Tahini chocolate chip cookies

If you love classic chocolate chip cookies, you really must try this tahini version. These cookies have lightly crisp edges, a soft and wonderfully chewy centre, and a delicate sesame flavour. The tahini isn’t overpowering, but it gives the cookies a deeper, slightly nutty, halva-like flavour that works beautifully with dark chocolate. And they’re absolutely delicious and so easy to make!

Makes 22 cookies.

Ingredients for tahini chocolate chip cookies:

• 115 g butter
• 85 g tahini
• 80 g caster sugar
• 120 g light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200 g plain flour
• 1 tsp potato starch
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• a generous pinch of salt
• 150 g dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate

All ingredients should be at room temperature. The butter should be very soft – soft enough that a knife can be pushed into it without any resistance, like butter left on the kitchen worktop on a warm summer’s day. If it isn’t soft enough, place the room-temperature butter in the microwave for a few seconds, just until roughly one-third of it has melted.

Place the butter, tahini and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat briefly, just until combined – do not beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix briefly. Add the flour, potato starch, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix until combined. Finally, add 110 g of the chocolate chips (reserve the rest for sprinkling) and fold through with a spatula until combined.

Line a large, flat baking tray with baking paper. Shape the dough into balls weighing approximately 35 g each; the easiest way to do this is with an ice cream scoop. Place them on the baking tray, leaving several centimetres between each one – they will spread considerably during baking. There’s no need to flatten them before baking. Sprinkle with the reserved chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.

Bake the tahini chocolate chip cookies at 175°C for approximately 10–11 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. The longer you bake the cookies, the crisper they will be; cookies with a paler centre will be softer and chewier. The cookies will be very soft immediately after baking, so leave them on the baking tray for 30 minutes to cool slightly, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely – this is when they will reach the right texture. If you want perfectly round cookies, you can neaten up their shape immediately after taking them out of the oven, while they’re still soft. Simply place a round cookie cutter over each cookie and gently move it from side to side to shape the edges.

Store the tahini chocolate chip cookies at room temperature for up to 7 days in an airtight tin or biscuit container.

Enjoy!