Tahini-Coffee cookies

La Boheme: c'est moi.

(La Boheme: it's me.)

This is just a short intro of who I am. If you’d like to learn more about me, please visit my personal blog BohemianTranscendence.com on which I talk about philosophy, life, and, of course, myself.

I first claimed I could cook at age 19, just when I started doing regular strength. Of course, at that time, my idea of cooking was limited to knowing how to make a good lettuce salad and how to grill chicken. I was probably one of the few people on earth who didn’t mind eating the same meal over and over and over again. Things changed about two years later when I moved to the U.S. and discovered in cooking a way of preserving my culture. Preparing traditional dishes for dinner parties with friends or for the holidays was how I expressed part of myself as an individual. Without noticing, I slowly picked up more and more recipes and even began to (successfully) improvise with my own ones.

Nowadays, I continue my “studies” in the domain of cooking, always looking to combine healthy with tasty, while living what I describe as a modern bohemian lifestyle. And of course, I hope to share with you what I enjoy sharing so much with my friends.

Welcome to my BohemianKitchen.

PS: On the picture, I am at a friend's house, holding a delicious French Tarte Tatin, seconds before turning it upside down.

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laboheme[at]bohemiankitchen[dot]com

Posted by La Boheme at 4:10 pm on May 15, 2011. 9 Comments.
Categories: Cookies. Tags: Coffee • Tahini.

I usually need to refill my pantry quite frequently. But, sometimes, there is one particular item which just hangs out in there for a bit longer than the usual. And sometimes, this bit lasts long enough to make me feel guilty about leaving it to be the only one ingredient not being regularly used. That’s when I decide I must include it into something.

This time, it was the tahini jar.

For my last falafel-hummus craving, I had decided to make everything from scratch and that of course involved getting tahini. (Or, is it really from scratch if you don’t make the tahini yourself? Hmm..) The only issue with that the huge amount left in the jar afterward. What could I do with it? And then, it hit me.

And by “it hit me”, I mean the cookie craving. That left me with a very important question. What kind of?

Another hit. If you can make almond butter and peanut butter cookies, why not tahini ones? That’s how I came up with this recipe.
The result: delicious, crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside cookies. Definitely a must try. Whether you have leftover tahini or not. Believe me, the jar got empty really quickly making those over and over again.

Ingredients

1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/3 all-purpose flour
~ 1/2 cup coffee
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Apricot, fig, or some other jam you like, optional

Directions

0. Preheat oven to 350°F.
1. Mix well tahini and sugar.
2. Add flour, salt, baking soda, and vanilla extract to the tahini-sugar mixture and slowly pour the coffee, using just enough to combine the ingredients. (How much coffee you end up needing will partially depend on your tahini.) The dough should hold together, that’s all.
3. Form cookies, place on baking sheet, and bake about 20 minutes/ until golden. (I have the habit of making my cookies particularly thick which required me to bake them for a whole 25 minutes! If you make yours really slim, decrease your time accordingly to 15 minutes.)
4. Serve with jam for dipping if desired. I found out those cookies go pretty well with apricot jam, but I’m quite sure you could use any , or just enjoy them without any additions.