kurkubini

Tahini is one of my favourite condiments that I love eating on its own on a piece of bread as much as use it as an ingredient in recipes. I prefer it to nutella (which I find extremely sweet), jam and marmalade and I even use it as a topping for pancakes and crepes .The Anatolia genes in me direct most of my food choices and tahini is part of this aspect of me. In Greece tahini is mostly consumed during periods of fasting either in pastries or in halva. During those periods when I am in Greece my mum, knowing my sweet spots and without me asking, always goes to the bakery early every morning, before I wake up, to bring me fresh tahinopita for breakfast. One of the last times my mum visited me from Greece one of my best friends that owns a Confectionery/Patisserie Products store asked what I would like for her to send for me from her store. One of my requests was tahini. Even though I can find tahini here in the UK I don’t find it having the same consistency as the one I get in Greece. The one in the UK is more refined and doesn’t taste as natural. Having been brought a significant amount I decided to try and find a tahini cookies recipe. I love snacking while I work but since I don’t like extremely sweets foods I try to have around me as many natural snacks as possible. Tahini cookies sounded a very good idea in that sense. The recipe I found was extremely easy to the point that I got disappointed that it didn’t pose a baking challenge. The end product though was very impressive as the cookies came out very well balanced in terms of sweetness and are very filling so they are perfect for snacking since you don’t get to eat a big quantity. I would definitely recommend the recipe to those that are not very keen bakers but want to try their luck around the kitchen and not just tahini lovers. Another bonus is that they only take about 5-10 minutes to prepare before they are ready for the oven!

Ingredients:

100g caster sugar
150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
110g light tahini paste
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
25ml thickened cream
270g plain flour
1tsp ground cinnamon or sumac
Method

Place sugar and butter in a bowl and mix for a minute or so until just combined but not aerated.
Add tahini, vanilla and cream and mix again. Add flour and continue to mix until a dough comes together.
Knead in bowl for a minute or so until the dough is smooth.
Pinch off 20g of the dough and roll in the palms of your hand to form a ball, place on lined baking tray. Do not overcrowd the tray as they will spread slightly.
Continue to roll balls of dough and place on baking tray. Press each ball flat with the back of a fork and sprinkle with a little cinnamon or sumac.
Place the tray/s in an oven preheated to 200c/180c fan and cook for approx 15 minutes or until golden. Watch towards the end as they will catch and can over brown very easily.
Slide the tahini cookies onto wire rack and allow to cool before storing in an airtight container.