Salted Butter Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

There's nothing more comforting that knowing that there's a bowl of cookie dough waiting in the fridge for you. Knowing that at a moment's notice, you can bake up a batch of warm, nutty, sweet chocolate chip cookies puts my mind at ease... because the second the kids go to bed... it's all mine. Am I the only one that thinks that way? Noooo.... it's summer break and my nerves are shot. We only signed up the kids for a couple weeks of camp, so the weeks when they are both home with nothing to do has given be major anxiety. I decided to try to create Camp Mom... fun, creative activities while they were home with me. Then I realized that I still had to work on top of running Camp Mom, blog and do all the day to day cleaning and cooking and it all started to fall apart. It lasted a good week though. We went to a trampoline park, and a really nice activities park on the other side of town, they helped me cook dinner and then I started to fall behind on both work and this blog! So in an attempt to rectify this and my feelings of inadequacy, I'm making these Salted Butter Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies (say that 5 times fast!) so that I can eat my emotions and have some to spare for another week of Camp Mom!

When you want to make chocolate chip cookies and realize that you don't have the perfect 65% cocoa Valrhona chocolate that some recipes ask for, I say just reach for what ever you have in your pantry. Because as a mom, convenience trumps fancy any day. You just need a really good chocolate chip cookie and regardless of the cocoa percentage of your chocolate this will work out just fine! I had 1/4 and 1/2 bags of random chocolate products. Some Ghiradelli chips, some Nestle chips, half a baking bar that I broke into pieces (this actually does give you nice chunks in your cookie), so I threw them all into a bowl and called it a day. I find that if your dough is good, the bits and pieces in your cookie can be whatever you want it to be! And this dough is good.

I found this recipe on David Lebovitz's blog. If you haven't read David's blog or books, please do! His book, "A Sweet Life in Paris" was my bible for my trip to Paris many years ago. The book was not only a fantastic read, but his restaurant recommendations were life changing! We never realized that madeleines and profiteroles could taste so magical! And so I'm a big fan, and these cookies are no different. 

The dough starts off like most other cookie doughs but I used salted butter because I personally love a slightly salty cookie dough to help offset the sweet chocolate. But this butter gets creamed with both sugar and tahini. The dough does come out a bit soft because of this but the refrigeration will help it. Yes, I know... you have to refrigerate the dough before baking... I honestly hate waiting to bake off cookies, but in this and most cases it's totally worth it. Refrigerating cookie dough helps the flour hydrate and absorb all the flavors in your batter. It creates a much more flavorful and honestly delicious cookie in the end. I would refrigerate for at least an hour and up to 3 days before baking. I waiting 24 hours in this case and the results were delicious. These cookies came out crisp on the edges and soft in the middle. Dare I say the perfect cookie? 

The Tahini adds a slightly nutty flavor, not overpowering, but enough that you know something delicious is going on there. You can make this dough and freeze for up to a month to have cookies anytime. But coming from past experience, it will probably be hard to make it past a few days without craving more of these lovely cookies. Try it out and let me know what you think! And as always follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more pics, stories and eatings around town!

Salted Butter Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

*adapted from David Lebovitz

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons 1 stick) salted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup tahini, well stirred
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup  packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 2 cups bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chunks, or chocolate chips
• flaky sea salt, such as Maldon or I used a course seas salt from Jacobson's (because that's just what I had on hand)

Method

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, tahini, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until fluffy. (The dough can also be made in a large mixing bowl, stirred with a spatula.)

2. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides. Add the egg, the yolk, and vanilla, and continue to mix for another minute, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl during mixing, to make sure the eggs are getting incorporated.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and kosher or sea salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients until just combined, then add the chocolate chips. Do not overmix. Cover the dough and refrigerate overnight.

4. Preheat the oven to 325ºF . Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. 

5. Form the cookies into rounds using an ice cream scoop, or your hands. I used a medium cookie scoop and placed the dough about 3 inches apart. David also recommended baking these one sheet at a time, so you can keep an eye on them, in the middle rack of the oven.

6. Bake the cookies, turning the baking sheet in the oven midway during baking, until the cookies are golden brown around the edges but still pale in the center. For small cookies, about 12 minutes, for larger cookies, about 14 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle cookies with a bit of flaky sea salt, and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. Bake the remaining cookies the same way. 

Storage: These cookies will keep for two or three days at room temperature, but are definitely better the same day they're baked. The unbaked dough can be refrigerated for up to one week, and frozen for up to two months.