My cooking and eating journey is built on sugar, butter, and flour. It’s no coincidence that these are the key ingredients in cookies.
I was 11 yrs old when my parents opened Baked&Wired, and what I remember from that time is not even physically being in the bakery. It was being in our home with my mom as she single-handedly baked everything for the bakery in our family kitchen. Cakes, pies, cookies, brownies, bars, you name it. Y’all, and I’m not even talking about some big ass commercial grade kitchen in the suburbs - I’m talking about 300 square feet in the middle of D.C. - the same kitchen that needed to hold our Costco supplies of Cheez Whiz and Dunkaroos.
my mom, baking for baked&wired at our kitchen table in 2001.
From a young age, I was eager to help in the kitchen. And I was free labor. So I was hired.
Here, I learned my cooking foundations by helping make cookies: cracking dozens of eggs, whisking pounds of flour, measuring out cups of sugar, folding in the chocolate chips. And it was all leading up to payday, baby … LICKING THE DAMN BOWL! I think many of you can relate to this honor of being the one to lick the bowl. I always did it quickly and eagerly before my brother found out so I didn’t have to share. Risk getting salmonella? Absolutely. Cookie dough was my first high.
Recently, I’ve been taking the classic chocolate chip recipe and adapting it to include another ingredient that I’ve recently discovered makes me high - tahini.
Tahini. How the hell do you do it? You’re creamy and rich and nutty and somehow also vegan?? You can make hummus and salad dressings and now … cookies? Girl, go on with your bad self!
So here’s my ode to the two main drugs of my life : cookies and tahini.
Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
½ cup tahini, well stirred
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour or sub for a wholewheat flour if you want to pretend to be healthy
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups chocolate chips, or 1 cup if you’re using mini chips
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, optional….but seriously consider adding if you know what’s good for you and don’t have a nut allergy as an excuse
Some flaky salt, like Maldon or sea salt.
ok, leggoo!
In a medium bowl, cream the butter, tahini and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla and continue mixing at medium speed for another 4 minutes, or until xtra light and fluffy. Make sure to scrape down the bowl a few times during this process to get all of that good good mixed together.
In a smaller bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and kosher salt together until there are no clumps.
Add the flour mixture to butter mixture at low speed until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts with a spatula. You don’t want to overmix here - it will make the cookies too dense!
Pour the dough in a log form in plastic wrap (or beeswrap bc plastic sux). Wrap it up tight like a burrito, twist the ends of the plastic, and fold the rolled plastics on top of the dough log. Put in the fridge for at least 6 hours. I know, I know. 6 hours! But I want cookies now! Trust me. I’ll explain more below.
After waiting patiently (and by patient, I mean stealing bits of cookie dough from the fridge over the course of 6 hours) remove your log from the fridge. Roll your cookie babies into 12-18 balls, stick ‘em in a Ziploc bag or tupperware, and then freeze them for at least another 6 hrs. Yes, I’m sorry to do this to you again. But I am *telling you*, if you follow these steps, your cookies will be not only be super soft and tender, but will also hold their shape while baking. You don’t want pancake cookies. You want super round, pretty cookies! You deserve perfect cookies.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake for 13 to 16 minutes (turn the baking sheet halfway through to make sure all the cookies are baked evenly) until just golden brown around the edges but still pale in the middle. Take the cookies out of the oven while they’re still hot and sprinkle with a lil’ salt. Cool for a bit and then eat your heart out <3
let me just say…
I like to always keep a bag of cookie dough balls in the fridge so I’m ready to pop a few in the oven when the mood strikes, I have a friend coming over, or I’m late on rent and need to butter up my landlord.
I will also shamelessly just go eat a straight up cookie dough ball from the freezer. Or, if I’m really feeling myself, crumble some of that dough over a bowl of ice cream. I’ll say it again - risk getting salmonella? Absolutely.
In all honesty, I’ve probably eaten more cookie dough than actual baked cookies. Licking the bowl as an innocent 10 yr old later evolved to smoking a joint with my friends and sneaking over to the bakery freezer to eat the bagged cookie dough balls as a 17 yr old. I have so many fond memories around cookies.
And guess what? Everyone loves cookies! Giving someone a cookie is the OG act of love. I live for those moments when a friend takes her first bite of one of these cookies, looks at me with wide eyes, and goes “oh my goddddddd.”
Cookies - thank you. You are timeless.
Happy baking. Love ya mucho,
Tessa
OH MY GULP!!! Can't wait to make these this weekend!
These sound amazing! I think I first met you at Baked & Wired when you were in high school! Look at you now, girl. I'm raising my own little baker right now. He just started high school this week. I still remember your mom cooing over him in his stroller when I stopped by to caff up (which was frequently!). Excited to share this recipe with him.