Hello from Istanbul! I just came to this very hot and already too noisy city about an hour ago (and I haven’t even left the airport!). I am waiting for my connecting, domestic flight in, let me see, 8 hours! And for some reason I opted for staying in the airport. One hour in, and i’m already regretting this decision.. And I forgot my carefully selected holiday books on my dining table at home!!! Luckily, I found that one blue, beautiful Zara dress that I (thought I) lost 2 years ago – apparently it was in the quite hidden front part of my suitcase all this time and I realised this just a few minutes ago when i was trying to take something from there… Arrgh..

 

So, cookies. I actually have 15 of these cookies in my suitcase right now, together with 2 other kinds of cookies. I baked many many cookies all morning before I could even pack my suitcase (hence the panic in packing, and hence forgetting the most essential 2 books). They are for mum & dad. My father has been seeing my food photos on Facebook all the time and he is apparently drooling. So, instead of buying stupid souvenir gifts, I baked. Though, I am sure I will bake even more when I go to Sinop. Yes, my morning flight is for Sinop, the northernmost point of Turkey, by the Black Sea coast.

 

 

Let’s get back to these cookies here now. These are soft, chewy, veery delicious cookies baked without any butter or regular flour or sugar. Instead there is a nice amount of tahini and honey. I adapted these cookies from Food & Wine website and there it says that each cookie is 74 cal. However, mine are probably about 150 cal because instead of 30 cookies as it says in the original recipe, I could get only 15 cookies – which means, I guess, I am doubling the size. But, my cookies are in a good size for 1 portion of a cookie so I do suggest you make the same. So, enjoy your cookies!

 

 

 

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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty: ★☆☆ (Easy)
(makes 15 cookies, each 20 gr., about 1 tbsp)

 

Printable recipe (no photos)

 

1 1/2 cups / 3 dl + 4 tbsp / 150 gr. almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
A pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract)
1/3 cup / 5 tbsp + 1 tsp / 90 gr. tahini
1/3 cup / 5 tbsp + 1 tsp / 102 gr. honey
1/2 cup / 1 dl. + 1 tbsp + 1 tsp / 75 gr. sesame seeds

 

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1. In a medium mixing bowl, put almond flour, baking soda, salt and vanilla sugar (forgot to take the picture of adding vanilla, sorry! If you are using vanilla extract, check step 2.). Whisk.

 

 

 

 

 

2. In a separate, smaller mixing bowl, put tahini and honey (and vanilla extract, if you are using this instead of vanilla sugar) and mix until they are smoothly incorporated.

 

 

 

 

3. Add tahini mixture to dry ingredients and fold until the dry/wet ingredients mixture is smooth.

 

 

 

4. Make balls of 20 gr. / about 1 tbsp each. Roll these balls in sesame seeds to cover them with seeds as much as possible. Put sesame covered balls on a baking sheet with baking paper on and press gently to make them rather flat. Put these in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes, up to 2 hours.

 

 

 

 

5. Preheat the oven to 175C.

 

6. When oven is heated and cookies are chilled, put each batch one by one in the oven, in medium rack and bake for 10 minutes. Afterwards, take them out of the oven and let them cool so that they get hardened, before serving. Enjoy!!