Sweets · Snacks
Tahini Lemon
Cookies.
Nutty tahini, bright lemon and a little maple, baked into six tender golden cookies. No flour, no butter, no refined sugar. This recipe makes six cookies and serves two. Double it if you are baking for the family or the week.
- Energy
- 1,460 kJ (350 kcal)
- Protein
- 10 g
- Fat
- 28 g
- Carbohydrate
- 19 g
- Fibre
- 6 g
- Net carbs
- 13 g
Per cookie: 490 kJ (117 kcal), 3 g protein, 9 g fat, 6 g carbohydrate, 2 g fibre.
How to make it.
- 01
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray.
- 02
In a bowl, stir the tahini, maple syrup, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla together until smooth and glossy.
- 03
Add the almond meal, bicarb soda and salt and mix until it comes together into a pliable dough. If it feels too loose, add another tablespoon of almond meal.
- 04
Roll into six balls, roll each one in sesame seeds and place on the tray. Press each ball down slightly with your fingers.
- 05
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges are golden. They will still be tender when they come out.
- 06
Cool on the tray for 10 minutes before moving them. They firm up as they cool.
Why this meal works.
Most cookies are flour, sugar and butter, which is a fast sugar hit with nothing to slow it down. These are built on tahini and almond meal, which means the base of every cookie is protein, fibre and healthy fat rather than refined starch. Three cookies give you ten grams of protein and six grams of fibre, closer to a nourishing snack than a treat.
That matters when you are losing fat because a snack that spikes and crashes your blood sugar sends your body into a stress response, and stress hormones tell the body to hold on to fat, especially around the middle. A snack that digests slowly does the opposite and keeps you in rest and digest.
Sesame is one of the oldest foods in the Mediterranean and a serious source of minerals. Tahini gives you calcium, magnesium and zinc in a form the body uses well, and the lemon adds vitamin C which helps you absorb the iron.
I would rather you had one or two of these with a cup of tea in the afternoon than a packet biscuit at four o'clock. Sweet things belong in a way of eating you can keep for life. They just need to be made from real food.
Micronutrients on the plate.
- Calcium, magnesium and zinc from the tahini and sesame seeds for bones, nerves and immunity.
- Vitamin E from the almond meal, an antioxidant for skin and cell health.
- Iron from the sesame, with vitamin C from the lemon to help absorb it.
- Copper and manganese from the sesame seeds, supporting energy production and healthy connective tissue.
Make it yours.
- Baking for the family? Double everything and you have twelve cookies. They keep in a sealed container for four days or in the freezer for a month.
- Nut free? Swap the almond meal for fine oat flour or sunflower seed meal.
- Add a tablespoon of dark chocolate chips or a few chopped pistachios to the dough for a treat.
- For a more savoury cookie, drop the maple to two teaspoons and add a pinch of cardamom or extra lemon zest.
- One or two cookies makes a satisfying snack for most people. Three with a cup of tea is dessert.
Six cookies, one bowl, ten minutes. Sweet without the crash. Buon appetito.
Enjoy!
With love, Serena ×