"What cookies will you make this time?” my younger son asked when the cookie jar was almost empty. “I think I’ll make tahini cookies”. There was no mistake in his expression, “Tahini??” “yes” I answered, “you like Halva, right?” “yes” he said “well, tahini and halva are made out of the same ingredient, sesame”. “Ok” he answered and went to his room. What this “ok” really meant was something along the lines of: ugh, another one of my dad’s non-edible kitchen improvisations…
I like tahini, I always have. This is one of my favorite foods ever since I can remember. I love dishes with tahini like sinaia (meat and tahini casserole), green tahini salad with lots of garlic, lemon and parsley, and even raw tahini. I can eat raw tahini by the spoonful. When I was young, I’d take a loaf of bread, take out the soft inside, spread raw tahini generously, put the soft inside back in and enjoy every bite of it. Until recently, tahini always went along with savory dishes. Only a few years ago I started to combine tahini with cookies and cakes.
When my son saw my tahini cookies for the first time, he wasn’t thrilled. Fortunately, contrary to how I was at his age, my foodie son is willing to taste almost anything. “Mmm it’s not bad, dad” he said with a full mouth, reaching for another cookie, and a another one.
Ingredients
1 ¾ sticks of melted butter
¾ cup sugar
1 cup tahini
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups self rising flour
Sugar power
Halved almonds
In a mixer bowl with paddle attachment , cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add tahini and continue blending until absorbed. Add vanilla and flour and beat just until dough is formed.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. cover baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll balls to the size of a pingpong ball and place on the sheet, leaving a 1 inch space between balls. Press half an almond on each ball, and bake for 18 minutes until cookies are slightly cracked. The cookies should be bright and soft, they gets hard after they cool down. spread sugar powder and keep in closed container for up to 4 days (if you can help it).
