Gluten-Free Teff Cookies with Halva Flavor and Chocolate

This week I visited Machane Yehuda (Jerusalem's open-air market).

Tucked away on Ha'Agas Street (a street in the market), right across from the produce shop belonging to the Banai family (a well-known Israeli family), is a tiny Ethiopian grocery and food shop.

Along with some wonderful spices, I picked up light teff flour at a bargain price—with absolutely no idea what I was going to do with it.

It sat in my cupboard for a few days. Today, I decided to try making vegan, gluten-free cookies with it. What did I have to lose? Let's give it a shot.

The first thing I noticed was the flour's grainy texture. It isn't nearly as cooperative as wheat flour.

I figured a little fat might help bring it together and make the dough easier to work with.

And nothing makes life easier quite like tahini.

A Little About This Recipe

I made these cookies with teff flour, but if you don't have any, you can use another flour you have at home. Just choose a gluten-free flour if you need the cookies to stay gluten-free.

I wouldn't recommend chickpea or soy flour here—their flavors are too strong.

I used regular tahini made from hulled sesame seeds, rather than whole-seed tahini, which tends to turn bitter when baked.

I added 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds to keep things interesting, but you can leave them out.

And don't let the chocolate coating scare you off. It adds just 10 calories per cookie.

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When should you eat these?

One cookie or 2 makes a perfect 4 p.m. snack, a little pre-workout fuel, or even a late-night bite.

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Nutrition information provided by Noam Bachar (an Israeli nutritionist and fitness trainer):

Per cookie, weighing 25 g (0.9 oz), from a batch of 40:

100 calories

3 g protein

8 g carbohydrates

6 g fat

Want another gluten-free cookie recipe? Head over here.

Gluten-Free Teff Cookies

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Total Time 13 minutes

Yield 40 cookies

Ingredients

• 400 g (14 oz) light teff flour 2 cups
• 350 g (12.3 oz) hulled sesame tahini 1 1/2 cups
• 200 g (7 oz) silan (date syrup) 1 1/2 cups
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds optional
• 100 g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 tablespoons water

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. In a large bowl, combine the cookie ingredients, reserving the chocolate and oil for the coating. Mix until you have a uniform, sticky dough.
3. Place the dough on a sheet of parchment paper.
   
4. Cover the dough with another sheet of parchment paper and flatten it with a rolling pin.
   
5. Cut out circles using the rim of an upside-down drinking glass.
   
6. Bake for 8–12 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookies.
   
7. The cookies should be golden and lightly browned.
8. For the chocolate coating:
9. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water.
10. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and stir well.
11. Dip each cookie halfway into the chocolate and set aside.
    
12. The cookies keep in an airtight container for about a month.
    

A Few Notes

You can also roll the dough into balls with damp hands for that classic rounded halva-cookie shape.