Just because it’s January, doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some treats. I know that some of us think that January is supposed to be about cleaning the slate and eating as healthy as possible, but I’m here to tell you that it’s important to have a balance in everything we do.
So with that said, I’d like to offer you these DAMN GOOD PALEO CHOCOLATE CHUNK TAHINI COOKIES. They’re gluten free, vegan-friendly, grain free and absolutely delicious. What more could you want?
Now I don’t know about you but I’m a firm believer that chocolate chunks are much better than chocolate chips. They melt into gorgeous puddles and each bite contains the perfect amount of sweetness.
Here’s what you need to make these tahini cookies:
Tahini: if you haven’t had tahini yet, then what are you waiting for? It’s just ground sesame seeds. My favorite brand is Soom foods, but I also love using the 365 brand from Whole Foods. I would not recommend the Trader Joe’s tahini as it’s much thicker than most tahinis.
Egg or flax egg: I give you the option to use either in this recipe.
Coconut sugar: I love using coconut sugar in recipes because it’s an unrefined sugar replacement for brown sugar or regular sugar in most recipes.
Coconut oil, melted butter or ghee: you can use any of these in this recipe. Personally I love using virgin coconut oil.
Almond flour: my favorite almond flour is Bob’s Red Mill. I prefer to use the blanched super fine almond flour for these cookies for a smooth texture.
Coconut Flour: I like using coconut flour in my paleo recipes because it helps to thicken the dough. You don’t need much. Another option instead of coconut flour might be oat flour; I haven’t tried it, but please leave a comment if you do.
Dark Chocolate: Personally I love using a 72% dark chocolate in this recipe. I recommend coarsely chopping the chocolate so that it’s not overly small.
These cookies are fabulous and SO easy to make. Enjoy them warm with a glass of almond, cashew or coconut milk. You’re going to love them!
More paleo cookie recipes:
Paleo No Bake Cookie Dough Truffles
The Best Paleo Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Paleo Ginger Molasses Cookies
Flourless Paleo Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies
If you make these tahini cookies, please let me know by leaving a comment and rating the recipe below. You can also use the hashtag #ambitiouskitchen on Instagram so I can see your creations! xo.
Damn Good Paleo Chocolate Chunk Tahini Cookies
Ingredients
- Wet Ingredients
- 1 egg*
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 2 tablespoons melted and cooled coconut oil (melted butter or melted ghee will also work)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Dry Ingredients
- 3/4 cup fine packed almond flour
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 (3 ounce) dark chocolate bar (at least 72%), coarsely chopped*
- Fancy Maldon Salt, for sprinkling on top
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
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In a large bowl, mix together the following: egg, coconut sugar, tahini, melted and cooled coconut oil and vanilla extract until smooth.
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Next add the dry ingredients: almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until a cookie dough consistency forms, then fold in the chocolate chunks.
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Grab about 1 heaping tablespoon of dough with your hands and roll into a ball. Place ball on cookie sheet and flatten the top of dough a bit with the palm of your hand.
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Bake for 9-11 minutes until edges are just slightly golden. We want to slightly underbake these so they stay gooey. Once done baking, immediately sprinkle with Maldon salt. Cool on cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before removing from pan. Makes 10-12 cookies.
Recipe Notes
To make vegan: Feel free to use 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon flaxseed meal + 3 tablespoons water) instead of an egg. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes before using. Also make sure you are using a vegan chocolate.
Instead of chocolate chunks, you can feel free to use 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Recipe by: Monique // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eat
94 comments
Oh, I’ve made these (when you sent out in your newsletter). They are DAMN good!! Always love your paleo cookie recipes.
YES you caught the sneak peek! Glad you love them 🙂
Hey Monique! Have you tried subbing maple syrup for the coconut sugar? I’m out of coconut sugar and wasn’t sure if it’d be an equal swap or not…
Hey Lauren! You could definitely try it. Perhaps use 1/3 cup instead!
We’re not Paleo, would you recommend suubbing regular flour for almond flour, or cake flour? These look Awesome and would live to make if I don’t have to buy a bunch of special ingredients just for this recipe.
Thanks
This recipe was specifically made to use almond flour, so I’m not sure how regular flour will turn out. If you try it let me know! I also have tons of chocolate chip + chocolate chunk cookie recipes on my site with different flours that you can search 🙂
Hi! My husband is allergic to almonds, what flour can I use to substitute it?
Napkin please, I’m drooling all over myself.
These cookies will do that!
These are STUPID good! Tahini for the win!
Looove tahini! Glad you liked these 🙂
Yay, a recipe that can be made with a flax egg! OMG! These cookies look absolutely divine otherwise with the chocolate chunks and sea salt. Tahini, almond flour, and the coconut sugar definitely are some of the best ingredients to work with!
You’ll have to give these a try! So good.
I’m really curious what kind of baking sheet is pictured above.
Thanks for the recipe. I can’t wait to try it.
Hazelnut flour or cashew flour should work well!
It’s about a 9″x13″. Hope you love these!
Tried these with oat flour and they came out amazing! SO good! Thank you!
So happy to hear that!
I have unsweetened tahini, I have seen other types. Can I use unsweetened?
What a fabulous recipe to get through arctic vortex. I used Enjoy Life chocolate chunks as the one ingredient I was out of was a chocolate bar (only had 100% dark chocolate)!
Yes I always use unsweetened like this kind!
Hi, I don’t have tahini at the moment and am wondering if subbing almond butter would work? Thanks!
Omg these were amazing! I’m gf, vegan, and cane sugar free (food allergies 🙁 ) and these made me sooo happy! The texture and sweetness were spot on. I brought them into work and they were a huge hit with everyone. Thanks so much!
Perfect! Glad you loved these 🙂
Just checked my pantry and don’t have coconut flour. I do have some rice flour. Can I substitute? Thanks!
I haven’t tested these with rice flour, only coconut flour so I’m not sure how they would turn out.
I made this subbing oatmeal flour for coconut and almond butter for tahini. They flattened like regular cookies but tasted great!!
Swapping the flours will definitely change the texture, but glad you enjoyed them!
Delicious! They just came out of the oven and even better than I expected.
Could I use almond butter instead of tahini? I’m out and my local store doesn’t carry it? 😭
I haven’t tried it, but I think it would be delicious, just beware that almond butter and tahini have different consistencies so be sure to use a drippy all natural almond butter.
I’m trying to cut down on sugar. How do you think monk fruit packets would work?
I was wondering the same thing!
I don’t typically bake with alternative sweeteners, so I’m not 100% sure. Let me know if you try it!
OMG Monique you tahini queenie, these were AMAZING. Jeff and I are gonna polish off the batch in like 2 days!
So glad you guys loved them!! Seriously one of my fav new cookies <3
hello,
i live overseas and we have hulled and unhulled tahini here. can you let me know which one to use in this recipe? i am researching and can not figure it out. thanks! 🙂
Hi! Yes, hulled is best.
you are right, great cookies, very pillowy, I would make them again and again!
sugar balance is great, not super sweet with the 72% cacao bar.
Glad you like them! 🙂
These are really good!! I could seriously eat the whole batch by myself!
These cookies are quick,easy and absolutely OUT OF THIS WORLD! Yum!
YES love them! Glad you found these 🙂
Do these freeze well?
Yes they should!
These cookies are *DAMN* AWESOME!! Every time I make them…a favorite with everyone!
Thank you!
So happy to hear that!!
THESE ARE SO FRIKIN GOOD. I’m obsessed with them and will definitely be making another batch soon.
Just made these with some substitutions (mainly white flour for almond flour and oat flour for coconut, same proportions) and I cooked them for just a little too long but they are delicious!! Love the tahini taste and the thickness
Also made them vegan, not even with flaxmeal but just flaxseeds and the texture is perfect, not crumbly at all. I did add a little rice milk to my dough as it was quite dense, but I think that was due to my tahini being not so drippy.
Your dough was likely dense from the flour substitutions + use of flaxseeds, but I’m glad you enjoyed even with the swaps!
Can I leave the coconut sugar out?
I love your recipes!!
I wouldn’t recommend it – the coconut sugar helps maintain the flavor and consistency in these. You can use brown sugar though if you’d like! Glad you’re loving the recipes here!
These a great! You don’t taste the “healthy” in these at all! I couldn’t stop at eating just just one!
So glad you loved them! They’re one of my favs even though they’re “healthy” 🙂
What sugar substitute did you use? I am also sugar free.
This recipe is incredible!! The cookies came out perfect after 10 minutes and i’ll be making another batch this week as they disappeared within the day. I used chocolate chips because I couldn’t find any other sugar free dark chocolate, and they still came out great. Thank you!
Perfect!! So happy to hear that 🙂
these were DELICIOUS. Used GF flour mix instead of the coconut flour (didn’t have in the pantry) and Lindt Thanks! * put some in the freezer and they were perfect too.
Glad that swap worked out! Perfect freezer-friendly treat 🙂
This recipe has become my go-to when I’m eating strictly paleo, I must have made them about 7 times since I discovered them 3 months back. Super tasty, soft, and easy to make. The tahini gives them a unique flavor that reminds me of molasses. Highly recommend!
Amazing! So happy you found these – the perfect treat 🙂
Can you sub coconut sugar for Splenda? If so is it the same ratio??
I’ve never baked with Splenda so I’m not sure. I do know that Splenda is a lot sweeter than regular, coconut and brown sugar, so the ratios will likely not be the same if you try it out.
This was simply divine.. I substituted the coconut flour with oat flour.. made a coarse version of almond flour.. and added extra choco chips.. bestest ever! Love your recipes !
I’m glad those swaps worked out for you! The perfect treat 🙂
Confused about the amount of coconut flour – just 1/4 of a tablespoon? Thanks!
Hi Janie! This has been fixed — than you for the catch! It’s 1/4 cup. The transfer of the new site must have messed up the measurement.
I modified the recipe to replace the coconut sugar with monkfruit sugar and because I find it sweet, reduced the sugar by about an 8th of a cup. However I then used 85% cocoa chips, which didn’t add enough sweetness. (And because I love chocolate, I chopped up the whole 3.5 oz bar instead of using 3 oz). Oh, and, I know they should only take 9-11 minutes but at 10 minutes they still looked raw so I added another 3 minutrs. All that explains why these look absolutely beautiful but they taste more like a scone with very little sweetness but a whole lot of unsweetened chocolate. The taste improved after they’d been cooking for an hour and I do like them but don’t love them. That’s my fault with all the mods, so I’ll be trying again! I love love love the tahini flavor.
Oops, I meant cooling* not cooking for an hour. Ha.
Hi Tracie! I haven’t tried baking these with alternative sweeteners like monkfruit sugar, so I’m not sure how much I’d recommend to get the same flavor as the coconut sugar. Glad you enjoyed these regardless!
Hi! I recently tried your Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookie recipe and have now made it three times. I am keen to try this one, however does it matter if you use raw tahini over roasted?
Thank you!
I use Soom tahini typically, which is made of roasted sesame seeds. I do recommend roasted because it has a less bitter flavor, but either should work fine!
These were so delicious! I used oat flour instead of almond flour and it worked beautifully. I liked the flavor the oat flour added as well.
Perfect! So glad that swap worked out well.
One of the best cookies to come out of my kitchen!
I did the flax egg version. Brought them to my family and they were floored. Only tweaks were 1/3 cup sugar instead of 1/2 and felt they were still wonderfully sweet. Also just did 1.5oz chopped chocolate and felt they still had ample amounts in each bite. Thank you thank you thank you!
Glad those little tweaks worked out well! One of my favs 🙂