Insalata di Arance [Orange Salad]

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Sugarless Tehina Cookies

Active cooking time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 10-13 minutes
Yield: 24-30 cookies

It was easy to keep Cai sugar-free as a baby, but as he gets older, he’s noticing that we live in a world where cookies and cakes abound. I try not to be a fascist about it, especially because I’m far from monastic when it comes to sweets. As a compromise, I’ve started to bake sugar-free treats for us both. Here’s one of the recipes I developed with tehina, or sesame paste, which is easy, fun and when fresh out of the oven, divine.

50 grams butter [about 1.75 ounce or 3.5 tablespoons], softened.
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon cardamom
Salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup tehina [sesame paste]
1/4 cup water
Nutmeg or cinnamon or all spice.

Combine butter, oil, honey and vanilla. Add dry ingredients with a dash of salt, mix, and then tehina and water. Mix and then drop tablespoons of dough on greased baking sheet. Sprinkle cookies with nutmeg, cinnamon or all spice. Bake at 350 for 10-13 minutes until slightly browned. [See photo on this page.]