Name: Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick); 1/2 cup tahini; 3/4 cup sugar; 3/4 cup brown sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 2 eggs; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 cups chocolate chips; Maldon sea salt (or any coarse sea salt) for topping

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Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and oh-so-chocolatey. These tahini chocolate chip cookies are everything you’d want in a cookie PLUS the nutty flavor of tahini. This recipe makes about 32 cookies and they store well in the fridge or freezer (but they’re so good I doubt they’ll last that long!)

chocolate chip tahini cookie with sea salt on dark baking sheet

Ok ya’ll. I think this recipe might go down as the most tested recipe on my site.

I tested it not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE times!

So pretty please go make and enjoy these cookies so I know my time and effort was not wasted :).

But seriously. This little cookie became my own little weird competition with myself. I mean once I was three rounds in, I was in too deep. I HAD to keep going. What I learned from five batches of cookies?

You need BUTTAH BABY. But for reals, I tried so many different ways to make these with all tahini and no butter or just a wee bit of butter, but no such luck.

And as a registered dietitian who uses butter on the daily, believe me this was no anti-butter campaign, it was just a girl tryna get creative with tahini.

But I learned that sometimes you can’t mess with an already good thing. And cookies made with butter are a very good thing.

So what did I do? I used just enough butter and tahini and it created a beautiful cookie that spread nicely (so many of my batches didn’t spread!), was crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside. Just how I like my cookies!

If you’ve never had a tahini cookie, it’s kind of like a peanut butter cookie – it has that nutty flavor to it – but I swear it’s even better.

So if you like crispy, chewy cookies and a chocolate / nutty flavor combo, this may just become your new favorite cookie recipe.

What’s Tahini?

Why tahini you ask? Well, you know I’m a nerd when it comes to food trends and I always like to read the projections for the new year’s trends. One of 2019’s food trends was tahini, a paste made from sesame seeds that’s used in many Middle Eastern dishes, the most common being hummus.

It’s super versatile and can be used in salad dressings, soups, sauces, and marinades. Tahini is delicious in baked goods and desserts too. It imparts a deliciously elevated nutty flavor. It’s like peanut butter but dare I say even better?!

Tahini is nutritious!

As far as nutrition goes, tahini is a good source of healthy fat as well as the B vitamin, thiamin. It also contains minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium.

As a dietitian, I love that that dietary fat helps to enhance the flavor of food and makes it taste more satisfying. No wonder these cookies are the bomb dot com.

Ingredients You’ll Need

ingredients for tahini chocolate chip cookies laid out on marble surface with text overlay

Ingredient Notes:

flour: I used all-purpose flour but you could use a 1:1 gluten-free flour to make a gluten-free version

tahini: imparts a delicious nutty flavor

baking soda: helps cookies spread and brown

cinnamon: adds a subtle warm spiced flavor and sweetness

chocolate chips: I used semi-sweet chocolate chips but you could use dark chocolate or even chocolate chunks (I originally used chocolate chunks in this recipe but wanted to save a step chopping the chocolate into chunks).

salt: an important flavor enhancer

butter: I used unsalted butter – adds a richness to cookies and helps them spread

sugar: white granulated or cane sugar works fine

brown sugar: I used light brown sugar

eggs: I used extra-large eggs; helps bind ingredients together

vanilla: adds flavor to cookies

How to Make Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Butter, tahini, sugar, and brown sugar mixed together in a glass bowl with a white spatula

wet ingredients for tahini chocolate chip cookies mixed together in a glass bowl with white spatula

1. Preheat oven: to 375 degrees F.

2. Cream butter and sugars: In a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, mix together tahini, butter, sugar and brown sugar until incorporated.

3. Add rest of wet ingredients: Mix in vanilla and eggs, one at a time, until mixture is smooth.

4. Mix dry ingredients: In a medium mixing bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon until combined.

5. Combine dry and wet ingredients: Add dry ingredients to the wet (all at once) and mix just until there is no more flour visible in the dough. Be careful not to overmix.

6. Add chocolate chips: Fold chocolate chips into the batter.

7. Drop dough onto baking sheet: Using a cookie scoop or rounded tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheet, leaving two inches of space in between.

8. Bake cookies: Bake until cookies are golden-brown, about 9-11 minutes.

9. Let cool: Sprinkle coarse sea salt onto cookies and let cool on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Expert Tips!

Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature. This will making creaming it with the sugars so much easier. If you’re in a pinch, you can try microwaving it in its wrapper for about 10 seconds. Repeat for 5 seconds at a time as needed until softened.
The stand mixer is okay to use! I used to think that hand mixing these cookies produced a better outcome than using the stand mixer but I retested them both ways and both produce the same quality!
Don’t over mix the dry ingredients! If you over mix, you will add air to the dough, causing them to flatten more, producing a crispier result. Be sure to mix the dry ingredients into the wet and stop as soon as no more flour is visible.

dark baking sheet lined with tahini chocolate chip cookies with sea salt

Storage and Preparation

Store cooled cookies in an airtight container for 3-4 days and then move to the refrigerator to store them for another week!

You can also store these cookies in an airtight bag or container in the freezer for up to three months. Let them defrost overnight in the refrigerator before eating.

Recipes That Pair Well

Dairy Free Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream

Coconut Milk Strawberry Ice Cream

Coconut Milk Vietnamese Iced Coffee Ice Cream

Dairy Free Coconut Whipped Cream

hand holding a melty chocolate chip cookie broken in half with glass of milk behind

For more cookie inspiration, check out my other recipes below!

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies

Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Peppermint Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you like this recipe, please be sure to comment and give it a 5 star rating below. If you make it, share it on Instagram and tag me @karalydonrd and I’ll re-share it with my followers! If you want to save this recipe for later, be sure to pin it on Pinterest!

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This recipe was retested and reshot to give you the most delicious (and beautiful) content! The original recipe was published April 2019.