Tahini Cookies

One of the blogs I read, Cooks Book, had a great recipe for tahini cookies. Since I always have a jar of tahini in the fridge for emergency hummus cravings or for a quick Asian, peanutty dressing I thought I'd give it a try. They turned out really wonderful! Not to sweet and slightly less peanutty than peanut butter cookies. Tahini, in case you didn't know is made from sesame seeds but has a peanutty flavor ( I keep saying peanutty, is that a real word???)  I altered Marissa's recipe only slightly, cutting the butter in half and using applesauce instead as I do for most of my baked goods ( 1/2 the fat ). I also cut out a bit of the sugar, so my cookies were fluffy and not overly sweet.  Thanks for the creative and yummy recipe Marissa!

YIELDS     3 DOZEN SMALL COOKIES... MORE OR LESS ;-)
What you will need:

- 3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp kosher salt

- 1/2 cup  unsalted butter, softened

- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

- 1 cup well-stirred tahini

- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

- 1 cup (loosely packed) dark brown sugar

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1 large egg



Putting it all together:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.

• In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat butter, tahini and vanilla on medium speed until no streaks of butter are visible, about 3 minutes. Add both sugars and beat to combine. Reduce speed to low, add applesauce and beat in half of flour mixture. Add egg and beat to combine, then beat in remaining flour mixture.
Lightly spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, or line with parchament paper.

• With lightly floured palms, roll dough into balls about 1 1/4 inches in diameter. Place them about 1 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. With two fingers, gently but firmly press each dough ball to flatten slightly and create indentions.

• Bake, rotating the sheets halfway through, until cookies are golden on bottom, about 14 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let cookies cool completely.



PRINT THIS RECIPE!

 A bit of strawberry preserves went well with these little treasures!

Variation:  top them with a pecan or other nut.