Tahini Lime Coconut Cookies

This cookie post actually has a recipe!

Baking with tahini rocks: remember Arhia's Tahini Pie Crust?

I recently bought coconut extract and wanted to use it, so I started with the Tahini-Lime cookie recipe in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and messed with it: I subbed in some whole wheat flour, added sesame seeds (I'm sure there's a literary equivalent for the way the sesame seeds call attention to what the tahini is actually made of) and coconut extract, increased the salt, and topped the cookies with coconut instead of black sesame seeds.  I also think you might need less than the 3-5 TB milk the original recipe calls for (depending, as the authors acknowledge, on your particular tahini).  And, even though I made small cookies, the 10-12 min cook time wasn't quite long enough.

These cookies are just what I wanted: just weird enough, rich enough, and "healthy" enough.  They're crispy on outside and chewy on inside (thanks be to tahini), and the whole wheat flour, sesame, and coconut make the textures even more interesting.  Not to say that this tastes like a healthy trail-mix type cookie: it has a lot of delicious fat (half earth balance, half tahini) in it.  I doubled the salt to 1 tsp, which doesn't make the cookie taste salty so much as it makes the lime and nutty flavors a lot more intense (but... you might want to cut back a bit, to 3/4 tsp).  When I was putting together the dough, I worried that the tahini taste would be overwhelming, but after baking it was just right.  Speaking of vanishing flavors, the coconut extract (I only used 1/2 tsp) was nowhere to be found in the finished product--double this, or don't bother.

Tahini Lime Coconut Cookies

(adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar)

Ingredients

1/2 c earth balance

3/4 c sugar

1/2 c tahini

2-5 TB nondairy milk

zest of 2 limes

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp coconut extract (optional)

3/4 c white flour

1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 TB sesame seeds

2 TB cornstarch

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 unsweetened coconut flakes

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350*.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream earth balance and sugar.  Then add tahini, 2-3 TB milk, zest, and extracts.
3. Add half the flour, then sesame seeds, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.  Mix.  Add remaining flour and mix well.
4. Pour coconut into a shallow bowl or plate.  Roll dough into little balls, then gently place each ball in the coconut before putting it (coconut-side up) on the baking sheet.  Bake 12-14 minutes until bottoms (and coconut) are lightly browned.  Makes 2-3 dozen cookies.