Tahini And Olive Oil Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Tahini and olive oil chocolate chunk cookies (vegan)

If you have ever stood in front of a jar of tahini wondering why you only ever use it for hummus, this is the recipe that will change your mind.

These tahini and olive oil chocolate chunk cookies are soft and chewy, deeply chocolaty, and quietly nutty in the background, and they come together in one bowl with nothing more than a fork or a whisk.

No stand mixer, no softened butter, no eggs, and no dairy. Just a bowl, a spatula, and a little patience while the dough chills.

I started baking these on weeknights when the urge hit after dinner and I did not feel like pulling out the mixer. The first time, I stirred everything together in a big ceramic bowl with a fork, covered the dough, and went to bed.

The next afternoon I scooped out half of it and baked a small tray. The edges came out crisp, the middles stayed soft, and the chocolate pooled in all the right places because I had chopped it myself instead of reaching for a bag of chips. That batch never made it to the cooling rack.

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Because there are no eggs and no dairy in this dough, it keeps beautifully in the refrigerator for several days. You can bake as many cookies as you need, exactly when you need them. Two for a quiet cup of tea.

Six for a neighbor who stops by. A full tray when the whole family is home. The dough waits for you, which is a rare and generous thing in baking.

This is also a recipe that rewards a light hand. You are not creaming butter, you are not beating air into anything, and you are not chasing a perfectly uniform crumb. You stir, you chill, you scoop, and you bake.

That is the whole idea, and it is why these cookies have become the ones I make when I want something impressive without a lot of fuss.

Here is what goes into the bowl. The gram weights are worth using if you keep a scale on the counter, since they take the guesswork out of measuring tahini and flour.

The method is genuinely simple, and it works best if you read it through once before you start.

1. If you are using the ground flax seeds, mix them together with the orange juice and set them aside for 5 minutes.
2. Add the olive oil, the tahini, both sugars, the orange juice, the vanilla, the cinnamon, the espresso powder, and the salt to a large bowl. Mix with a fork or a whisk for 1 to 2 minutes, until the sugar is almost dissolved.
3. Combine the flour with the baking soda in a small bowl, then add it to the tahini mixture. Mix gently with a spatula until almost combined. Add the chopped chocolate and mix gently. Refrigerate the dough for 3 to 4 hours or overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 365°F (185°C) and line your pan with baking paper.
5. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. A ¼ cup ice cream scoop will give you exactly 12. Roll each piece into a ball, transfer them to the pan with about 2 to 3 inches of space between each cookie, and sprinkle with some sea salt flakes.
6. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes. The cookies should look slightly underdone in the middle. Take the pan out of the oven and tap it on the counter so the cookies deflate and settle, which gives them a bakery style look. Let them cool for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely. Eat!

A quick word on timing. The recipe card lists 15 minutes of prep and about 11 minutes in the oven, with a total of 26 minutes. That total does not count the chill, and the chill is not optional.

Plan on 3 to 4 hours in the refrigerator, or mix the dough the night before and bake whenever the mood strikes.

The tap that makes them look bakery style. That firm tap on the counter right after baking is my favorite small trick in this recipe. The cookies deflate just enough to crackle at the edges and settle into a soft, slightly domed shape. It takes two seconds and makes a real difference on the plate.

A presentation tip worth stealing. Reserve 2 or 3 pieces of chocolate per cookie and press them onto the top of each dough ball before it goes into the oven. Those pieces stay visible after baking, so the cookies look like they came from a bakery case instead of your kitchen counter.

Storage and make ahead notes. The dough itself is the best thing to keep on hand. Covered in the fridge, it holds for several days, so you can bake a few cookies at a time.

Baked cookies keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days, and they freeze nicely too. If you want warm cookies later, a short spell in a warm oven brings the chocolate back to melting.

Pull the pan while the centers still look a little underbaked. They finish setting as they cool, and that is exactly where the chew comes from.

One batch makes 12 cookies, and the recipe is written as 12 servings, so you can plan your tray accordingly. As a rough guide, the source nutrition note lists about 299 calories per cookie. Serve them with coffee, cold milk, or a spoonful of extra tahini swirled into yogurt on the side.

One easy swap: if you do not keep instant espresso powder in the pantry, use ¼ cup of brewed espresso, about two shots, in place of the orange juice. And if you only have whole flax or chia seeds, grind them in a mortar first so they blend smoothly into the dough.

Why use chopped chocolate and not chocolate chips?

Reach for a good bar of chocolate and a knife instead of a bag of chips, and you will taste the difference in every single bite.

A quality chocolate bar is usually made with better chocolate than the average chip, and chopping it yourself does something a chip simply cannot do. It creates pieces in all different sizes, plus a scatter of tiny shavings and trimmings.

Those little trimmings melt into the dough and carry chocolate flavor through the whole cookie, so even the plain looking bites taste rich and chocolaty. The bigger uneven chunks stay intact and give you pockets of melted chocolate.

Chips, by contrast, are made to hold their shape, which is handy in some recipes but flatter in both flavor and texture here.

You also get a better looking cookie. Uneven pieces mean no two cookies look alike, and every bite is a little different from the last one. Once you get used to chopping your own chocolate for cookies, it is hard to go back to a bag.

There are two things you should have in mind when making these cookies.

Two details decide whether you end up with thick, chewy cookies or flat, lacy ones. Neither is difficult, but both matter, and both are easy to get right once you know why they are there.

The dough needs to be cold. Chilling the dough in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours, or overnight, is what keeps the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.

If you bake the dough while it is still warm, the cookies will spread a lot. They will honestly still be delicious and chewy, so nothing is ruined, but they will not look like the thick, domed cookies in the photos. Cold dough is what gets you there.

These cookies bake at a slightly higher temperature than most. The oven goes to 365°F (185°C), a touch hotter than you might expect for cookies.

That extra heat sets the edges quickly, before the middle has a chance to spread outward, which is exactly how the cookies stay thick.

It also means you should stay near the oven at the end, because higher heat leaves less room for error in the last minute or two.

Some notes/tips:

• Chill the dough very well. A few hours in the fridge makes a real difference, and overnight is even better. The dough is happy to wait for you.
• Use chopped chocolate, not chips. The uneven pieces and the fine trimmings give you better texture and a deeper chocolate flavor.
• Do not over bake. Take the pan out when the centers still look slightly underbaked. They finish setting on the hot pan.
• Tap the pan once. A firm tap on the counter right after baking makes the cookies deflate and settle into that bakery style look.
• Save a few pieces of chocolate. Press 2 or 3 pieces onto the top of each dough ball before baking for a prettier finish.
• Out of espresso powder? Use ¼ cup of brewed espresso, about two shots, instead of the orange juice.

You may like these similar recipes:

If these cookies earn a spot in your regular rotation, there are two more bakes worth trying next. Crispy pistachio and chocolate chip cookies bring a similar love of chocolate with a crunchier bite and a nutty edge. Chocolate covered Greek honey cookies, known as honeyroons, head in a completely different direction with honey, spice, and a chocolate coating.

Both are lovely alongside a cup of coffee, and both come from the same Mediterranean baking tradition that inspired the tahini and olive oil in these cookies. They are also the kind of recipes that make a small weekend baking session feel like a little trip abroad.

If you bake these, I would love to hear how they turned out. Tell me whether you used orange juice, apple juice, or water in the dough, and whether you managed to save any for the next day.

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Tahini and olive oil chocolate chunk cookies (vegan)

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Tahini and olive oil chocolate chunk cookies (vegan) If you have ever stood in front of a jar of tahini wondering why you only ever use it for hummus, this is the recipe that will change your mind. These tahini and olive oil chocolate chunk cookies are soft and chewy, deeply chocolaty, and quietly nutty in the background, and they come together in one bowl with nothing more than a fork or a whisk.

• Total Time: 26 min
• Yield: 12 cookies 1x

Ingredients

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⅓ cup (80 grams) tahini
½ cup (100 grams) extra virgin olive oil
½ cup (100 grams) brown sugar
½ cup (100 grams) sugar
¼ cup orange juice or apple juice or water
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds or chia seeds
2 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon instant espresso powder
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups (200 grams) all-purpose flour
5.3 oz (150 grams) chopped chocolate, at least 55% cocoa
sea salt flakes, for topping

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Instructions

1-If you use the ground flax seeds,: If you use the ground flax seeds, mix them together with the orange juice and set aside for 5 minutes.
2-Transfer the olive oil, the tahini, the: Transfer the olive oil, the tahini, the sugars, the orange juice, the vanilla, the cinnamon, the espresso powder and the salt to a bowl and mix with a fork or a whisk for 1-2 minutes until the sugar is almost dissolved.
3-Combine the flour with the baking soda: Combine the flour with the baking soda in a small bowl and add it to the olive oil/tahini mixture. Mix gently with a spatula until almost combined. Add the chopped chocolate and mix gently.Refrigerate the dough for 3-4 hours or overnight.
4-Preheat oven to 365°F (185°C) and line: Preheat oven to 365°F (185°C) and line your pan with baking paper.
5-Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces: Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces (a ¼ cup ice cream scoop will give you exactly 12 pieces) and roll each piece into a ball. Transfer to the pan, leaving about 2-3 inches distance between each cookie and sprinkle with some sea salt flakes.
6-Bake for 11-12 minutes: Bake for 11-12 minutes. The cookies should look slightly underdone in the middle. Take the pan out of the oven and tap it on the counter for the cookies to deflate and settle. This will give them a bakery-style look. Let them cool for 5 minutes and transfer to a rack to cool completely. Eat!

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• Prep Time: 15 min
• Cook Time: 11 min
• Method: bake

Nutrition

• Calories: 299