Shortbread is one of those quintessential Christmas cookies, and while traditional shortbread is always delicious, I like finding recipes with interesting flavours. I came across these tahini chocolate shortbread bars in this year’s Canadian Living Holiday Baking magazine while searching for some delicious-yet-study cookies to send in the mail for the Food52 Holiday Swap (I also made a dark-chocolate-almond-orange version of my favourite biscotti, because biscotti ships well). I love that tahini is showing up in baked goods everywhere (tahini swirl brownies, anyone?) – it’s like peanut butter but a little more grown-up – and I had a feeling it would be excellent in shortbread. Spoiler alert: it is!

Not only does this shortbread contain nutty, slightly bitter tahini, it also has brown sugar for an extra toasty, caramelized flavour – together, they remind me of halva. It also has a slightly chewy yet crumbly texture, sort of a mix between plain shortbread and a peanut butter cookie, and I think the cookies got better with age both in terms of texture and flavour. Plus a drizzle of melted milk chocolate on top never hurts anything and its mellow, creamy sweetness is great against the tahini.

I’m not going to lie, I had a hard time parting with half of this batch to send off in the mail, so I hope my Holiday Swap recipient liked them as much as I did!

Tahini Chocolate Shortbread Bars

From Canadian Living Holiday Baking 2018. Makes 30 bars. Click here for a printable PDF of the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 300˚F (275˚F convection) with the rack in the middle of then oven. Line a 9″x13″ pan with parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together:

1 cup unsalted butter, soft

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar (the recipe calls for light brown sugar, I used dark and loved the result)

1/2 tsp salt

Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.

Add 1/2 cup tahini and mix until combined, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure it is all incorporated.

Stir in 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour and mix until just combined.

Finish off with a few turns with a spatula to make sure all the flour at the bottom of the bowl is combined. The dough should be quite soft.

Press into the prepared pan and refrigerate for about 20 minutes, until firm. Using a small paring knife, score the surface of the dough into 30 bars, then prick each a few times with a fork.

Bake in the preheated 300˚F (275˚F convection) oven for about 50 minutes, until golden. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then re-cut along the score lines. Cool completely in the pan on a rack.

Once cool, melt 1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate and drizzle it over the cookies. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and allow the chocolate to set. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.