lot of chocolate so I cut the quantities in half and still had some left over. You know I hate to waste food – so we just had to have it on ice cream, pound cake, to dunk cookies in, to add to strong coffee to… well you get the idea!
For the Cookies:
10 tablespoons unsalted Churn 84, butter
¾ cup tahini, stirred
⅔ cup sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
¼ cup sesame seeds
For the Ganache:
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
¼ cup tahini
¼ cup honey
1 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 cup heavy cream (35%)
Preheat the oven to 350° – line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside
In a medium bowl, combine the butter, tahini, sugar and salt
Using an electric hand mixer or your stand mixer, beat the mixture until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes
Add the flour and mix until a dough comes together – it will be loose and almost not quite what you’d expect at this stage
Scrape it onto a sheet of parchment paper and form a log about 1 1/2” in diameter – the cookies will spread so this is a good size
Refrigerate for 1 hour or freeze for 30 minutes
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the chocolate chips, tahini, honey and kosher salt
In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil and immediately pour over the chocolate mixture
Let sit for 4 minutes, then whisk until smooth
Let this cool completely
When the cookie dough has firmed to the touch, remove it to a cutting board and working swiftly, cut into 1/4” thick slices
Arrange the cookies on the parchment lined baking tray about 1 inch apart
Bake 18 to 20 minutes until lightly golden
– remember to turn the cookie over before applying the filling – you want a finished cookie on the outsides of the sandwich. Will it spoil if you don’t? Will you forever be labelled as a non-conforming cookie person? No, it will be just as delicious as if you flipped the cookies the way they do in bakeries. Really a visual thing!
When the cookies have cooled, you can either use a teaspoon or a piping bag to fill the cookies Sandwich the filling by topping off with another cookie, press lightly – oh yes if it oozes out the sides – YUM, they look so much better in a picture
As always – enjoy!
