Chunky chocolate tahini cookies
These chunky chocolate tahini cookies are nutty, sweet and utterly delicious. Using brown butter for the base, creamy tahini, Dutch cocoa powder and high quality dark chocolate, the resulting cookies are perfectly chewy and crispy. I’m sure these will quickly become your go-to chocolate cookie to make at home.
When I had envisioned this recipe, initially I pictured a flat, wrinkled cookie. But through rounds of testing and finding the perfect balance of flavour between the brown butter, chocolate and tahini, I came to realise that this cookie was just destined to be more of a chunky one, and there are no complaints here.
I think that’s what wonderful about the whole recipe testing process. From ideation through to research, planning and actually cooking the recipe – including rounds of trial and error – we come to the finished dish, and sometimes it’s different to the hypothetical vision that I had at the start, and for the better!
Testing notes from this recipe
See without the chunk and chewiness of these cookies, I just don’t think the’d be as good. The cookies stay small but dome-like, making them chewy in the best way possible, with a crispy bottom and edges. The inside delivers a combination of chocolate/tahini, with pieces of melty dark chocolate studded throughout. When I tested a thinner version of these, the flavour and texture that the tahini brings just doesn’t sing as much as their chunkier, chewier counterparts. And the chunks of chocolate get a little lost as they spread.
Without wanting to compromise on the balance of flavour, I also tried testing these with bicarbonate of soda instead of baking powder, and while they did spread more, I found they were slightly crispier but less chewy. Were they still good? Yes – but they didn’t beat the ones made with baking powder IMHO.
However, you could use baking powder and bicarb of soda interchangeably here, just noting the difference in result 🙂
Why I love these chunky chocolate tahini cookies
- Tahini and chocolate are a match made – the nuttiness of tahini and bittersweet chocolate work perfectly together. If you’re a fan of sesame seeds/nuts in chocolate/halva – these are going to be right up your alley.
- Easy to make – no difficult techniques involved, once the butter is browned all you have to do is mix everything together.
- Can be prepped ahead – the cookie dough can be prepped ahead and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days. Just bring it out to room temperature while you preheat your oven and bake!
- Crispy and chewy – really the best of both worlds. Wonderfully crispy bottoms and edges, and a seriously chewy centre.
Ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe
- Unsalted butter – browned for another dimension of wonderfully toasted, nutty flavour.
- Tahini – I like to use a hulled tahini for a lighter, creamier vibe.
- Sugar – a combination of soft brown sugar and caster sugar add a caramel undertone and sweetness to offset the tahini and dark chocolate
- Cocoa powder – Dutch-processed cocoa powder adds a double chocolate element to these cookies.
- Eggs – one whole egg, plus on egg yolk are mixed into the dough.
- Vanilla – I like to use a vanilla bean paste here – this one is really good value for money.
- Flour – all purpose/plain flour
- Salt – a pinch of salt to season
- Baking powder – this helps keep that lovely dome shape, and results in a chewy, cakey centre
- Dark chocolate – a minimum of 70% cocoa works really well here, bringing a deeply chocolatey, slightly bitter note to these cookies.
Chunky chocolate tahini cookies
Ingredients
- 100 g unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 90 g tahini
- 15 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 150 g soft brown sugar
- 50 g caster sugar
- 1 egg medium size
- 1 egg yolk from a medium size egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 200 g plain flour
- 90 g dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa) chopped into chunks
Instructions
Brown butter
- Place the cubed butter into a pan over a medium heat, whisk frequently to break up the milk solids and as it melts you'll hear it'll splutter and foam up.
- Once the spluttering sound suddenly stops, you'll notice the colour of the melted butter/milk solids will have darkened and it will smell lovely and nutty – this is brown butter!
- Remove from the heat and transfer to a large mixing bowl – set aside to cool for 5-10 minutes (you can also pop it in the fridge to cool).
Cookie dough
- Once the browned butter has cooled, add the sugars, cocoa powder and tahini and combine well with a spatula.
- Next, add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla bean paste and again combine well with a spatula.
- Add the flour, salt and baking powder and stir in with the spatula until the flour is almost combined but there are still some streaks.
- Then add the chopped chocolate and stir until the flour is just combined – it's important not to over-mix.
- Refrigerate the cookie dough for 30 minutes, then remove from the fridge while you preheat the oven to 175c (155c fan forced/345f).
- Use an ice cream scoop to measure the cookies out – as they don't spread much you don't need to leave a huge amount of space between them, but I like to do them in batches of 6-8.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-16 min.
- Allow the cookies to cool entirely on the baking sheet as they will be very soft when you take them out of the oven. Once cooled until firm, you can eat 🙂
