These Healthy Tahini Cookies with chocolate chips are chewy almond flour tahini cookies perfect as a sweet, healthy snack any time of the day. Bonus, these healthy tahini cookies are also vegan, gluten-free, refined-sugar-free, and egg-free!
I love making all sorts of recipes with tahini, like my Miso Tahini Dressing, Healthy Lemon Slice, or Dark Chocolate Hummus. It’s a great ingredient that can be used as a swap for peanut butter or cashew butter in some recipes. It bring creaminess and nutrients.
Are Tahini Cookies Healthy?
Not all tahini cookie recipes are healthy. Most tahini cookie recipes are made with:
- High-carb flour
- Lots of sugar
- High-fat dairy like butter
- Eggs
As a result, even if tahini paste is a healthy source of fat and plant-based proteins, tahini cookies are not healthy. However, it’s easy to make healthy tahini cookies at home using wholesome, unrefined ingredients.
Why You’ll Love Healthy Tahini Cookies
Healthy tahini cookies are wholesome cookies made with healthy natural ingredients. They are naturally:
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Refined-sugar-free
- Grain-free
- Paleo
A healthy tahini cookie is lower in carbs, refined sugar-free, gluten-free, and egg-free. These tahini cookies are made with almond flour, a low-carb flour that keeps your blood sugar steady.
It’s also using a small amount of refined sugar-free sweeteners compared to regular tahini cookies. Finally, they don’t use oil, eggs, or butter, only the natural fats from tahini paste which means they are vegan-friendly tahini cookies.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Let’s see the few simple ingredients you need to start making these vegan, gluten-free tahini cookies with almond flour at home:
- Almond Flour – It is preferable to use ultra-fine, golden-white almond flour instead of almond meal. In fact, almond flour comes from ground, blanched almonds, and its texture is not as coarse as almond meal. Therefore, it doesn’t make cookies gritty or grainy, and the cookie color comes out perfectly white golden.
- Tahini Paste – That’s the secret ingredient to chewy cookies! Also known as sesame paste. This is the paste you are using in most classic hummus recipes. If you can’t find this ingredient, swap for fresh runny peanut butter or almond butter. These options work great as long as your nut butter is fresh and drippy.
- Maple Syrup – Or any unrefined liquid sweetener you love like agave syrup or brown rice syrup to decrease the carbs and GI of these vegan cookies.
- Unsweetened Almond Milk or any dairy-free milk of your choice.
- Baking Powder – Or half the amount of baking soda if preferred.
- Salt – optional but recommended for extra flavor!
- Vegan Dark Chocolate Chips – Or any plant-based chocolate chips.
- Vanilla Extract or Almond Extract – optional but tastes great and boosts the cookie flavor.
How To Make Healthy Tahini Cookies
It’s easy to make delicious tahini cookies using almond flour, no eggs, no butter, or dairy. The trick is to combine plant-based ingredients that provide a chewy, soft cookie texture and bind the almond flour together.
- First, bring all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl, including almond flour, baking powder, and sea salt.
- Then, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the liquid ingredients. Make sure you don’t use cold almond milk, bring the milk to room temperature first! I also recommend using lukewarm tahini paste. Pop the tahini paste jar for 30 seconds in a microwave or bain-marie to soften the seed butter. In fact, if your seed butter is too dry or the oil and butter separate in the jar, you won’t create soft, moist cookies.
- Stir all your ingredients together with a spoon or silicone spatula. Don’t hesitate to use your hands to squeeze the cookie dough and bring all the ingredients together.
- Stir in the chocolate chips at the end and chill the dough for 10 minutes before baking
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a cookie sheet with lightly oiled parchment paper. You can use coconut oil or vegan butter to oil your paper. I like to use melted coconut oil to rub on the paper to prevent the cookies from sticking to it.
- Finally, roll the cookie dough between the palm of your hands to form balls and place each ball 1 thumb apart on the baking sheet.
- Bake your cookies for 15 minutes at 350°F (180°C) until the top is golden brown. Note that almond flour cookies are always slightly soft when out of the oven.
- Let the cookies cool down for a few minutes on the cookie tray, then cool completely on a cooling tack.
- Finally, wait for about 30 minutes to appreciate the chewy texture of these vegan tahini cookies.
Storage Instructions
These are vegan tahini chocolate chip cookies. It means they are egg-free and dairy-free cookies. Consequently, these healthy tahini cookies store well at room temperature in a cookie jar for 3 days. You can also store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 6 days.
However, the outside might become sticky if in contact with moisture. Make sure they are stored in a sealed container. You can also freeze these chocolate chip cookies in Ziploc bags or sealed jars. Thaw at room temperature 3 hours before serving. Also, you can freeze the dough to make ahead some healthy tahini cookies later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can swap tahini for peanut butter in tahini cookies. You can also swap tahini for any other nut butter or seed butter you have in the pantry, including:
– Sunflower seed butter – watch out. This adds a greenish color to cookies.
– Almond butter
– Cashew butter
Yes, you can use this tahini cookie recipe to make sugar-free keto cookies. Almond flour is naturally low-carb, so it’s perfect for vegan keto cookies.
However, you will have to swap:
– Maple syrup for a sugar-free maple-flavored syrup.
– Chocolate chips with sugar-free chocolate chips.
There are two kinds of tahini paste available at the grocery store.
– Unhulled tahini
– Hulled tahini
The difference between hulled tahini and unhulled tahini is the type of sesame seeds used to make the paste.
Both sesame butter can be used for tahini cookies, but you should be aware of the difference in taste and texture. and color it gives to tahini cookies
Hulled tahini is made of skinless sesame seeds – the outer shell of the seed has been removed.
As a result, hulled tahini is the best for tahini cookies because it is:
– Creamier – don’t dry out cookie dough
– Lighter in color – makes beautiful golden cookies
– Less bitter – no bitter aftertaste
Hulled tahini is made of whole sesame seeds. It results in a paste that is:
– Darker in color
– Heavier, difficult to stir, and less oily
– Slightly bitter
You can replace almond flour in these tahini cookies with the same amount of:
– All-purpose flour – The texture will be crunchier, not soft, and chewy
– Oat flour
– Sunflower seed flour
– Sesame seed flour
You can’t use coconut flour for these tahini cookies.
More Healthy Cookie Recipes
I love creating healthy baked food and especially healthy cookie recipes. Below I listed my favorite almond flour cookie recipes for you to try. They are all vegan, gluten-free, and paleo cookie recipes for everyday baking:
Did You Like This Recipe?
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Healthy Tahini Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups Almond Flour
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ⅓ cup Maple Syrup - or liquid sweetener of choice
- 5 tablespoons Hulled Tahini Paste - at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon Almond Milk - lukewarm
- ⅓ cup Vegan Dark Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Line a cookie tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add almond flour, baking powder, salt, maple syrup, fresh tahini paste, and unsweetened almond milk (lukewarm, not cold).
- Combine with a spoon until it forms a crumbly dough, then stir in the vegan dark chocolate chips.
- Use your hands to gather the pieces of dough into a cookie dough ball. The dough should be soft and easy to bring together. If it is too dry, which may happen when using almond meal, add 1 tablespoon of extra almond milk to bring the ingredients together.
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough to shape 16 small cookies. Place each cookie dough ball onto a baking tray.
- Slightly press the top of each cookie to flatten slightly. The cookie won't expand while baking, so shape them as you like, thinner they get crispier, thicker they stay softer/chewier in the center.
- Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 12-15 minutes or until the sides are golden brown. The center stays soft, and white in color. The cookies will harden and get chewy at room temperature.
- Cool the cookies down on a cookie rack for at least 2 hours to enjoy their best flavor and texture.
Storage
- Store the cookies in a cookie jar for up to 1 week.
These are great!! Even my 13 year
old son is eating them
Sounds delicious!
One thingy though.. now, which one is the hulled tahini? The description fits both
You can use any tahini you have on hands, both works well. Enjoy!
We don’t care for tahini. Is it possible to switch to a nut butter?
Sure, you can use any nut butter in this recipe, almond butter or peanut butter for example
Hi I have run out of almond flour can I use another flour like coconut or gf? Or I can blitz my raw almonds?
Coconut flour won’t work as it’s very high in fiber, the cookie will end up super dry. But oat flour or all purpose should work. They will be much crispier with these two flour as they contains less fat than almonds. Last options is sesame flour or sunflower seed flour ! Provide very similar texture, slightly bitter
Very yummy. Excellent texture…little bit of crunch and a little bit of chew! Great flavor. Definitely will make these again but double batch next time!
Could I use almond butter instead of peanut butter?
Sure, if the jar is fresh and almond butter is drippy, if its too dry cookies crumbles appart
Hi ur recipe sounds really gud….I tried many almond flour recipes n not satisfied wid any….now I wnt to attempt ur recipe n I have a question, can I use orange juice in place of maple syrup….
No, you can’t replace a liquid sweetener that is sticky and hold the batter by a liquid. It won’t work. Enjoy! XOXO Carine
OMG! These are amazing. You will kick yourself if you don’t make them. Made them last night and ate two when they were still warm.
My favourite recipe of all time
Hi!! So I followed the exact recipe and after 15 min of being in the oven they are still really soft! Do they harden at all? I’m leaving them for a bit longer but it smells delicious. Excited to try them
Yes, as the recipe says they are soft when out of the oven so don’t put them back. Cool 10 minutes on the tray then cool completely on the rack and they will get their bast texture when completely cool about 2 hours. They will be chewy, crispy on the sides and a bit soft in the middle. Enjoy! XOXO Carine