Honey Cookies with Toasted Sesame, Warm Spices & Olive Oil

Written by: Cooks of Heraclea

Time: 2 hours 45 minutes (incl. chilling)

Ingredients: 15

Spiced honey cookies rolled in toasted sesame seeds, made with tahini and Heraclea Early Harvest olive oil

No butter in these. Our Early Harvest olive oil and tahini do the heavy lifting — whisked with brown sugar until glossy, then rounded out with honey, orange zest, cinnamon, and cloves. Toasted sesame seeds go into the dough and onto the tops. The hard part is the wait: two hours in the fridge, or overnight if you can stand it, so the honey and spice settle in and the cookies bake up chewy with just-set centers. Pull them when the edges turn golden. They keep for days. They won't last that long.

Ingredients:

For the Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup Heraclea Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil
¼ cup tahini
1 cup light brown sugar
⅓ cup good-quality honey
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Grated zest of one orange
½ cup lightly toasted sesame seeds

Optional, for Rolling

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, lightly toasted

Steps:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, tahini and brown sugar until smooth and glossy. Add the honey, egg, vanilla and orange zest, mixing until fully incorporated.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring just until a soft dough forms. Fold in the toasted sesame seeds.
Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. (This deepens the spice and honey notes and helps the cookies hold their shape.)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop 1½-tablespoon portions of dough. Roll the tops in additional toasted sesame seeds. Place on the baking sheet, spacing one to two inches apart.
Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden and the centers are just set.
Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.