On Saturday, I was looking in the pantry and I saw this jar of tahini. Then I noticed a leftover jar of pumpkin seeds. And suddenly I had this craving for cookies. You can guess what happened next.
No more classic chocolate chip cookies for me! These chewy, thick, almost cake-like cookies are my new fave. These were so delicious, I ate about five of them straight out of the oven. But I felt like something was missing.
Chocolate.
So using Half Baked Harvest’s Harvest Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Salted Toasted Pepitas idea of dipping half the cookies in chocolate, I came up with these wonderful Pumpkin Seed Tahini Banana Cookies Dipped in Chocolate. I know, it’s a long name, but I didn’t want to exclude any important ingredients in the title! (By the way, check out Half Baked Harvest’s blog. All the recipes there are so delicious-looking.)
These cookies have no processed sugar, flour, eggs or butter! And who knew that tahini wasn’t just for hummus? In cookies, tahini acts like any other nut butter and it is really tasty when combined with chocolate. So if you’re going to make these, do NOT omit dipping the cookies in the melted chocolate! Trust me, it makes a world of a difference.
First mix the oats with the baking soda.
In a big bowl, mash the bananas, and then add the tahini and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.
Whisk in the dry ingredients. Add in the pumpkin seeds and raisins (and if you like chocolate, add some chocolate chips too!).
Refrigerate for 10 minutes before scooping out spoonfuls of batter onto a parchment-lined baking tray. I kept a lot of space between each cookie, but the cookies do not spread a lot when baking, so you can keep them closer together than I did. You should have around 16-20 cookies.
I topped mine with raisins and pumpkin seeds to make it look nicer.
Bake for 20-25 minutes at 175 °C (350 °F), until the edges start browning and the middle is not too soft. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a rack to cool down. Do not throw away the parchment paper!
For the chocolate dipping part, melt the chocolate and dip each half of the cookie in it. Then place the dipped cookies on the parchment paper to let the chocolate harden. Now eat them!
I really like these cookies! And they go great with milk.
Pumpkin Seed Tahini Banana Cookies Dipped in Chocolate
Ingredients:
2/3 cup rolled oats
1 tsp. baking soda
3 bananas, mashed
1 cup tahini or any other nut butter (Double my tahini recipe if you want to make it homemade!)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup (80 g) melted chocolate
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 175 °C (350 °F). Mix together the oats and baking soda in a small bowl.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the bananas, tahini, and vanilla extract until smooth. Add in the oat mixture, pumpkin seeds, raisins, and chocolate chips.
- Scoop 2 tablespoons of batter for each cookie onto a parchment-lined baking tray. These cookies do not spread a lot when baking so you do not need to space them a lot. If desired, top with extra pumpkin seeds, raisins, and chocolate chips.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges are brown and the middle is a bit firm. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring cookies onto a rack to completely cool them down. Do not throw the parchment paper away!
- Dip each cookie halfway into the melted chocolate and place on parchment paper. Wait until the chocolate hardens before eating. These can store up to a week (if they last that long!) in a closed lid container. But of course they taste better fresh.
A Kitchen Fable 