How to Use Tahini in Your Baking| Our Modern Kitchen (2024)

INGREDIENTS

By Carmen| 14 April, 2023

Do you enjoy tahini but would like to use it more often and don’t quite know how? I hear you, I personally love the stuff. Through trial and error, I have found ways to sneak it not just in savoury dishes but in baking too!

Tahini is a paste made from ground sesame seeds, which gives it a nutty, toasty and slightly bitter flavor. This means that it actually works really well in baking to balance out the sweetness of the bakes.
I personally think that it pairs wonderfully well with chocolate and coffee aromas! It has a creamy texture and a high (healthy) fat content which also means that it binds easily with other ingredients, especially if they have high fat content too, making it rather versatile.

In this article, we will explore the ways you can use tahini in baking and take a look at four delicious recipes that use tahini in different ways.

Tahini tends to mix better with ingredients that have similar textures and fat contents such as creamy ingredients like certain dairy products. Here, the tahini blends well with buttercream, made with softened butter and cream cheese as its main ingredients. Both have a high fat content and a similar soft consistency to tahini. As a result, adding tahini in your buttercream will still result is a smooth frosting, but with an added depth of flavour too.

If used as is, tahini can be relatively loose. A great way to thicken tahini for baking is by whisking it vigorously with liquid. As the sesame paste has a high fat content, whisking a water-containing liquid through it will result in the emulsification and thus thicker consistency of the entire mixture. In this Tahini and Chocolate Tart we simply whisked golden syrup (it also works with honey) through it to stabilise it. This means you get a gorgeous layer of tahini that is set at the bottom of the tart and won’t pour out when cutting into it.

Yes, tiramisu is delicious. But it’s also pretty rich, right!? Here, tahini is added to the traditional mascarpone cheese which helps to cut through the sweet Italian dessert with its nuttiness, earthy notes and mild bitterness. The beauty of tahini is that whilst it has a pronounced flavor, it is not overly intense or overpowering. Its flavor is mellow and can complement other ingredients in a recipe without dominating them. In this recipe, it enhances the coffee and creamy notes of tiramisu very well. The result is a decadent dessert that is both familiar and unexpected.

You may have gathered by now that tahini is a pretty versatile ingredient. One of the last and most easy ways to add it in your bakes is simply through drizzling it here and there! Its slightly sweet yet umami flavour means it goes well with most desserts. The tahini yogurt that is served with these ricotta pancakes is made by just mixing tahini with Greek yogurt, and vanilla essence. The result is a tangy and nutty yogurt that pairs perfectly with the fluffy hotcakes. Next time, why not try adding a little of the glorious sesame paste trough a little whipped cream, on a warm pudding, or drizzling it over a fruit tart?

There you go! Examples of how to use tahini in baking recipes, so that you can start sneaking it in your favourite bakes more often!The three recipes we looked at today – Coffee & Walnut Cake with Tahini Buttercream, Tahini Chocolate Tart and Tahini Tiramisu – are all great ways of how tahini can be used in different baking recipes. So, the next time you're in the mood to bake, why not try incorporating tahini into your recipe and see how it can take your dish to the next level? Let us know how you get on in the comments below!