"The Best Cookies I've Ever Eaten"

Did you have a good Easter? Ours was pleasant and quiet -- my kind of holiday! Our day consisted of sleeping in, church, lunch made by the Best Inlaws Ever, and a lovely hike/wander with the dogs. The Best Husband Ever and I finished up the day by watching a movie that he had long been recommending against my rather surly resistance, Life With Father. Was it good? Sadly (for stubborn me? for the super-patient hubby? I'm not sure . . .), it was a sweet movie and perfect for Easter, too. As my husband said, it's a classic. I recommend it, especially if you're a fan of older films, tasteful humor, and/or a young Elizabeth Taylor.

Before all that Easter goodness went down, however, I did something else. Something . . . tasty. As you might have guessed from the above photograph, I baked cookies! Tasty and healthy cookies, too, not to mention endorsed as "the best cookies I've ever eaten." Pretty glowing recommendation, isn't it? Too bad I'm the one who said it -- or, in reality, thought it. But I really do think it's true, although you should take into account the fact that I'm not really a cookie-eater. I'll say it again, these cookies were good, and completely unlike any cookie I've ever heard of.

A short while ago, a hooping/writing/reading/blogging pal, Traci, mentioned a cookie recipe that incorporates tahini. That's right -- tahini. She asked if I would like to take a gander at the recipe. I think you can guess my reply. The original recipe was for sunflower seed cookies. I didn't have any sunflower seeds on hand, though, so my version went something like this:

Maple Tahini Cookies

1/4 cup tahini (I used raw)
1/3 cup maple syrup*
3/4 rolled oats
2 T pecans, chopped
2 T dates, diced
sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 350*F.

Using a fork, cream the tahini and maple syrup together in a mixing bowl until well blended. Add the oats and stir until all of the moisture is absorbed and the oats incorporated. You may have to use a little extra maple syrup. Add the nuts, dates, and sesame seeds to your preference (I used about 2 tsp), stirring well. Feel free to use different nuts and/or dried fruit, although I recommend keeping the sesame seeds to complement the tahini.

Grease a cookie sheet. Drop Tablespoon-sized spoonfuls of dough on to the cookie sheet. Press the tops gently with the back of a spoon to flatten the cookies, but be sure that the dough does not separate into smaller pieces.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then remove the cookies to a rack to completing the cooling. At room temperature these cookies are amazingly crunchy.

Makes 12 cookies.

*Feel free to substitute sugar free maple syrup for half of the pure maple.

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Om This! Update: I've been having a singularly yoga-less weekend! Well, that's not completely true. On Saturday I did about 10 minutes of post-workout yoga with my Wii Fit. Sunday (yesterday) was my scheduled rest day, but I ended up hiking with the hubby for about 2 hours, which felt very blissful and yoga-like to me. See, yoga can be anything! Truly. How have you been doing? Don't forget to enter to win a free elite YogaDownload membership by clicking here!