brown butter tahini rye chocolate chunk cookie cups

brown butter tahini rye chocolate chunk cookie cups

• 13 Nov 2020

As a fan of both Ottolenghi and Honey & Co, it was only a matter of time before I started using tahini in my baking. I have a very old bottle of tahini that's been sitting in my cupboard for I don't know how long. It had seized a little but after a bit of a whiz with a chopstick it was ready to go. Originally I'd planned on making a Honey & Co white chocolate and tahini cake but then I spied this recipe for brown butter tahini rye cookie cups and I quickly changed my plans.

 

My biscuit jar was empty so I decided to bake a small batch of these cookie cups. The recipe has a very high fat to flour ratio so I was a bit concerned how they would turn out.

On a very gloomy morning I assembled all the ingredients.

I set to work making the cookie dough which tasted delicious but was very, very soft. The dough needs 12 hours in the freezer before baking so I shaped the cookie dough before freezing.

Cookie cups are usually baked in muffin tins but I baked my cookies in a 12 cup Bakemaster macaroon pan from Everten. I think the mixture is too soft to make regular cookies though as they'd spread all over the place. To make regular cookies, I'd either add a bit more flour to the dough or I'd reduce the butter and tahini quantity a little.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes 12 cookie cups. These are best served warm and as they are baked using cookie dough straight from the freezer, just bake them when you need them. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20ºC.

 

Brown butter tahini rye cookie cups – makes 12

Ingredients 

113 g unsalted butter at room temperature

1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g tahini
1 large egg
¾ cup plain flour
¼ cup rye flour
¼ tsp bicarb soda
¼ tsp baking powder
pinch salt 

140 g dark chocolate pieces, I used 52% cocoa (reserve 12 large pieces) 

Sea salt flakes

Method

In a covered microwave safe bowl, cook the butter on high for 5-6 minutes or until the butter smells very nutty and the milk solids turn golden brown. Refrigerate the bowl until the butter begins to solidify. Weigh the browned butter; it should be about 90g. If you have less, add enough room temperature unsalted butter to get there. 

 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the browned butter and the sugars together with the vanilla until pale and fluffy. Add the tahini and egg and continue mixing on medium speed for another 2 minutes, scraping down the sides every so often to be sure everything is incorporated.

 

Combine the plain flour, rye flour, bicarb soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add to the mixer and combine on low until just combined. Add the chocolate pieces and mix them in by hand with a rubber spatula.

 

Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Scoop out 12 dough balls and place them on the baking sheet. Top each cookie dough ball with a large piece of chocolate. Wrap the baking sheet with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for at least 12 hours. This will allow the glutens in the flour to relax and will give you a tender soft cookie. Do not skip this step. The cookie dough will keep in a ziplock bag in the freezer for up to 6 months. Bake them off as needed!

Pre-heat the oven to 170˚C conventional. Place a cookie dough ball into each cup of a greased non-stick macaroon tray or muffin tin then sprinkle each cookie cup with a few salt flakes. Bake for 15-17 minutes until just golden brown around the edges. They will still look fairly unbaked in the middle. Cool for at least 20 minutes before using a small offset spatula (or butter knife) to transfer the cookie cups to a cooling rack.

Bake these to order as these are at their best still warm from the oven. Otherwise a 10-15 second zap in the microwave will do the trick. The tahini rye cookie cups are very tasty, an intriguing blend of sweet and salty with some savoury notes from the tahini. Definitely worth making again.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen. 

Bye for now,

Jillian