These cookies combine peanut butter and sesame tahini for the soft and chewy cookie of your dreams. With brown sugar and vanilla and coated in sesame seeds, they are an elegant, sweet treat. The recipe has no butter and is dairy-free. No chilling of the dough is needed!
Be sure to check out more of my cookie recipes including my chocolate and vanilla marbled tahini cookies, flourless peanut butter cookies with brown sugar and lemon almond flour cookies.
Cookies Without Butter!
I am a huge fan of butter and normally use it in my cookie recipes. But with tahini and peanut butter, both with plenty of fat, butter is not necessary. And the bonus is that without butter, chilling the dough before baking is not needed. Normally, for soft and chewy cookies, you want the dough to be cold so it doesn’t spread too much during baking. But these cookies spread just a little bit, without chilling, and stay soft and chewy.
Ingredients
Peanut butter – I use unsweetened, natural (not no-stir) peanut butter in cookies. No-stir peanut butter has palm oil and other ingredients that will create a different texture in the cookies.
If the oil in your peanut butter has settled to the top, it’s important to stir it in – do not pour it out. The easiest way to stir the oil back in is to use an immersion blender. I dump the whole jar of peanut butter into a bowl and blend it with the immersion blender.
Tahini (essentially sesame seed butter) is a great flavor partner to peanut butter. The oil in the tahini may also have settled to the top, so stir it thoroughly before using.
The recipe combines brown sugar and regular granulated sugar. The brown sugar helps to add moisture and a slightly molasses flavor to the cookies.
For a little extra moisture, the recipe uses a non-dairy milk substitute. I prefer soy milk because it has the same amount of protein as dairy milk. But any other milk sub like coconut, almond, rice or oat milk will work too.
Gluten-free flour blend – My preferred flour for gluten-free baking is King Arthur Measure for Measure. It works well in almost all of my baked goods, is certified gluten-free and is the most affordable of the gluten-free flours I’ve tested.
I find that cookies are the most finicky about the type of gluten-free flour you use. Cakes, muffins and cupcakes seem to be less worrisome when you use a different brand of gluten-free flour. But cookies can turn out completely different with just the change of gf flour brand. So I recommend sticking with Measure for Measure.
Once formed, the cookie dough is rolled in sesame seeds to coat them. This makes for a beautiful finish on these cookies.
The rest of the ingredients in this recipe are the basics. Salt, vanilla, baking soda and an egg are all you’ll need to round out this recipe.
Recipe Tips
When baking cookies it’s super important that the ingredients are at the right temperature. For these cookies it’s best that all of the ingredients are at room temperature to allow them to combine evenly. If the peanut butter is at room temp and the egg or milk sub are cold, the peanut butter will turn chunky.
The milk sub can also be heated in the microwave. Five seconds is all it should take to take the chill off.
If the tahini or peanut butter are refrigerated, put them in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for about 15 seconds or until they’re room temperature.
If the egg is cold, as your first step, place it in a bowl of warm water. It should be warm enough by the time you’re ready to add it to the bowl.
Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Tahini Cookies (gluten-free)
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Ingredients
- Β½ c natural, unsweetened peanut butter do not use no-stir
- ΒΌ c tahini
- Β½ c sugar
- β c light brown sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp ο»Ώvanilla extract, vanilla bean paste or vanilla powder
- 1 Tbsp non-dairy milk substitute, soy milk preferred
- ΒΎ c gluten-free flour blend, King Arthur Measure for Measure recommended
- Β½ tsp baking soda
- ΒΌ tsp salt
- β c sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350β and line cookie sheet(s) with parchment (optional). Mix this recipe with an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer.
- This recipe works best of the ingredients are at room temperature. β’The egg can be placed in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes.β’If refrigerated, heat the tahini and peanut butter in the microwave for 15 seconds to take the chill off.β’If your milk sub is cold, heat it in the microwave for 5 seconds.
- Add the peanut butter, tahini, sugar and brown sugar to a large mixing bowl.
- Start the mixer on low, then turn it to medium high and mix for at least 1Β½ minutes or until thoroughly combined.
- Add the egg, vanilla and milk sub and mix just until combined.
- Add the gf flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low for 10 seconds.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix on medium high just until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated. *Overmixing will create too much air in the dough which can result in crunchier cookies.
- Place the sesame seeds into a small bowl.
- Either used a cookie scoop or 2 spoons to get 1Β½ tablespoons dough. Roll the top of the cookie in sesame seeds to coat all of it except the bottom.
- Then gently press it into a 2" disk.
- Place on the cookie sheet with about 2 inches of space in between.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes or until the bottom of the cookies are golden brown. Cool them on the pan for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- This cookies will stay soft and chewy for at least 4 days if stored in an air tight container.
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