These are not your average chocolate chip cookies. These tahini chocolate chunk cookies are soft on the inside and crisp on the outside.

Why Tahini and Chocolate Works Together

This tahini chocolate chip cookies are ooey-gooey addicting. And, they taste nutty without the use of any nuts!

While the tahini flavors are not very prominent, you do notice a sense of nuttiest with each bite. The richness of sesame paste pairs wonderfully with earthy sweetness of chocolate. For best results, use semi-sweet or dark chocolate.

These cookies are soft and chewy on the inside with just the right amount of crispiness along the edges.

This tahini chocolate banana cake is further proof of the winning tahini chocolate flavor pairing.

Recipe Ingredient Notes

For best results, measure ingredients by weight using a kitchen scale. However, if you prefer to use volume measures (cups), use the stir and spoon method to measure dry ingredients.

All-Purpose Flour : I exclusively use King Arthur Flour all-purpose flour for consistency. Any flour brand will work. Sub in gluten-free all-purpose flour mix if desired.
Unsalted Butter : Use softened, room temperature unsalted butter. Omit salt in the recipe if you choose to use salted butter. Vegan butter or solid coconut oil may be used for a dairy free option.
Tahini : Primarily used in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cookies. Tahini is sesame seed paste or sesame seed butter. It has a nutty, slightly bitter, very savory flavor. It is a key ingredient in hummus and baba ganoush.
Chocolate : Use your choice of dark chocolate chunks, semi-sweet chocolate chips, or chop up your favorite chocolate bar. This recipe also works well with high quality white chocolate.

Think of tahini paste like any other nut butter. Peanut butter, almond butter, and hazelnut butter are popularly used in desserts and baked goods.

Tahini has a toasty, nutty flavor. Nowadays, tahini is easily available. Many grocery stores and supermarket even make a store brand.

Soom Foods is my favorite tahini brand. They make a variety of flavors include dark chocolate tahini.

Easily swap in tahini in place of peanut butter in your favorite cookie recipes such as peanut butter thumbprints or peanut butter crinkle cookies.

This tahini chocolate chunk cookie recipe benefits greatly from chilling the dough. There are two main reasons why it’s important to take this extra step.

First, chilling the dough controls the cookies from spreading too much during bake. The rest time in the fridge helps to solidify the fats in the dough. This specific recipe has little more fat that standard chocolate chip cookies because of the addition of sesame seed paste.

Second, allowing the dough to rest aids in flavor development. The ingredients are given time to meld together.

The secret to uniformed sized cookies is proper portioning! Reasons to portion out dough: 1) all the cookies bake at the same rate and 2) all the cookies are the same size.

These tahini cookies are “drop cookies.” This means the dough does not need to be shaped before baking. Simply scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet and bake.

The recipe uses a size #24 scoop (1.75 oz or 3 tablespoon).

Baking 101

Scoop Sizes

The number size of a scooper is equal to how many scoops it would take to fill a quart container.

For example, size 1 scoop takes one scoop to fill a quart. A size 20 scoop would take twenty scoops to fill a quart.

In other words, the large the scoop number, the smaller to scoop capacity. Or, the smaller the scoop number, the bigger the scooper size.

Cooling cookies to room temperature is vital step. Next, is having a good cookie jar or an airtight container.

Preventing too much air from seeping into the container helps to ensure the tahini cookies do not stale.

Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days. However, they are best enjoyed within three days after baking.