I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of making cookies with sesame. Why? Because I am surrounded by several choco-holics and bake primarily to their tastes. Let’s just say that the brownie recipe I posted a few weeks ago is still getting good play around here. My 10 year old son whips up a quick batch of these high-protein brownies almost every weekend.
Thankfully, I received the below a few weeks ago from reader Megan LaPrete, to open my eyes to additional baking horizons:
I would like to share with you this recipe for tahini cookies. They are not gluten free and they are loaded with sugar but I love them. I’d like to see if you could come up with something similar. I can’t wait to try your Sesame Truffles.
The lovely recipe Megan sent me is from epicurious.com, one of my favorite food sites. Below is my version, sans gluten and sugar.
Sesame Cookies
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅓ cup agave nectar or honey
- ⅓ cup tahini (raw or roasted, though roasted will give more flavor)
- 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil or palm shortening
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup raw sesame seeds , hulled or unhulled -I used hulled
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt and baking soda
- In a small bowl, blend together agave, tahini, oil and vanilla
- Blend the dry ingredients into the wet
- Form the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in the sesame seeds
- Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and flatten
- Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes until lightly brown
- Cool on baking sheet
- Serve
If you like your cookies crunchy, leave them out after baking. If you are looking for cookies with a chewier center then store them in an airtight container.
What’s your favorite Passover dessert? And Gluten-Free Steve, how many will be at your Seder in Denver? Ours will be small this year thank goodness –probably 7 total.
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Barbara Smolen says
I baked these, and brought them to an artist in Brooklyn who hosted me and a visiting artist from China for lunch and a studio tour. We all LOVED the cookies! The artist asked for the recipe, so I shared the info and your site, and she has been making them ever since!
PS My first batch turned out picture perfect like yours! I couldn’t believe it. Thank you so much.
Elana says
Barbara, I’m so happy to hear that I was part of your studio tour via this recipe!!! Thanks for letting me know you all LOVED the cookies :-)
Anne Buggy says
I would love to try this recipe since I try to bake gluten-free, but I also have a not allergy and need to avoid all nuts. Is there another gluten free flour I can substitute and get good results?
Thank you for your time. The cookies look scrumptious!
Elana says
Anne, thanks for your comment! I haven’t tried making this with something in place of almond flour so not sure what a good substitute would be. Here’s a link to my Nut-Free Recipes page for you:
https://elanaspantry.com/diets/nut-free/
I hope you find something you love!
Elana
Julie says
Hi. I wonder if this is still relevant for you. For me, almond flour is just very expensive so my favorite go-to is chickpea flour. I tried this one with chickpea flour. I did a half-batch just to test it out (however in the end the dough was dry so I upped the tahini and honey back to the normal amounts). Here is my recipe. The cookies turned out PHENOMENAL.
PS to Elana — thank you for my favorite chocolate birthday cake recipe.
½ + 1/8 cup of chickpea flour
¼ tsp Celtic Sea Salt
¼ tsp baking soda
1/3 cup of honey
1/3 cup of tahini (I used fresh ground roasted tahini)
4 tsp sunflower oil (any oil of your choice)
2 tsp (or ½ tbsp) vanilla extract
black sesame seeds in which to roll the cookie dough before baking
Elana says
Julie, thanks so much for sharing the results of your experiment with me!
Adelle says
I made these cookies because I had leftover tahini. They are SOOO good and a nice break from chocolate cookies (which, like your family…I LOVE). I love how chewy they are! I store them in the freezer so if I don’t let them thaw out I can enjoy them with a crunch as well.
Elana says
Adelle, thanks for your comment! I’m so happy these cookies were SOOO good :-)
Carole Horger says
Made these, and substituted date paste for the honey for my friend who cannot have any sweeteners. Had to add some liquid to make it work, but the results were so delicious. Not very sweet, but we couldn’t stop eating them.
Love your site and all the recipes you have posted. It makes it so much easier to eat a clean diet with the resources you provide. Thank you!
Elana says
You’re welcome Carole!
Wendy says
These are so delicious! Mine were crisp shortly after baking but quickly softened to the point of falling apart. The same thing happened with another of your yummy cooky recipes. Amy idea what I’m doing wrong? Thanks!
Elana says
Wendy, thanks for your comment. That hasn’t happened to the cookies I’ve made so not sure. It might be related to the brand of almond flour you are using:
https://elanaspantry.com/ingredients/almond-flour/
Have a great day!
Elana
Lisa says
I have made my version of this recipe probably 100 times using Trader Joe’s almond meal–depending on what I have for sweetener, I’ve used honey, maple syrup or agave, but I prefer honey with the sesame. Love, love, love these cookies and the vegan chocolate chip recipes! Trader Joe’s almond meal never fails me; it is also reasonably priced and convenient. I’ve also used leftover pulp from making almond milk. Super awesome taste and texture. I’ve shared Elana’s website and recipes with many people. Everyone loves these cookies so much, I’m making them for my daughter’s wedding! Thank you Elana!❤️
Elana says
Lisa, congrats on your daughter’s wedding! I’m thrilled to be a part of it via this recipe :-)
Yasmeen says
How much date paste did you use?
erndog7703 says
Made exactly as written and they could not have been any tastier! Can’t wait to make another batch. :)
Dalida says
I made this recipe and it turned out EXACTLY the way I imagined it to be based on the photo. Simply PERFECT! Very satisfying. Thanks very much for the recipe!!!
hari says
I made these yesterday and so yummy!! I used maple syrup instead of agave. And mixed a little spelt flour with the almond meal..(we are not gluten free, or Paleo)
I am wondering how long they should be good for? Not that there are any left but
next time I make them I want to double the recipe if they will last.
Will they?
sally says
Wonderful recipe I only subbed natural peanut butter for tahini because we’d run out. Oh and almond meal worked fine. Used a bit less honey and they are plenty sweet and easy enough for the kids to help make. I got exactly fourteen. Thank you for another wonderful recipe. Looking forward to trying them with tahini too. :)
Heather H says
Hi Alana, I love your site and this recipe does look delish! However, I have to take exception with calling these Paleo as well as many of your other “Paleo” recipes. While there is depth and breadth on what is Paleo or Primal and how people adapt the diet to their lifestyle, it is clear that sugar is not Paleo at all, especially agave which is simply demonized in the paleo/primal community for it’s fructose content and processing. Honey is reserved for minimal use as would have been done in nature originally (as an example one of your readers above posted a link to their own recipe using 3 TBSP honey, not 1/3 cup).
I really do enjoy your site recipes and dedication to gluten free, I sometimes use them for the rare sweet treat though I need to substitute to make them as Paleo as possible. I worry that your labeling is misleading and potentially confusing to those starting out on their Paleo & Primal journey and they will misinterpret that indulging with this level of sugar is OK (and yes agave and honey are sugar).
Heather H says
I’d also like to add that grapeseed oil is also not paleo, only unrefined coconut, red palm, evoo, avocado and some nut oils are paleo. No seed oil is Paleoat all. Seeds in general to be eaten minimally or not at all.
El Robusto says
And I would like to take exception with your free use of the English language; to wit, the possessive form of it has no apostrophe. If you happen to create a grain free bread recipe half as good as Elana’s, perhaps then we can take your points to heart.
Habiba says
You say above that this recipe is NOT gluten free.
Where’s the gluten in it?