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I have been on a huge tahini kick lately.
Hummus.
Salad Dressing.
Grain Bowls.
Cookies & Bars.
Tahini is a sesame seed paste that is most notably in hummus, but is delicious in so many things from savory foods to sweet ones.
I thought to do a riff on my Paleo Salted Blondies, which can almost do no wrong in my opinion, and update them with a tahini addition in place of the almond butter. I made a couple of other small tweaks, and these Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars were born.
They are so dense and rich due to the tahini and almond flour combination, and when dark chocolate chunks are added they become gooey on the inside and chewy on the outside… the perfect bar dynamic.
“What else can I use?”
- I either use Soom Foods tahini, or Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s makes a very good one that is quite affordable.
- If you don’t have tahini and still want to make these, you can sub in any nut butter… the taste will just be quite different and more similar to my Salted Paleo Blondies.
- If you’d like, you should be able to replace the almond and coconut flours with all purpose flour pretty successfully. I haven’t tested it, so if you do leave a comment and let us know how it turns out!
- I like dark chocolate chunks for this, but chocolate chips are of course easily used here.
I’m almost embarrassed to say how many times I’ve made these since this recipe was born. Let’s just say it’s a lot, and I’m still not sick of them.
I hope you love them as much as I do!
Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup tahini, the creamier the better
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
- 1 cup dark chocolate chunks or chips
- Flaky salt, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray a 8x8 inch square pan and line with parchment paper so you have overhang on two sides. This makes removing the blondies easy as you have handles to grab onto.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the vanilla, tahini, and eggs.
- Add in the maple syrup and whisk to combine.
- Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, add in the flours, baking soda, and salt and stir to combine. Lastly, stir in the chocolate chunks.
- Spread the mixture into the prepared pan, sprinkle with salt, and bake for 18-24 minutes, or until the center is just slightly soft and the edges start to brown. They may appear a bit underdone, but they will harden as they cool. I like 20 minutes, or so, in my oven.
- Let cool on rack for 30 minutes, then lift the bars out of the pan. Continue to cool on the rack before slicing into 9-16 bars, depending on the size you want.
- These will keep at room temperature for 3-5 days.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Subbed coconut flour for all purpose and these almost seem like a bread less than a cookie bar. You asked for people to comment so just sharing my experience!
Hi Amy,
I so appreciate your comment! Coconut flour behaves very differently to other flours so while I’ve called for some coconut flour, it can’t be the only flour used – this is likely why your batch had that more bread-like texture. Instead, I recommend using an all-purpose flour (my go-to is the Bob’s Red Mill GF All Purpose Flour!). I hope you give these another try sometime, and thank you for being here!
Kat.
These sound delicious Kathleen, can’t wait to try them. Just made a batch of your Stupendous Hummus-it disappears quickly!! Have been making that one for years!