Tahini Thumbprint Cookies with Fig Preserves {Leftovers Club}

The tahini kick continues!  Seriously, I can’t get enough of the stuff.  When I discovered the cookbook I acquired for the month from my Cook Book Book Club had an entire page dedicated to the fascination with Tahini, I was beyond stoked!  Since I only have this beautiful book for a month, my goal of course is to make as many recipes as possible before I have to trade it in for the next one.  So when the time rolled around to start thinking about what I wanted to make for Leftover’s Club, naturally I flipped to the “sweets” section to see if there were any good options.  And naturally the tahini cookies caught my eye, despite that fact that the recipe offered no picture.

Because they were for Leftovers Club, I wanted to do something a bit more complex than what sounded similar to a simple shortbread cookie.  BUT I wanted to spice them up in a way that would maintain the authenticity of the original recipe; I wanted to be able to experience the intended flavor.  The recipe mentioned that tahini is very much the local version of peanut butter, so I thought “why not add jam?!”  I decided to accomplish this by turning them into thumbprint cookies filled with homemade fig spread.  Courtney and I both loved how these turned out.  The cookie is much like a shortbread cookie, but with rich nutty tahini flavor.  The jam compliments the cookie well; it makes me think “PB&J for big kids”.  

I was especially excited about Leftovers Club this month when I discovered I was paired with Joanne of Eats Well With Others.  Joanne’s blog has been one of my favorite for years now; one the of few blogs that I don’t just skip straight to the recipe, but also enjoy reading the story that goes along with it.  And her recipes?  They’re as delicious as they are beautiful.  I’ve made nearly a dozen of her recipes over the years, including the dark chocolate covered pretzel bread pudding we enjoyed for Mother’s Day, the meyer lemon rosemary sticky buns we devoured on Christmas morning, and the roasted carrot, chickpea and barley salad that both my Grandmother and I have made numerous times.  I have another two dozen of her recipes on my various Pinterest boards, including plum, marzipan and cinnamon muffins, cornbread and black bean panzanella, deep-dish strawberry rhubarb pie, and this chocolate chip cookie pie that may or may not have caused me to lick my computer screen.  I plead the fifth.  Clearly, I share her taste in food, and I hope she enjoy these cookies as much as I’ve enjoyed her dishes over the years!

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Tahini Thumbprint Cookies with Fig Preserves

Adapted from Jerusalem: A Cookbook

“When it comes to food, Israelis can be very fickle.  One day, without any notice, everybody discovers a brand-new favorite delight and treats it as the absolute best thing since sliced bread.  This normally doesn’t last long, before something new and equally exciting makes a surprise appearance.  This was the case when tahini, or halva, cookies were at the height of their popularity a few years ago.  There was no escaping them.  You could find them in all the cafes, in every bakery, and in the cookie jar of any avid home baker, echoing the taste and texture of local halva, the crumbly dense Arab confection made with sesame paste and honey or sugar.  These cookies are like a hybrid between a short biscuit and halva, with the typical melting texture of the former and the nutty, unctuous flavor of the latter.  For those who used to spread halva over white bread and gulp it down fro breakfast, they are a real throwback to childhood.”

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup / 130g superfine sugar
• 2/3 cup / 150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup / 110g tahini
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 tsp heavy cream
• 2 cups + 1 1/2 tbsp / 270g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup fig spread (use your favorite store bought fig spread/jam or the recipe below!)

Directions:  

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Place sugar and butter in a stand mixer and beat on medium speed for 1 minute, until just combined.  With the machine running, add tahini, vanilla and cream.  Next add flour and beat for 1 minute until the dough comes together.  Transfer to a work surface and knead until smooth.

Pinch off large tablespoons of dough (2/3 oz / 20g) and roll into a ball between your palms.  Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Using your finger or thumb, make an indent for the jam; you want it to be deep enough because the cookies do spread.  If the sides crumble a bit, carefully reshape.  Continue with the rest of the dough, spacing the cookies 1 1/4 inch apart.  Spoon about 1 tsp of jam into each cookie.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 30 cookies

For the Fig Jam: Stuff a pint-sized mason jar full, 3/4 dried figs and 1/4 Medjool dates.  For a normal sized mason jar this is about 450 grams of dried fruit.  You will want to remove the stems from the figs and the pits from the dates.  Cover completely with water, making sure that it can sink to any crevasses in the bottom.  Soak for at least twelve hours.  Transfer fruit and water to your food processor and process very well until completely smooth and creamy.  Once you have the desired consistency, transfer back to your jar and refrigerate.  This can last for several months in your fridge.

Johanna