Cardamom and Tea

tahini chocolate chip cookies

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These tahini chocolate chip cookies are big and chewy, crisp around the edges, crackly on the surface, and have that perfect combination of chocolate and tahini. I love using milk chocolate, but you can absolutely use dark chocolate if you prefer.

Skip to the recipe + video if you’re ready to bake, or read on to learn all about what sets this recipe apart (and to get some useful tips and tricks to getting the perfect tahini chocolate chip cookie).

why I love these tahini chocolate chip cookies

There are a ton of tahini chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, so here are some things I love about this recipe in particular:

1) milk chocolate + tahini

Most recipes with tahini and chocolate insist on dark or semi-sweet chocolate. I feel like this is because tahini is often typecast as extremely ✨sophisticated✨. But to me, tahini is full of childhood nostalgia. And while it’s great with dark chocolate, it’s a whole different kind of amazing with milk chocolate (think sesame-flavored Reese’s cups).

You can use either though, so feel free to use whichever you prefer (or whichever you have on hand).

2) crackly sesame seed coating

The sesame seed coating on these is next-level good. It helps them get that extra-craggy texture with lots of cracks and crinkles on the surface. And it adds so much extra toasted sesame flavor.

3) chewy-crunchy texture

These cookies are perfectly chewy-crisp. The key is knowing exactly when to pull them from the oven. I’ll share a bit more about that in the recipe notes below.

a few tips and tricks:

If you follow the recipe below, you’ll do just fine, but here’s a bit more info on what works and what doesn’t:

1) why rest your cookie dough?

You can absolutely make the recipe below with 0 minutes of resting. But even just a quick snooze in the fridge will do them so much good. Resting allows the flour to fully hydrate and the sugars to dissolve. Resting is the reason why store-bought cookie dough bakes up so dang well.

Even just 30 minutes makes a difference, in my experience, but you’ll get a lot more payoff from resting it more like 2 hours or longer. After the first 6 hours of resting, there are diminishing marginal returns, but it’ll just keep improving over the first day or two.

2) storing leftover cookies or dough:

Leftover cookies will keep at room temperature for a few days before staling. If you’re baking for a crowd, feel free to just bake them all up at once, but if you want to make them for fewer people, do the following:

  • Let the dough rest however long you’d like.
  • Form all the dough balls and coat in sesame seeds, place them on a parchment-lined sheet pan, and smash their tops down slightly as in the recipe.
  • Bake however many you want right away. Place the rest of them in the freezer until frozen solid, move to a sealable bag, then store in the freezer. You can bake them right from frozen, but note that they will take an extra minute or two. Keep a close eye on them.

3) knowing when to pull them from the oven:

Even if you use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is calibrated (as I and many other recipe developers do), your oven still might be a little quirky. Ovens are an incredibly finicky heat source. All ovens conduct heat a little differently, and all ovens lose heat a little differently when you first open the door. And if you don’t weigh your cookie dough blobs (I mean, I do, but you 100% don’t have to!), they might take a little longer or shorter to bake, depending on their size.

With something like a loaf of banana bread, it’s no big deal, but 1 extra minute can make or break a cookie. And this goes for any cookie recipe, so always keep it in mind!

So for sure set a timer, but also keep an eye on your cookies. It might take 1 to 2 minutes more or less for them to become the perfect consistency. I’ve included some visual and tactile clues in the following recipe, which also has a video.

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Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

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5 from 1 review

  • Yield: about 20 big cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups [230g] flour
  • 1/2 tsp [2.5g] baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups [240g] chocolate chips *
  • 1 stick [115g] unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup [100g] granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup [100g] brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp [3g] salt
  • 1 large egg [50g]
  • 1/2 cup [125g] tahini
  • 1 Tbsp [15g] milk
  • 1 tsp [5g] vanilla
  • 2/3 cup [90g] sesame seeds

Instructions

  1. Combine the flour and baking soda in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk together until evenly blended and lump-free. Stir the chocolate chips into the dry ingredients.
  2. Place the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat at medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until a little lighter and fluffier. Scrape down the sides, and add the egg, tahini, milk, and vanilla. Beat at medium-high speed until silky-smooth and lighter in color (about 1 minute).
  3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix at low speed just until it all comes together. Stop mixing once it’s combined.
  4. Cover and rest the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, up to 48 hours.**
  5. Once you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F [190°C] and line some sheet pans with parchment paper.
  6. Shape the dough into scant-1/4-cup blobs [50g]. Roll one between your hands until smooth, then roll in the sesame seeds, and then place on a prepared sheet pan. Gently press the dough ball’s top down slightly so it’s just a little flattened. Repeat with the remaining ones, leaving space between each cookie (they will spread).
  7. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are set, but the centers aren’t completely set. Slide the parchment off the pan and let the cookies cool right on the parchment.

Notes

* I like using milk chocolate chips here, but dark or semi-sweet also work great.

** The longer you let it rest, the better the cookies’ texture will be. This step isn’t really about chilling the dough, as it can be baked the moment you finish mixing it. See the note above the recipe for more info on resting.

Video note: You can find the video in the introduction to this blog post. If you don’t see it after scrolling up, please disable ad block and reload the page.

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Authentic Vegan Baklava (the easy way)

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This baklava recipe isn’t a veganized version of classic baklava—it’s actually a traditional vegan baklava! Lots of Assyrians spend a big chunk of the year fasting from animal products. So during certain months (Lent, advent, and a few other fasting days), we sub out our clarified butter for extra virgin olive oil. So this is exactly how we make our baklava for the vegan times of the year, and how we’ve done so for centuries.

Strangely, extra virgin olive oil tastes more buttery than butter itself. And while clarified butter isn’t quite as high-maintenance as it might seem, there’s nothing easier than opening a bottle of olive oil. So these days, my baklava is vegan more often than not!

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what makes this vegan baklava so easy

1) Slice and pour instead of brushing each layer individually.

My grandmother has been making her baklava this way forever, and it turns out perfectly every time. Just stack, slice, and pour. The olive oil seeps into each layer, and it ends up super flaky and rich. See the video above or the recipe below to see this technique in action:

2) Just pop open a bottle of olive oil!

Literally, just open the bottle, measure, and pour! No need to fuss with clarifying butter (or vegan butter substitute).

3) Use a food processor to chop the nuts.

I’m gonna be really embarrassed if my grandmother reads this one (😬), but here’s my secret: Use a food processor to chop everything! Just make sure you stop short of turning the walnuts into walnut butter. Once they’re finely chopped, stop pulverizing them. Do the pistachios first, remove from the food processor and set aside for later, then move onto the walnut mixture without washing it between.

4) Start with the right proportions for a fail-proof syrup.

To make a simple syrup with the perfect consistency, you need to do one of two things: use a candy thermometer, or start with the exact right amount of sugar and water, boil it just until it dissolves, and then continue to let it simmer for a couple minutes with the lid on to prevent crystal formation.

Many recipes have you start with excess water, and then boil it down for a certain number of minutes, but this will result in a wide range of consistencies if you’re not using a thermometer. Depending on how wide your pan is, more or less water will boil off in the amount of time. And it’s very tricky to determine whether it’s the right consistency while it’s simmering (unless you’re already a pro).

This recipe uses the exact right amount of both water and sugar, for a syrup with the perfect consistency no matter what. Just make sure you don’t let it continue to boil uncovered, or it will reduce and turn into hard candy.

Also note that this syrup may crystalize a little as it cools, which is completely fine and won’t affect the final product. This is a side effect of not starting with more water and cooking it down, but a small price to pay if you’re not working with a candy thermometer (which I realize most folks don’t have on hand). If, on the other hand, you get crystallization while the syrup is cooking, it’s because a little bit of sugar stuck to the side of the pot and fell back in, which is just a mistake that can happen when making any syrup. In that case, you should start over, because it probably won’t be very pourable.

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Authentic Vegan Baklava (the easy way)

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4.8 from 10 reviews

Ingredients

For the syrup:

  • 2½ cups [500 g] granulated sugar
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 cup [235 g] water
  • 1 tablespoon [15 g] rosewater

For the baklava:

  • 16 oz [455 g] unopened container filo dough sheets
  • 16 oz [455 g] walnuts
  • 2 teaspoons [4 g] ground cardamom
  • 2 teaspoons [4 g] ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon [1 g] ground cloves
  • 1 cup [210 g] extra virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing

To decorate: Optionally use 1/3 cup [55 g] finely ground pistachios and/or a sprinkling of edible dried rose petals, or just leave it plain.

Instructions

  1. Place your filo in the refrigerator overnight to thaw.

Notes

* I use a standard 8×13 inch, but you can use whatever pan you have that will accommodate the size of your filo dough.

** Note: If your pistachios are not already ground, throw them in the food processor before washing it while your baklava bakes. Pulse them until they’re finely ground, but before they turn into a paste.

*** If the kitchen is a little on the warm side, feel free to place them in the fridge to help them set more firmly.

Video note: You can find the video in the introduction to this blog post. If you don’t see it after scrolling up, please disable ad block and reload the page.

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