Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies

These chocolate tahini cookies with sea salt are flourless and gluten-free, and soft and chewy just the way a cookie should be.

Cookies are one of my favorite treats; give me a good cup of coffee with a cookie and I’ll be one happy little camper. On the way to a friend’s cottage this summer we stopped at one of my favorite coffee shops just outside of Ottawa, The Fieldhouse, to grab a coffee for the drive. When I was in the shop I decided to get some cookies to bring to the cottage (C’mon, I’m not all kale and coconut oil!), and they had these salted dark chocolate cookies that were absolutely amazing. They were soft and chewy, with a little hint of spice and a touch of salt, and they hit all of the taste buds at once. I was shocked when the lady at the counter told me they were grain-free, I figured gluten-free could easily be done but had never really thought about creating a grain-free cookie.

The only grain-free cookie that I can really think of is classic peanut butter cookies. They are essentially just a combination of peanut butter and sugar, so it’s no wonder they are delicious. Now, obviously, that is not a recipe that will fly with me, so I had to find a slightly healthier alternative, which is exactly what I’ve done with these Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies.

These cookies are a little chocolatey twist on a classic peanut butter cookie, with a lot less sugar and tahini instead of peanut butter. If you have never had tahini before, don’t be alarmed, it is essentially just sesame seed paste or the sesame seed version of peanut butter. I’ve used it in a lot of recipes on the blog, including my Power Bowls and Broccoli Salad, so if it is not a staple in your pantry yet, it is about to be.

Truthfully, I was actually a little nervous about sharing this recipe and therefore played around with it a lot. I talk a lot about the importance of avoiding sugar, so sharing a cookie with sugar in it might seem a little odd, however, I also talk a lot about the importance of opting for quality over quantity and enjoying treats in moderation. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t eat cookies (because I do), I just make sure that when I eat a cookie is a good quality cookie and not a processed pre-packaged one. So, to sweeten this recipe I opted to use raw organic cane sugar because it is one of the least refined versions of sugar. If you don’t have raw organic cane sugar, coconut sugar would also work really well, but for the purpose of this recipe, natural sweeteners like maple syrup or honey just won’t just cut it.

Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies

Author: Stephanie Kay

These salted dark chocolate cookies are sweetened with a little raw organic cane sugar, but coconut sugar would work well too.

• Author: Stephanie Kay
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 12 cookies
• Category: Cookie
• Method: Baked
• Cuisine: American
• Diet: Gluten Free

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Ingredients

• 1 cup tahini
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg, whisked
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• Flaky sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients; tahini, egg, vanilla, and whisk well to combine.
3. Add in dry ingredients; cocoa powder, sugar, sea salt and baking soda, and use a spatula to combine.
4. Once the mixture has been combined, add in dark chocolate chips and mix to incorporate.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and scoop dough into balls (approximately 1.5 tablespoons), until 12 balls are formed.
6. Using your finger or the back of a spoon, gently press the balls into cookies, just a little. Don’t worry about making them too flat, they will flatten out more when they bake.
7. Transfer baking sheet to the oven for 15 minutes until cookies are baked but still tender. They will harden when they cool.
8. Remove from the oven and sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of flaky sea salt.
9. Allow to cool completely before eating.
10. Enjoy!

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 cookie
• Calories: 169 calories
• Sugar: 2 grams
• Fat: 13 grams
• Carbohydrates: 11 grams
• Fiber: 3 grams
• Protein: 5 grams