Tahini is often used in savoury recipes but this ground sesame seed paste brings a fantastic rich nuttiness to baking recipes too. From tahini shortbread to impressive cakes, here are some favourites.
The flavour combination of sweet dates, creamy ricotta and banana, offset by a lovely hum of tahini, make this cake wonderfully special. The baked cake is then topped with a fantastic cream cheese and tahini icing and fried banana slices.
Credit: Savannah van der Niet
A taste of these chewy halva-like cookies will transport you to Turkey or Morocco or somewhere else in the Middle East!
Tahini and rose halva cookies Credit: Luisa Brimble
Flogeres are little Greek filo pastry rolls. Here, chopped chocolate and candied orange pieces are stirred into a cream cheese, ricotta, tahini and icing sugar mixture, creating a delicious filling for the little pastry logs.
Sweet cheese, tahini and chocolate flogeres. Credit: Benito Martin
These gluten-free brownies (made using ground almonds and cocoa powder) are delicious and easy to make. "I absolutely love combining chocolate and orange in cakes and desserts, as they work so well together, but the nuts and the wonderfully rich tahini really crank up the flavour while also keeping these little brownie squares lovely and soft," says Sabrina Ghayour.
Credit: Kris Kirkham
With the edges of these gluten-free tahini biscuits rolled in sesame seeds before baking, they are a striking and delicious idea.
Tahini shortbread buttons Credit: Chris Middleton
This recipe is traditionally made during Lent because it contains no animal products. As these little Greek tahini cakes contain no butter or eggs they tend to be on the crumbly side, but they’re delicious nonetheless, especially when drizzled with the orange blossom glaze.
Tahini orange cakes. Credit: Benito Martin
This Middle Eastern slice gets its earthiness and nuttiness from semolina and desiccated coconut, and its enchanting fragrance from a deluge of rosewater and orange blossom syrup. Two tablespoons of tahini in the mix add to the comforting flavour. (Or for another version, try this recipe, which adds mahlab to the slice and uses has a rosewater and orange blossom syrup.)
Namoura (Sweet semolina and coconut slice) Credit: Kitti Gould
Can't have nuts? Get ready to enjoy these nutty, but peanut-free, tahini chocolate chunk cookies, in a indulgent take on the classic from Mary Berg.
Credit: Mary Makes It Easy
In this Middle Eastern cake, the tahini plays a different role: the sesame seed paste is used to grease the base and sides of the cake tin for a delightfully moist outer to this dense almond cake, perfect with a hot tea or coffee.
Credit: Adam Liaw
Tahini adds flavour to these crunchy seed-and-nut packed bars, great for a portable snack. Along with chia, sesame and sunflower seeds, pepitas, chopped cashews and coconut, there's buckwheat, oats and quinoa flakes in the mix, too.
Credit: Smith Street Books
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