Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies....Oh my!

As you all know, I am a CAKE person, not a cookie person. I will always pass on a cookie, but never on a piece of cake.

These might convert me.

These could possibly be the best chocolate chip cookies I have tried.
They are very adult and let me explain why.

They have tahini (ground sesame paste) in the batter, so think halvah, that delicious Middle Eastern sesame confection.

I followed the recipe from the NYT and Molly Yeh, adapted from an Israeli cookbook.

Here are the rules to know before going in: It tells you to freeze or chill the dough on cookie sheets for at least 12 hours.
Not really sure why, but I obeyed.

The cooking time is 13-16 minutes. Mine took the full 16 minutes, so keep an eye on them. The idea is a soft middle, and crispy outside.

Give the cookies plenty of room because they are going to spread out big time.

I think that's really all the info you need.

I bought this delicious Ethiopian tahini from Philadelphia by SOOM. It's always rated so highly, and supposedly Zahav restaurant in Philly uses it.....who knows, it was good. What do I know from tahini?

I mixed 1/4 cup chocolate tahini (yes, I had chocolate tahini) w/ 1/4 cup of regular tahini.

We LOVED these cookies.

Not too sweet, a hint of sesame in the mix and the nice finishing touch of Maldon salt.

Ok, enough babbling, here is the recipe for you:

Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Molly Yeh & the NYT): made a baker's dozen (which were 13 big cookies)

1/2 c (a stick) of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c tahini (I used SOOM)
1 c sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 cup or more of dark chocolate chunks
maldon salt or sesame seeds for the tops

Cream the butter, tahini, and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and continue mixing on medium for another 5 minutes. sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl and combine.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low until just combined. Add the chocolate chunks and mix them in by hand with a rubber spatula.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. using a 2-ounce ice cream scoop, scoop out 12 dough balls and place them on the baking sheet about 2" apart......they will spread.

Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer minimum 12 hours. This is actually nice, because the dough is so easy to put together, you can bake the balls whenever you like.

Once the dough balls are frozen, you can plop them in a ziploc freezer bag and have ready to bake cookies any time!

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325F.

Place the baking sheets (directly from the freezer is fine) into the oven. Mine took the full 16 minutes, but check them after 13 minutes.
You want a nice soft middle, and light golden edges.

Let cool on a cooling rack.
We loved these warm and when they crisped up!