Tahini gives me life. It’s one of those special ingredients that kicks me back to being a child in any number of family kitchens commanded by aunts and grandmothers, surrounded by multiple generations of cousins.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure, tahini is a nutty, creamy, slightly earthy seed butter made from toasted sesame seeds. While it’s a common ingredient in Middle Eastern dressings and sauces—and adding it to a cookie may seem strange—I promise, it’s the move.

This one happens to be vegan, and while I know this is so cliché to say, non-vegans will truly be unable to tell. :)

I hope these crackly little gems get you all the praise over the holidays!

-Kate

Recipe (makes 25 cookies):

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp sea salt

• ½ cup of refined coconut oil (or unrefined, melted, and cooled)

• ⅓ cup well-stirred tahini

• 6 tbsp water

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 and ¼ cups tightly packed brown sugar

• 284 grams of vegan chocolate in bar form, roughly chopped into ½ inch pieces (I used 2 ½ Lindt vegan salted caramel bars)

Preheat your oven to 350F. If you’re using refined and melted coconut oil, melt and cool that now.

Whisk together the dry ingredients (except the sugar and chocolate). Separately mix the wet ingredients until well combined, for about one minute. Mix in the sugar to the wet ingredients, gradually add the dry ingredients, and fold in the chocolate until evenly distributed.

Chill the dough for about 10 minutes while prepping the oven and sheet pans (line with parchment). Using a large cookie dough scoop (or ice cream scoop or a normal spoon, aiming for about 3 tbsp of cookie dough per scoop), place cookie dough in mounds about 3 inches apart on the pan.

Bake at 350F for 12 minutes. The cookies will be puffy as they come out, and will fall and crackle perfectly. Let them cool on the pan on top of a wire rack for about 20 minutes before transferring them to the rack.

I’m not a coffee drinker (I know…gasp), but a girl still needs her caffeine, so I drink tea. And it’s mostly chai tea.

So when I scrounged my kitchen over ten years ago for ingredients to use in a cookie recipe that would scratch my itch for a new, unique play on the shortbread cookies I used to make with my grandma, and spotted the 6 boxes of chai tea, I knew I was in for a treat.

And you’re in for a treat, too, with the simple, yet elegant, spicy, and sweet, melt-in-your-mouth goodness that are these cookies.

-Ilana

Recipe (makes 3 dozen cookies):

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

• ½ cup powdered sugar

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• ½ tsp salt

• 2 bags of Vanilla Chai Tea loose

Cream butter and confectioners sugar. Add in flour, salt, and loose tea leaves. Continue to mix until a soft dough forms. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until it’s 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies using a 2-inch round cookie cutter. Bake on a cookie sheet for 18-20 minutes at 350F.

Remove from cookie sheet to let cool, and frost with the following vanilla icing:

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

• 2 tbsp water

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

This cookie recipe (usually reserved for spring—more on that in a second) is one of my mother’s. It’s instant nostalgia, a harmonious duo of sweet and earthy, and always a hit.

For reasons I’m sure are valid, my mom always made these for Easter. But between snowmen, reindeer, and stocking oranges, the combination of carrot and orange seems perfectly suitable for the holiday season!

This is truly a cookie lover’s cookie. Bring these to a swap and be ready to hand out the recipe! (She says you can share).

-Kate

Recipe (makes 5 dozen cookies):

• 1 cup of mashed carrots

• ¾ cup sugar

• 1 cup of shortening

• 2 eggs

• 2 cups of flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• ¾ cup shredded coconut

Mix the carrots with the wet ingredients, and stir in the dry ingredients. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and bake at 400F for 8-10 minutes.

Remove from cookie sheet to let cool, and frost with the following orange butter frosting:

• ½ cups of powdered sugar

• 2 tbsp + 2 tsp of softened butter

• 2 tbsp of orange juice

• 2 tsp grated orange peel

Chocolate and peanut butter is the best combination that exists in the culinary world and no one will ever be able to convince me otherwise. That’s why these Peanut Butter Temptations (I don’t know, Pinterest named them) are my go-to cookie to make during the holidays.

And it’s a recipe that can be made with kids. I’ve been making these with my kids since they were toddlers.

-Ilana

Recipe (makes 40 cookies):

• ½ cup butter

• ½ cup white sugar

• ½ cup packed brown sugar

• ½ cup peanut butter

• 1 egg

• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• ¾ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 36 min peanut butter cups, unwrapped and frozen (if you have a Trader Joes nearby, you must use the dark chocolate mini pb cups)

Cream brown sugar, white sugar, and butter. Stir in the peanut butter, then the egg and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the peanut butter mixture until the dough comes together. Shape into 1 inch balls and press them into the cups of an unprepared mini muffin pan. Bake for 8 minutes at 375F.

Press a peanut butter cup (frozen) down into the center of each cookie until only the top is showing. Allow the cookies to cool completely before removing from the pan.