Black Sesame-Studded Tahini Cookies

If you've been following me for even a little while, you'll know that I'm not much of a sweets gal. I bake and make sweet treats all the time - because I live with three self-professed sugar pigs. However, I rarely eat the sweets I make.

Since we're now fully-entrenched in holiday cookie season, I wanted to try to create a savory-ish cookie that we could all enjoy. Eureka! I did it...and this is so, so easy. The only thing: it barely made 18 cookies. So, next time, I'll double - or even triple - my proportions. I will also try a gluten-free version of these for a party tomorrow.

Ingredients

1 C flour (I used an organic pastry flour)
½ C sliced almonds (feel free to substitute for any kinds of nuts)
⅓ C organic powdered sugar
⅓ C tahini (sesame paste)
¼ t rosewater
¼ C butter, cold and cubed
½ t salt (I used some vanilla salt)
2 T black sesame seeds
2 T organic granulated sugar

Procedure
Preheat oven to 350° F. Place flour, nuts, powdered sugar, and butter in a bowl. With your fingers, or a pastry cutter, blend the butter into the flour mixture until pea-sized chunk form. Pour in the tahini and the rosewater (if you don't like rosewater, omit) and press together into a ball.

Mix the black sesame seeds and sugar together in a bowl.

Form dough into 1” balls and roll them in the sesame seed-sugar mixture. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing 1 to 2” apart. Flatten slightly with your thumb. Bake cookies until lightly golden, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.

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