These cocoa tahini swirl cookies are nutty, chocolatey, lightly sweet, and so addicting. They’re fun to make and eat!
These cocoa tahini swirl cookies crumble right as you bite into them, then melt in your mouth. What’s revealed is a beautiful swirl, unique to each cookie. Even better? The burst of melted chocolate chips throughout. These cookies are so satisfying!
Partly sweetened by maple and just not much sugar added, these cocoa tahini swirl cookies don’t taste overly sweet. The cocoa and tahini flavors truly shine. I also love that you can have variety in a batch of these cookies. You can make some cookies all chocolate or all tahini. They don’t all have to be half and half. Those sesame seeds sprinkled on top and toasted when bake just make these even better.
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Ingredients
- Tahini
- Cocoa powder
- Butter
- Sugar
- Grade A maple syrup
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Chocolate chips
- Kosher salt
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Cocoa Tahini Swirl Cookies
- Mix the butter, sugars, maple syrup and tahini until thoroughly combined. Halve the dough.
- In two separate bowls, prepare the dry ingredients. To one bowl, add flour, baking powder, and salt. To the second bowl, add flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.
- Add the halved doughs to the two bowls and form cookie dough. Add chocolate chips.
- Form the cookies by taking a bit of the tahini dough and a bit of the cocoa dough. Use your fingers to make swirl designs. Top with sesame seeds
What is Tahini?
Tahini is sesame seed paste. It has the same texture as natural peanut butter. When using tahini in a recipe, be sure to mix thoroughly so that the oil is not separated.
Tahini has a nutty taste, even slightly bitter. Tahini works wonderfully in sweet and savory recipes.
Substitutions
These cocoa tahini swirl cookies are perfect as is. However, you are welcome to make the following substitutions:
- Nut butters – you can replace the tahini with your natural creamy nut butter of choice. Note that this will completely change the flavor profile and will no longer be a tahini cookie.
- Cocoa powder – you can use any unsweetened cocoa powder you’d like. Whether dark, dutch process, or natural, these cookies should not be impacted
Variations of Cocoa Tahini Swirl Cookies
There are plenty of variations you can make for these cocoa tahini swirl cookies!
- Toppings – I love to add sesame seeds to the top! You can toast the sesame seeds first (preferred) or not.
- Chocolate chips – I love adding some dark or bittersweet chocolate chips to this recipe, but the cookies will taste wonderful regardless.
- Honey – you can swap the pure maple syrup for honey in equal amounts.
- All chocolate – not all cookies need to be swirled. You can make a few all-chocolate or all-tahini within the same batch!
Equipment
I use a stand mixer to mix the dough. However, the dough can be mixed together by hand or an electric hand mixer.
In order to halve the wet ingredients, I recommend using a kitchen scale. There are plenty of reasons to get one of these! I use it nearly every day. You will use the kitchen scale to measure out the wet ingredients before adding the dry ingredients.
Storing Cocoa Tahini Swirl Cookies
Store these cookies at room temperature for a week. You can also freeze the unbaked dough for up to three months.
Top tips
- Make sure you divide the wet ingredients by exactly half to ensure both cookie doughs are even.
- When forming the cocoa tahini swirl cookies in your hand, use your fingers to “nudge” a swirl design.
More cookies recipes you might like:
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📖 Recipe
Tahini Cocoa Swirl Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Electric stand mixer or a hand mixer
- 1 Kitchen scale
- 2 Baking sheets
Ingredients
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature (113g)
- ⅓ cup white sugar (3g)
- ⅓ cup brown sugar (35g)
- 3 tablespoon grade A maple syrup (45g)
- ¾ cup tahini (200g)
- ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds (20g)
- ¼ cup dark chocolate chips
Lighter side
- 1 cup flour (125g)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Chocolate side
- ⅔ cup flour (83g)
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder (35g)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In one medium bowl, whisk together the Tahini Side ingredients. In another medium bowl, whisk together the Chocolate Side ingredients. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and maple syrup until light and fluffy. Add the tahini and mix until combined. Measure the batter mix and divide in equal halves (should be about 210 grams per side). Add half of the wet ingredient batter to the Tahini Side dry ingredients, and the other half to the Chocolate Side dry ingredients.
- Using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix the tahini side ingredients until a cookie dough is formed. Then, use the same utensil to mix together the chocolate side ingredients. Add chocolate chips to each side.
- Form the cookies. Take about 1 tablespoon of dough from each side and use your hands to stick the two doughs together. Roll the doughl between your palms until a ball is formed. You may want to “encourage” a swirled zig-zag shape between the two sides.
- When all the cookies have been formed, roll the top of the dough in sesame seeds.
- Add the cookie dough balls to a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving 3 inches between each cookie. They do not spread much.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes. Allow to cool and set.
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