Chocolate tahini cookies

Chocolate tahini cookies

chocolate tahini cookies

As many of you know I live on a small Greek island called Paros. This year the wonderful Greek climate has been fighting against the chillier autumn weather and we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy warm and sunny weather… until now. As soon as November arrived, the days got shorter and we are starting to remember what it feels like to be cold. We’ve even had to start doing crazy Northern European things like wear socks and warm slippers.

The cat, who spent all of summer prowling outside and sleeping face down on cool marble floor tiles is sneaking up to our bed to sleep during the day. Autumn chill has officially arrived.

Two months ago the idea of a hot cup of tea would have brought cries of “are you kidding?!?” resonating throughout the household, but now hot tea seems like a wonderful idea. And what better accompaniment to tea than a nice biscuit?

So, taking all this into account, I decided to take one of my favourite recipes of last year, my tahini cookies, and elevate them by making them into chocolate tahini cookies. What biscuit isn’t made better by the addition of chocolate?

These cookies are unbelievably easy to make, require only 6 ingredients and taste soooo good. They are vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar free so pretty much guilt-free too 😉 .

chocolate tahini cookies top down

chocolate tahini cookies tray

chocolate tahini cookies close

snatching chocolate tahini cookies

makes
16
PREP
15 min
COOKING
10 min
makes
16
PREPARATION
15 min
COOKING
10 min
INGREDIENTS
  • 120 ml / ½ cup maple syrup*
  • 90 ml / ¼ + 1/8 cup tahini**
  • 90 gr / 1 cup walnut halves, ground finely (approx. ¾ cup ground walnuts)
  • 135 gr / approx. 1 + ¼ cup buckwheat flour
  • heaped ½ tsp baking soda
  • 4 level tbsp / ¼ cup cacao powder
  • fine sea salt (optional)
  • white sesame seeds to decorate (optional)
METHOD
  1. In a bowl, whisk up maple syrup and tahini until fully combined and there are no lumps in your tahini.
  2. Mix in ground walnuts until fully combined.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine sifted flour, baking soda and cacao powder. Add it to the tahini mixture in 3 batches. The mixture will be thick and sticky so it’s best to use your hands. (If you’ve swapped buckwheat flour for a gluten flour, be careful not to overmix the dough as the cookies will come out hard).
  4. Weigh the dough and divide it into 16 even pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and dip it in a plate of sesame seeds mixed in with a bit of salt (if using), press the ball down with a bottom of a glass to create a ½ cm thick 5 cm (2 in) diameter disc.
  5. Once you get all the discs coated in sesame seeds, put them into the fridge for about 40 min. 30 min in, pre-heat the oven to 175° C / 350° F.
  6. Bake in a hot oven for 10-12 mins. Remove the biscuits from the oven, transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool down completely before eating. Store in an airtight container.

NOTES
*These cookies aren’t overly sweet. If you want them sweeter, add 2 tbsp of sugar (coconut or cane sugar, for example) to the dry ingredients before incorporating them into the tahini and maple syrup. You could also add more maple syrup to increase the sweetness but then you’ll need to compensate with a bit more buckwheat flour for the dough to have the consistency of play dough.

**If your tahini has separated, make sure you stir the oil back in before using it in this recipe.

This recipe is based on my previous recipe for tahini cookies.

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NUTRITIONAL INFO
calories
140
7%
sugars
6 g
7%
fats
8 g
11%
saturates
1 g
5%
proteins
4 g
7%
carbs
16 g
6%
*per cookie
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5.0
8 reviews, 40 comments
REVIEWS & QUESTIONS
Sanaa:
Hi I tried out this recipe ! But my cookies weren’t firm they were all crumbly I’m not sure why but the taste was still very good
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Sanaa
    I'm sorry to hear that. It would be due to either too little liquid or too much dry ingredients used - this can happen when cup measurements (rather than scales) are used to dry ingredients, for example. Hope you'll give them another go. x Ania
Isabelle:
Hello, can i replace buckwheat flour with almond flour ?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Isabelle! You could, but there are already finely ground walnuts in the recipe so perhaps rice flour would be better? Also be mindful that a different amount of almond/rice flour may be needed as different flours have different absorbency levels. Hope this helps! Ania
      Isabelle:
      Thank you for the tip! I made the cookies I used 135 grams of rice flour however i was wondering should i use less and can i remove the walnuts ?
      Regards ❤️
        Ania
        Ania:
        Hi Isabelle,
        I would keep them (or replace with almond meal if you prefer) as they make these cookies more tender and add a lot of flavour (almonds will add less as they are subtler). Hope this helps! x Ania
          Isabelle:
          Thank you veeeery much i’m loving the recipe my husband ate them all already 😌 ❤️❤️
          Ania
          Ania:
          Aw, that's fantastic to hear! x Ania
Vanessa:
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Pleasure! About 5 days in a tin, I would say but they never last that long in my house. Ania
Suzanne:
This looks so good! I've never tried this flavor combination before!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thank you, I hope you'll enjoy them if you decide to try. Ania
Maria Anadi:
May I use rice malt instead of maple syrup? And almonds instead of walnuts?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Maria,
    Yes, I am pretty sure that they will both work well too! x Ania
Fareen:
Hey Ania!
I’ve had these cookies from a Greek bakery (in London, UK) before and love them so really looking forward to making them myself. I was wondering if there was any substitute for the walnuts that might work because I’ve got a guest with a tree-nut allergy (she can only have peanuts, for example).
Thanks in advance!
Fareen
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Fareen,
    I'm glad you are planning to making these and I hope they will hit the spot! As for the substitution, typically I would recommend almond meal for example, but in this case maybe finely ground sesame seeds or sunflower seeds would be your best bet. You could also try rice flour as it will make them a bit lighter too. They will be a bit different, but should work equally well. Hope that helps! Ania
wallace baisden:
Killer recipe! I'm gonna swap coconut flour for the buckwheat flour. i think it will work.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks, I'm glad to hear that you liked it! Ania
Yasmeen:
Many thanks for the amazing recipe! I have made it several times already with different nuts too (walnuts and peanuts)
I buckwheat flour is not available where I live so I use oat flour, I divided the dough into 24 cookies instead of 16 (because more cookies, right?), the result was incredible crispy cookies instead of soft, which is how I actually prefer my cookies :)
The first time to make it I felt it was not sweet enough for me, so the following times I eliminated the cocoa powder and increased the amount of flour a bit, it was a huge hit in my house.
I plan on experimenting a bit more and try using date paste for sweetening as well.
Love it!
Yasmeen
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks, Yasmeen! :) Glad to hear that the recipe has inspired you to experiment! Ania
Irene:
Very nice recipe. I mix maple syrup with maple butter. The cookies are delicious and healthy. Iam thinking of replacing maple syrup with honey next time.
Thank you have a nice day!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks, Irene! I'm delighted to hear that you like it! Ania
Talya:
Thanks so much for the recipe! I have just tweaked it to use agave nectar instead of honey to suit my reactive hypoglycemia I’ve just put them in the oven and can’t wait to try them!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks, Talya! I hope you'll enjoy them!! Ania (PS: I don't use honey either as it isn't vegan)
Dips:
Hi Ania,
I was wondering If I could subsititute Maple syrup with Honey and Walnuts with Almonds and Gluten free flour. In the comments above I saw someone has substituted honey and Almond but not the Gluten Free Flour. Any Idea ?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Yes, I think it should work fine as buckwheat flour is also gluten-free by default (it may have traces of gluten through cross-contamination during processing unless GF certified) so I don't see why an all purpose gluten-free flour would not work. Hope that helps! Ania
Marijo:
Hi, When I read the recipe, I wondered that there is no fat, other than the one in tahini and the nuts, and when I read the message of Sita, I remembeted some experiences of my own, when cookies or other biscuits tasted dry, and they where without fat too, so I always thought that was the reason. I’d like to try those adding some vegetable oil or so. What do you think? Thanks for uour answer. Can’t rate as I dis not yet try it out.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Marijo,
    Please feel free to adjust to your liking, but I cannot make any promises about the outcome, I'm afraid. Ania
Jenny:
have just made my second batch of these biscuits. They’re really yummy, so thank you for the recipe! I didn’t have enough maple syrup, so substituted with puréed banana. Seemed to work quite well 😀
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thank you, Jenny! That's great to hear and great thinking about incorporating a banana in too! Ania
Audrey:
Une belle réussite, merci pour cette chouette recette !
    Ania
    Ania:
    Merci, Audrey! :) Ania
leatinosaure:
I was sceptical so I did half a batch AND I SHOULDN'T HAVE because there will be nothing left for my friends tomorrow...
Amazing recipe thanks a lot !
    Ania
    Ania:
    ha ha, thanks so much, Lea :) Glad to gear you enjoyed them! Ania
Laana:
Delicious ! Turned out great ( soft as promised) even though I had only tahini and raw cocoa at hand and had to substitute all the rest: I used honey instead of maple syrup, ground almonds and oat flour. Nearly finished them all myself , will definitely make again! Love your blog! Thank you!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Aw, thanks so much Laana! I'm so pleased to hear that you liked them :) and THANK YOU for taking the time to leave a nice comment!! Ania
I made these and am obsessed! So delicious - such an interesting flavor and texture! I was wondering how long they will last if they were refrigerated? I want to give to a friend but not seeing for a couple days...
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hey Stefani,
    Thanks so much for kind words, I'm so pleased to hear that you liked them! I'm not sure how long they will last as nothing ever lasts long in my house (my boyfriend eats like a horse ;) ) but worth giving it a shot, for sure. x Ania
Eden Passante:
These look SO good! Yum!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks, Eden! :) Ania
Casey:
These are adorable and sound simple and delicious!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much, Casey! :)
Fanny:
yummm!! I love chocolate and Tahini :)
    Ania
    Ania:
    That makes two of us ;) Thanks for stopping by, Fanny!
Sita:
Hi Katie,
My cookies came out really, really dry and I followed the recipe. They would have had good flavor but were almost too dry to chew.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Sita
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Sita,
    Hmm, I'm not sure, they are soft cookies but certainly shouldn't be dry. Did you use exactly the same flours and amounts as I did? When you were forming the cookies was your mixture like play-dough or crumbly? Did you use raw cocoa or cacao?
    Ania (not Katie, btw ;) )
Maria:
Is it possible to replace buckweat flour?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Maria,
    Depends which flour you have in mind...I'm pretty sure rice flour and oat flour would work fine, for example. If you want to use wheat flour, you'll need to incorporate the flour very gently as otherwise you'll activate gluten and the cookies will end up tough.
    Hope that helps,
    Ania
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