Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies

By
Anita Schecter
Anita Schecter_BW
Anita Schecter
Professional recipe developer, food photographer, and blogger with more than a decade of experience creating Middle Eastern recipes.
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Updated on 01/13/22
Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies

The Spruce / Tara Omidvar

Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 16 mins
Refrigerate: 8 hrs
Total: 8 hrs 36 mins
Servings: 12 servings
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
396 Calories
23g Fat
48g Carbs
6g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 12
Amount per serving
Calories 396
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 23g 29%
Saturated Fat 11g 55%
Cholesterol 67mg 22%
Sodium 318mg 14%
Total Carbohydrate 48g 17%
Dietary Fiber 3g 9%
Total Sugars 33g
Protein 6g
Vitamin C 0mg 2%
Calcium 46mg 4%
Iron 2mg 12%
Potassium 182mg 4%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Let's talk about chocolate chip cookies. They can be thin and crisp, thick and crunchy, soft and chewy, etc. and everybody has their own opinion of which is the perfect one. Many friends and spouses find themselves divided about this all-important cookie matter. Sometimes it's just too hard to decide between some delicious store bought options - the small, thick, crumbly cookies vs. those small, soft, molasses laden ones. It's almost enough to make you abandon the chocolate chips altogether and opt for some peanut butter cookies instead. Not that there's anything really wrong with that.

But here's another option to toss into the mix. If you're a little tahini obsessed and regularly make a batch of lemon tahini sauce to pour over everything, there's good news on the cookie front for you. Sweet tahini, with its halva candy taste, is absolutely everything in desserts. This batch of halva brownies will make you wonder how you ever had brownies any other way. And then it'll be time to revisit the chocolate chip cookies.

Raw tahini is just a paste of ground up sesame seeds (think Middle Eastern peanut butter) so it fits into both savory and sweet applications. And when it's added to chocolate chip cookies, it replaces any molasses in providing a chewy texture while adding a hint of that nutty sesame seed taste. This treat should be a hit with all sides of the cookie debate.

Ingredients

  • 1 large egg

  • 1 large egg yolk

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 4 ounces (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

  • 1/2 cup raw tahini

  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

  • Flaky Maldon salt, or sea salt, for topping

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies ingredients

    The Spruce / Tara Omidvar

  2. Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the eggs and sugar until lightened in color. Beat in the butter, sesame paste and vanilla.

    Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the eggs and sugar, with butter, sesame paste and vanilla

    The Spruce / Tara Omidvar

  3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet and then stir in the chocolate chips.

    mix chocolate chips into the cookie dough

    The Spruce / Tara Omidvar

  4. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for about 8 hours or overnight.

    cover cookie dough bowl in plastic

    The Spruce / Tara Omidvar

  5. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

    baking sheet with parchment paper

    The Spruce / Tara Omidvar

  6. Use a cookie scoop to form balls of dough and place them on the parchment lined baking sheet. Keep the dough balls at least 3-inch apart because the cookies will spread. I used a 2 ounces scoop and got about 14 large cookies.

    cookie dough balls on a baking sheet

    The Spruce / Tara Omidvar

  7. Bake for 15 to 16 minutes until the edges are lightly browned. Sprinkle with the salt and then allow the cookies to cool thoroughly before removing them from the baking sheet. The cookies will be very soft when they first come out and will break if you try to move them. Once cool, they will be firm enough to move but remain chewy in the center for a long time.

    Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies on a baking sheet

    The Spruce / Tara Omidvar