Black Tahini Buckwheat Cookies

October 2021

The past year and a half felt like a time warp. I found myself asking, “Which month is it? What day is it?” more often than seems normal. Please tell me you did, too.

Even still, occasionally my breath will catch as I see something that makes clear the precise moment that we’re in. A lopsided orange pumpkin on a neighbor’s doorstep. A raked pile of crinkly, paper bag-color leaves. The sun slipping below the horizon before dinnertime.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming holiday season, even though I know it won’t be quite the same as years past. In some ways, I might actually prefer the low expectations and the magic that’ll no doubt find its way through the cracks. We are taking Arthur to a mini pumpkin patch at our local plant nursery this weekend. We have plans to visit the giant Christmas tree in San Francisco’s Union Square, and we have hopes for many meals shared with family and friends.

Work has kept me busy lately, and for that I am so grateful. I taught cookbook class to a wonderfully multi-national group of gastronomes who are studying for their master’s degrees in food culture and communications at L’Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche. We talked proper recipe-writing techniques and how to know if a random recipe you found online is going to work. But the parts of the course that seemed to resonate the most were the personal stories and experiences—what it’s really like to develop recipes and write cookbooks for a living. I told my students that there’s a sweet spot I am always chasing. I prefer the balance of one recently published book for me to promote, one in-progress book to work on each day, and one future book (or the idea for a future book) to dream about.

Right now, I’m deep in the recipe development phase for a new book. I can’t share too many details about the project yet, but stay tuned for more soon. I’ve been coming up with lots of new recipes and I wanted to share one of them as the Recipe of the Month for October 2021: Black Tahini Buckwheat Cookies. This month is a little bit unusual because the recipe isn’t completely polished. I am currently tweaking it and testing and re-testing. But this iteration was too beautiful and delicious not to share. (Also, perfect for a Halloween treat.) You’ll have to let me know what you think!

Black Tahini Buckwheat Cookies

Makes 12

Scant ½ cup black sesame seeds

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (110 g) all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons buckwheat flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 large egg

1/3 cup black tahini

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put the black sesame seeds in a wide shallow dish or on a plate with a lip.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy and lightened in color, about 4 minutes. Add the egg, beat for 1 minute, and then add the black tahini and vanilla. Beat until fully incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined.

Using two small spoons, scoop the (very sticky!) dough into 12 golf ball-size balls, roll them in the black sesame seeds, and place them evenly spaced apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the cookies smell toasted and have spread out into half-spheres, 12 to 14 minutes. It’s tricky to see when these dark cookies are done; better to underdo it slightly than to overbake them. Let cool on the baking sheet. (They’ll firm up a little as they cool.)

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xo,
Maria

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