Regret Nothing! Brown Sugar Tahini Cookies with Rosemary

Regrets are for the birds. I regret nothing as a rule. Does that sound unapologetic? If so, then good;) It’s not an easy stance to take living in such a guilt riddled world. There are entire industries based on regret….lalalalalalala. I am virtually clapping my hands over my ears. hahaha. Anyway this week I am taking a page out of the Edith Piaf handbook, “Je ne regrette rein”.

Mistakes. They are wonderful. They lead to amazing discoveries and adventures. Marching to the beat of the same drummer translates into absolutely nothing interesting happening. What a bland, vanilla world it would be – and anyway who would determine what tune to march to? That little detail is scary as hell. If Rob Ford has a 40% approval rating then clearly we don’t all see things in the same light. Ahhhh Mr. Rob Ford comes up yet again. Promise no more mentions of him in the future….unless of course something even more scintillating inspires me. Let’s hope not!

So here’s to falling off the wagon. Here’s to making mistakes. Here’s to embracing our differences. Here’s to learning, growing and evolving.

So back to food. This week my family unanimously rejected my cookie experiment. Me? Not so much. I loved ’em. There is a cookbook called Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. They share a recipe for tahini cookies. You can check out the New York Times article about the cookbook here. I changed it up a bit by introducing Rosemary and replacing white superfine sugar with organic brown. Anyway, long story short, these are terrific cookies. In their original or amended form. *word of advice if you don’t like Rosemary or herby, sweet confections, stick to flavouring them with orange zest, almond extract, nutmeg or the original cinnamon!

Brown Sugar Tahini Cookies with Rosemary (as adapted from Eating from the Ground Up (using recipe from Jerusalem)
2/3 cup organic brown sugar
2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup tahini paste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 teaspoons heavy cream
2 cups plus 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Yes it’s a high temperature…and yes this means you will have to watch the cookies to make sure they do not burn. Using a Kitchen Aid (or whatever you have handy) on medium speed mix together the butter and sugar until well blended. This should take about a minute. I erred on the side of beating this mixture more rather than less as it lightened a bit with time. Then add the vanilla, cream, rosemary and tahini paste. This is where I went off course. I misread the recipe and also did not have heavy cream. So I added 4 tablespoons of half and half. Because I cook mainly by feel and rely less on measurement I added a bit more flour to compensate. To be frank I am not at all sure whether this changed the texture of these cookies. I will make another test batch today to see and will update this recipe with the results. When in doubt refer to the original recipe I included above.

Add the flour and knead the dough until it is smooth on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to about 1/4 of an inch thickness and cut with your choice of cookie cutter. I lined the cookie sheet with parchment and baked for a little less than the recommended time. approximately 10 minutes. If you are looking for something a little different and enjoy shortbread”esque” cookies – then this is the recipe for you.