Tahini is an essential ingredient in hummus but it makes desserts sing too.

Tahini is a creamy paste made with ground toasted sesame seeds and a common ingredient in Middle Eastern cuisine. If you’ve never added tahini to anything sweet this cookie recipe is a good place to start.

Think of this cookie as peanut butter cookie’s exotic cousin! The tahini provides a wonderful nutty and salty undertone to match the honey’s intense flavour. Tahini is also nutrient-dense. It has more protein than milk and most nuts, is a rich source of B vitamins, vitamin E, and important minerals, such as magnesium, iron and calcium.

Here are a few notes about this recipe:

Play with the crisp to chewy ratio by adjusting the size and thickness of the rounds of cookie dough as well as the baking time.

I like mine crisp and thin. My sweet spot is a cookie flattened by hand to about a 2 inch diameter, slightly less than a 1/4 inch thick and baked for 7 minutes.

I use creamed honey and I swear it makes for a lighter and crispier cookie but liquid honey does the trick too.

If you can’t imagine these without chocolate, you can (once cooled) drizzle cookies with gently melted dark chocolate.

Honey tahini cookies

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/3 cup creamed honey (liquid honey will do too)

1/3 cup tahini

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

optional : 1/3 cup dark chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 350° F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Spread the sesame seeds in a plate or bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk the almond flour, baking soda and salt.

In a larger bowl, mix the honey, tahini and vanilla extract.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until well incorporated.

Scoop the dough into 1 inch balls. Roll the balls in the sesame seeds, place on baking sheets about 2 inches apart and flatten.

Bake the cookies for about 7 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden; shift the pans from top to bottom halfway through. Transfer the cookies to a rack and let cool before serving. Drizzle with melted chocolate if desired.