Chocolate Chip Tahini Oatmeal Cookies

I was looking at recipes the other day when I came across a recipe for tahini-oatmeal cookies– it billed itself as being vegan, gluten-free, and whole-grain, which ordinarily wouldn’t be in its favor, but it occurred to me that I probably had some leftover tahini in the fridge, so I decided to give it a shot. Sure enough, I had about an inch of tahini left in my jar– just enough to eke out the 1/3 cup necessary for the recipe– plus a few spoonfuls of almond flour leftover from my aquafaba macarons, so it was clearly fate!

Since there was no additional fat in the recipe the dough went together quickly, though it didn’t spread at all in the oven so the resulting cookies ended up a bit too doughy to qualify as “cookies” in my book. I think next time I’ll flatten them out a bit more and hope they crisp up around the edges. I do appreciate the tahini flavor, though, which (as I’ve said before) goes excellently with dark chocolate, and is helped along by a healthy dose of salt. Oddly enough, the combination of tahini and oats reminds me a bit of walnuts, which would also go excellently in these cookies if you so desired.

Chocolate Chip Tahini Oatmeal Cookies (from Choosing Chia)

Makes 12 small cookies

1/3 cup tahini

6 tbsp. maple syrup

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup almond flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 tsp. kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Stir tahini and maple syrup together until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon, almond flour, oats, salt, and chocolate chips.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients to make a dough.

5. Form into 12 balls and place onto a foil- or parchment-lined baking sheet. Squish them down a bit to flatten.

6. Sprinkle a bit more salt on each cookie and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will look underdone but they’ll firm up on the baking sheet.

7. Cool at least 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing.