Spiced Walnut Tahini Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies
These spiced cookies bring warmth to a cold wintry day. Rye flour, tahini and walnuts add a nuttiness and ginger adds an extra layer of spice to this classic cookie. Plus they're subtly sweetened with mineral-rich dates and coconut sugar.
Servings: 20 cookies (30 smaller ones)
Equipment
- 1 Food processor or hand-chopper (helpful - an electric mixer would work too).
Ingredients
- 1 cup rye flour I used stone-ground, medium rye
- 3/4 cup teff or buckwheat flour
- 2 eggs
- 100 ml tahini sesame paste
- 3.5 oz unsalted butter at room temp
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar or raw cane sugar
- 6 pitted dates
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or more if you like!
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 tbsp grated ginger
- 1/2 tsp crushed black pepper (optional)
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds or more, to coat.
Instructions
- Start by combining the rye flour, teff/buckwheat flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
- In a food processor or hand-chopper or separate bowl, mix butter, tahini, sugar and pitted dates for a few minutes on high speed until properly combined.
- At this point, add your spices or other flavorings. I added the grated ginger and crushed black pepper, but see notes below for other options.
- Add the eggs to the processor and mix until combined.
- Now, add the flour mix to the food processor, one cup at a time and mix completely. You don't want to overmix this.
- Pour the mixture into a bowl, add the chopped chocolate and walnuts and mix to combine.
- Refrigerate for 2 hours until firm or freeze for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 380 degrees F and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- While the oven is pre-heating, use a tablespoon measure to make small-ish balls and coat them in sesame seeds. Then place them on the baking trays an inch apart.
- Bake for about 7 minutes, then remove the trays and bang/smack them down on your kitchen counter a couple times to let them flatten and crack.
- Put the trays back into the oven for another 6-8 minutes until they get slightly golden/browned.
- Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on the baking tray for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Seal in an airtight container for up to 5 days, and enjoy!
Notes
Potential swaps that could work (I have not tried these):
- Flours: If you don't have rye, unbleached whole-wheat flour or whole-wheat pastry flour could work. Buckwheat or any other gluten-free flour should work in place of teff.
- Butter: If you want to make it vegan, replace the butter with coconut oil. It will have a different flavor, but will still taste good.
- Eggs: If you want to skip the eggs, you could use "flax or chia eggs." For every 1 chicken egg, you'd use 1 tbsp ground flax or chia seed + 3 tbsp water. Allow it to thicken for 5 minutes, then use.
- Tahini: You can try almond butter or peanut butter in its place. This will change the flavor of the cookie, but should still work!
- Coconut sugar: You can use raw cane sugar as a replacement, although the latter might make it sweeter.
- Spices: I've used ground black pepper and grated ginger, but you could use ground cinnamon, cardamom or even chili flakes!
- Walnuts: Use other nuts or skip!