Vegan Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies
These vegan tahini cookies are crispy on the outside with rich and gooey centers. They have a sweet yet nutty flavor, are loaded with chocolate chips and even gluten free!
Why you’ll love this recipe
Like all recipes that make it to the blog, these vegan tahini cookies required a lot of trial and error. Tahini can have a strong nutty flavor, so it was tough getting the other ingredient ratios right to balance that.
But it was SO worth it! These vegan chocolate chip cookies have a perfectly crispy outside, soft and chewy center, with pools of melted chocolate chips and a rich buttery flavor!
They’re made with no egg (we’ll be using apple sauce instead) and are completely nut free, dairy free, gluten free and made in just one bowl.
I promise they taste just like a classic chocolate chip cookie, but are made with simple ingredients. If you love this recipe, try my almond flour chocolate chip cookies, chickpea cookies or vegan chocolate cupcakes next!
What is tahini?
Tahini is sesame seed paste. Basically like the peanut butter of sesame seeds. It has a nutty flavor, despite being a seed, and gives these cookies a rich and almost caramel like flavor.
For these vegan cookies, you need a nice and runny tahini for this recipe, my personal favorite is the 365 brand from Whole Foods or Soom Foods Tahini.
You do not want a thick/chalky one as it will change the consistency of the dough and the flavor will be a bit too strong.
Aside from the tahini, for this recipe you will need vegan butter, brown and white sugar, apple sauce in place of egg, gluten free all purpose flour, cornstarch to ensure they don’t spread too much and chocolate chips!
How to make tahini chocolate chip cookies
In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugars and butter with an electric mixer until well combined.
Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature so the butter doesn’t harden in chunks when it comes into contact with other ingredients.
Beat in the remaining wet ingredients until smooth.
Add in the dry ingredients (but not the chocolate), making sure to spoon and level the flour. Fold until well combined. Fold in the chocolate chips or chunks.
Add the dough to the fridge for 15-20 minutes and preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit while you wait.
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After about 20 minutes, use a medium cookie scoop and scoop the dough into roughly 2 inch round balls and add to a lined baking sheet.
Keep them several inches apart as they will spread. I suggest baking no more than 6 cookies at a time.
Press on a few extra chocolate chips or chunks on top. Bake for 11-14 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. They will firm up as they cool.
As soon as they come out of the oven, take a round cookie cutter and scoot the edges of the cookie around it to create a perfect circle. Let cool completely, then sprinkle with salt flakes and enjoy. Try my peanut butter chocolate chip cookies next!
How to store and freeze cookies
Once prepared, these vegan tahini cookies will keep for 3-5 days. I suggest storing them in an air tight container and then microwave for 10 seconds before eating so they have that fresh from the oven feel!
You can also freeze the dough or the cookies before or after baking.
To freeze before baking, chill the dough as usual, then roll the cookie dough into balls, then place in a ziplock bag. Bake when you’re ready but at 325 and for a few extra minutes to account for the frozen dough.
To freeze after baking, simply let the cookies cool completely, then store in a freezer safe bag. Reheat in the oven until warm through the center, about 5-7 minutes at 300 Fahrenheit.
Do I need to chill the dough?
For this recipe, yes! When you first combine the dough, you might notice that it’s a tad oily, which is because of the tahini and butter
Chilling the dough for just 20 minutes allows the flour to absorb excess moisture and ensure the cookies don’t spread completely flat while they bake.
Can I make them refined sugar free?
Honestly, I don’t recommend it for this recipe. These cookies require dark brown sugar and regular white sugar and I don’t recommend swapping both for coconut sugar.
The color will be very dark, the flavor will be different, and the cookies won’t spread properly. If you’re looking for a refined sugar free cookie, try my healthy chocolate chip cookies!
More cookies to try!
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Funfetti Cookies
- Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Vegan Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Wet
- 6 tablespoons vegan butter softened/room temperature
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- ⅔ cup white granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup runny tahini
- ¼ cup apple sauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry
- 1 ½ cups gluten free all purpose baking flour can sub regular AP flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and bth sugars with an electric mixer until well combined.
- Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature so the butter doesn’t harden in chunks when it comes into contact with other ingredients.
- Beat in all remaining wet ingredients until well combined.
- Add in the dry ingredients (but not the chocolate), making sure to spoon and level the flour. Fold until well combined. Fold in the chocolate chips or chunks.
- Add the dough to the fridge for 15-20 minutes and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit while you wait.
- After about 20 minutes, use a medium cookie scoop and scoop the dough into roughly 2 inch round balls and add to a lined baking sheet.
- Keep them several inches apart as they will spread. I suggest baking no more than 6 cookies at a time.
- Press on a few extra chocolate chips or chunks on top.
- Bake for 11-14 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. They will firm up as they cool.
- As soon as they come out of the oven, take a round cookie cutter and scoot the edges of the cookie around it to create a perfect circle.
- Let cool completely, then sprinkle with salt flakes and enjoy.
Notes
Comments
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I subbed two tablespoons of the butter for toasted sesame oil and rolled the cookies in sesame seeds before baking. Very good 👍
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I loved these cookies the first time I made them, but then we discovered my son has a sesame allergy. I tried substituting sunflower butter for the tahini and the taste was still good, but the texture was off. I think they spread too much. I’m considering trying to thin out the sunflower butter a bit more or chilling the dough for a little longer. Do you have any other suggestions?
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Was the texture off just because of the spreading or was there more? Thinning out the sunflower butter would actually just cause more spreading so I don’t recommend that. But chilling the dough for longer should help or decreasing the amount of baking soda!
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Wow, these are a delight! I did a couple of things differently, based on what I had on hand. I used AP flour, light brown sugar, and did a mix of 3 different types of chocolate. I just compared two types of baking – one in my toaster over on convection for 11 min, the other in my traditional oven for 14 min – both at 355 bc I live at altitude. They came out about the same, but I think the convection oven made them little fluffier! I could have stopped them at 10 minutes tho. These are the best cookies I’ve made, vegan or not!
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Love it! Glad all those changes worked! Thanks, Kendall!
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You mentioned chilling sigh bc of oil in tahini and coconut oil but there is no coconut oil in the recipe. Did I mean butter?
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Just updated it, thanks for the catch!
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Hello! Love all your recipes especially cookies! Every time i store the cookies though they tend to mush and become soft. Especially vegan cookies. I am storing them in an air tight container after cooling completely at room temperature. Any tips on how to keep them fresh and crisp?
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I would keep the lid slightly ajar so they’re able to breathe a bit!
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I have a question. What can I substitute for the applesauce? I can’t eat apples. Even though I love them. Would pumpkin work? Thank you.
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If you can eat eggs, I would use 1 egg, otherwise you can try a flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water). Pumpkin will also work but may change the flavor a bit.
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Very good, but I can’t eat apples so substituted dairy free yogurt, they didn’t spread thin.
My mistake was thinking they were too doughy so cooked longer. The taste is good but they ended up dry and hard. SO, DO NOT OVERCOOK., take out while still very soft. Learned for the next time.
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Yeah definitely don’t overcook, they continue to harden quite a bit as they cool. Glad that sub worked!
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