tahini

tahini puppy chow

in ,

hello from hawaii where we are celebrating eggboy’s 30th birthday!! we came here right after a quick couple of days spent in new york for the today show and the launch of my taim falafel and it was so much fun! i got to make tater tot hotdish on air with al roker and harry connick junior, and they and everyone else at the show were so gosh darn sweet! i was so nervous but made sure to eat a good breakfast at ess-a-bagel before and then i managed to squeeze in a mention of our town tater tot factory during the segment. new york actually felt balmy when we got there since it was -20 when we left grand forks. it was perfect walking weather, so i was able to easily avoid the subway and log a zillion steps per day. 

anywho, about a month ago my bb kristin texted me a very important text message:

tahini puppy chow?????

yassssss!!!!!! ever since chanie posted a recipe for it i've been eyeing it up and down.

the last time i’d had puppy chow was probably also the last time i wore limited too and was obsessed with lime green and those little rhinestone accessories that stuck onto your hair by way of velcro. (do you remember those? what were we thinking?) puppy chow was the best soccer game half-time snack, tied with firmly packed rice krispies treats. and it is best eaten by shoveling it into your mouth, creating a powder sugar mustache that, now that i have grown out of my limited too phase, begs for a cocaine joke.

when kristin arrived at our house for our annual chrismukkah slumber party, she brought:

chex

powdered sugar

my favorite m&m knockoffs which i think you can only get in the whole foods bulk section (the colors are the prettiest)

tahini for the puppy chow

more tahini for my personal use because my stash got dangerously low and good tahini does not exist in grand forks

and then we went to town and made what seemed like way too much puppy chow at the time but after a couple days of steady noshing it was gone and we got really sad. it’s ok though because the recipe is right here! we improvised on kristin’s classic peanut butter recipe, essentially just swapping out the peanut butter for tahini, adding a bit of cinnamon to enhance the flavor and finishing it with toasted sesame seeds, those pretty m&m knockoffs, and some chopped halva that i've had in my freezer from when ruth gifted me halva kingdom halva in tel aviv! it is perrrrfect to have around in a cute container for when you need just a little bite of something sweet.

tahini puppy chow

makes about 8 cups

ingredients

1/4 c butter

1/2 c tahini

a couple pinches of cinnamon

a big pinch of salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 c chocolate chips

6 c chex cereal

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

2 tb sesame seeds

1 c chopped halva

a few handfuls of m&ms

clues

in a small saucepan over medium low heat, melt butter. stir in the tahini, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla. add the chocolate chips and stir until the chocolate is fully melted. remove from the heat.

in a large plastic bin or bowl with a lid, combine the chex and tahini mixture, stirring gently to keep the chex from breaking. stir in half of the powdered sugar and then add the rest of the powdered sugar and the sesame seeds, snap on the lid and shake, shake, shake! taste and add more powdered sugar as desired.

finally, fold in the chopped halva and m&ms and enjoy! 

-yeh!

coconut tahini monster cookies + a mega giveaway

in

you know what i would pay a good $26 for these days is like a 4loko-circa-2010 + emergen-c hybrid that actually tastes like matzo ball soup and is three ounces or less but fills you up way more than that. there would be a boozy version for nights and weekends and a non-boozy version for the weekday and it would be available at all of the airports, even the two-gate grand forks airport. there would be coconut water in it too, for hydration. 

really what i want is the ability to power through the rest of this book tour with the immune system of a kindergarten teacher and the energy of ellen bennett. 

and the dance moves of maddie ziegler. 

i just get so excited when i see all of my homies during my travels that it’s hard to be like “no, i can’t go sunrise wine tasting with you, matt and beau and katie, i have to sleep in and then do ab exercises like the boring lame jane that i am.” so i don’t. and then i end up with a strep-ish throat underneath a blanket cape and a winter hat on an airplane on yom kippur, day-dreaming of disgusting alcoholic energy drinks that taste like matzo ball soup. it’s all obviously worth it. i had so much fun giggling with matt and beau, cheering on katie during her chopped episode, eating nik’s lamb around a bonfire, and discovering the cuteness of boise with the delicious contents crew these past few days… what a cute little town! but i also wish i had small pouch of energy reserve that i could kick into high gear for chicago this weekend that wouldn’t require me to take any time off from fall recipe testing today and tomorrow.

what do you do when you’re about to get sick? 

  1. vitamin c
  2. whine
  3. tweet about matzo ball soup and hope that the town matzo ball soup factory sees it and sends over a lifetime supply of matzo ball soup
  4. power through it, go to the club, only invite friends that agree with your theory that vodka is the best way to kill the germs in your throat

i know what this darktown blog post needs, cookies and a bigass giveaway!

as you might have seen on instagram, the day molly on the range came out also marked the beginning of a hanukkah-length giveaway that features super amazing kitchen gear, apparel, spices, and surprises that were featured in motr. so many of my favorite companies were massively generous in sending props for the book photo shoots, so i’m taking this time to showcase some of them and send their amazingness to one lucky winner. that winner will receive:

the Stanley lunchbox that i packed pizza pockets and celery soda into for the pizza night on the tractor shoot. and the Faribault cape that i wore for it.

the Staub casserole featured on the tater tot hotdish page.

a selection of some of my favorite La boite spices, including the za'atar that can be seen on the back cover.

the Vermont Farm Table cake stand that's on the cover and in a few other places throughout the book, like the princess cake pictured above.

the Shun knife that's pictured with the tahini blondie ice cream sandwiches.

the Lodge mini cake pan from the mini peach bakewell tarts that were ultimately cut from the book (nooooo!!!) but that cake pan remains one of the cutest things in my kitchen. 

...and a surprise box of goodies from me that will totally include some tattoos, a stick of chocolate halva lip balm, a signed book, some other cookbooks that came out this fall that i love, maybe just like a full on sugar beet? and secrets!!! it'll be like summer camp but better because we don't have to sneak in candy under a pile of tampons.  

to enter this mega giveaway, tag your molly on the range instagrams (a photo of the book or a dish that you’ve made from the book) with #mollyontherange and #8daysofgiveaways throughout the month of october. a winner will be chosen at the end of the month, and this is open to u.s. residents.

and now let’s talk about cookies!!! i first made these in los angeles over the summer, in my measuring cup-less kitchen. they’re a combination of samantha seneviratne's new chocolate chip cookies, which i love because they are coconut oil based which means you don’t need an electric mixer (and they have nuts and coconut in them!), and dani’s tahini chocolate chip cookies which i love for obvious tahini-centric reasons. these guys have a party of flavors and are quick as a bunny to make. they’re soft, chewy, and nutty, and if you don’t have measuring cups and have to eyeball all of the measurements, they’ll likely still be pretty swell. even if they fall apart and you have to sprinkle a bunch of broken cookies over ice cream.

coconut tahini monster cookies

makes 10

ingredients

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 c melted virgin coconut oil, slightly cooled

1/2 c tahini

1/2 c granulated sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tb vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

optional: splash of coconut extract

3/4 c bittersweet chocolate chips

1/2 c toasted walnuts, chopped

1/2 c flaked unsweetened coconut

flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

sprinkles, optional

clues

preheat the oven to 350ºf and line two baking sheets with parchment. combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl. 

in another bowl, combine coconut oil and tahini. whisk in sugar until well combined. add in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then mix in extracts. finally, stir the flour mixture into the tahini mixture along with chocolate chips. 

scoop cookie dough onto lined baking sheets with and ice cream scoop, leaving a few inches between them for the cookies to spread. top the dough with walnuts, coconut, flaky salt, and sprinkles if using. 

bake until the bottoms are lightly browned and the coconut is toasty, begin checking for doneness at 15 minutes. let cool on the pans for 5 minutes, and then remove to a rack to cool completely, or eat them warm! enjoy! 

tahini sheet cake with cream cheese frosting

in

my friends zach and jodi came over from fargo the other day and took photos of all of my messes! we counted the tahini jars in my fridge and made a fancy sheet cake using chamomile and bachelor buttons from the garden. we also ate a bunch of cheetos, free of shame, because it was the fourth of july and it just felt like the american thing to do. it was the best day! next time we should probably just pulverize the cheetos and sub out the flour for cheeto dust, right?

anywho, hi from australia where i have been wide awake since 3am researching the most convenient way to pet a koala. in my two days here i have eaten about 30 avocado toasts, a lamb harissa sausage roll from bourke street bakery (10/10 would recommend), and a wonderful labneh-filled meal at kepos and co with hetty and luisa and their gaggle of great ladyfriends. i also had an insane almond macadamia milk cappuccino yesterday down the road from my airbnb, at reuben hills, which is actually embarrassingly where i have spent a majority of my time, camping out with my computer and the second pass of molly on the range because it is due tomorrow. oyoyoy! i'm finding it quite easy to concentrate here though since it's their "dead of winter" (scrumptious sweater weather but still warm enough to wear birkenstocks) and so the beach isn't calling me at all hours of the day.

other than everyone being so friendly and everything being delicious here so far, my main first impressions have been that 1) sydney reminds me a lot of san diego and boston, and 2) a lot of words are shortened here, such as "capp" for "cappuccino" and "scram" for what i *think* is "scrambled egg" but i'm going to do some research to confirm that later today at reuben hills. wish me luck. 

tomorrow we head to the mountains where there is no wifi! i cannot remember the last time i was in a no-wifi area for longer than a few hours, so i'm excited, terrified, and armed with a new notebook to write "letters," aka email drafts. 

i like to think that this sheet cake is an updated version of church potluck sheet cakes of yore. for the longest time i considered the sheet cake something that people make when they don't have the time or tools to build a nice round layer cake. but i'm coming back around to convenience items like these and learning how lovable they can be. (case and point: i've been living in my fashion-backward yet sensible turquoise fleece pullover...) is this getting too normcore? is normcore still in style?

of course if you want to make a two-layer 8" cake, this recipe will certainly work for that. but these days i'm most excited about a convenient one-layer sheet cake with a creamy cloud of frosting spread rustically all about like a sugary toupée. 

tahini sheet cake with cream cheese frosting

makes one 9x13 inch cake

ingredients

cake:
1 3/4 c sugar
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 c buttermilk
1/2 c flavorless oil, like canola
1 c tahini
1 1/2 tb vanilla extract
3/4 c water

frosting:
1 c unsalted butter
1 c cream cheese
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
a pinch of kosher salt
1 tb vanilla

assembly:
herbs and edible flowers, for decorating

clues

cake:

preheat oven to 350ºf. line a 9x13" cake pan with parchment and set aside.

in a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. in a separate bowl, mix the eggs, buttermilk, oil, tahini, vanilla extract, and water.

whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until well-combined. pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 30 minutes.

let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn the cake onto a lightly greased cooling rack.

frosting:

cream together the butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer until combined. mix in the powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla. 

assembly:

spread cooled cake with frosting. decorate with herbs and edible flowers. slice and enjoy!

 

-yeh!

thank you, zach and jodi, for these wonderful photos! there will be more on their site soon as part of the "artist study" series! 

apron from: enrich & endure

tahini oreos

in

i'm sitting at the table with a pile of freshly baked bread because i've just spent yesterday catching up for my time without it last week. 

did you miss me, pita? did you miss me, focaccia?

[the bread stares back in silence. molly feels uncomfortable, and then unaffected. she peels a potato off of the pony-shaped focaccia, eats it, and goes back to work.]

how was your passover, orthodox easter, and/or weekend??

my passover was mostly spent in louisiana, a few hours west of new orleans, at the home of tabasco sauce. the factory, headquarters, and research and development pepper fields are hidden by massive ginormous mossy trees and surrounded by swamps and bayous, and the bayous are filled with alligators. there's a tiny post office and an archives building, and i stayed in an old large mansion down the road from the factory with blogger friends and ghosts of old tabasco family members. or something like that. it might sound scary, with all of the alligators and ghosts, but it wasn't at all! the alive humans were so friendly that i just assumed the ghosts and alligators would be too if we ever came into direct contact. the trip was really beautiful. quite humid. fascinating. made me want to invent something as cool as universally loved hot sauce. 

anyway, i'm back now for a few good weeks, spring planting is well under way (eggboy is officially coated in his thin semi-permanent layer of dirt), and i've got some fun pop-ups and parties coming up that i'm cooking and baking for. so i've been whipping up a few new experiments as menu possibilities! some of them have been good, some of them bad (like the donuts on this cake, they were so sadly mediocre), and some of them great. like these oreos. they're pretty effing good. they're butter and sugar and chocolate and tahini, transformed into dark crispy cookies and sandwiched with smooth nutty tahini buttercream. aside from the fact that the two components balance each other as well as meryl and charlie, i love them because they'll keep well for a week or two in your fridge and longer in the freezer. and what better mother's day present than a freezer full of homemade oreos?

a note on tahini: i have become very very picky about my tahini in recent years. the good stuff is life-changing, but not always easy to find in the states. here are my current recs: al arz, karawan, seed + mill, soom, whole foods' 365 brand. 

tahini oreos

makes about 18 sandwich cookies

ingredients

cookies:

2 c all-purpose flour

1 c unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting*

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1 1/4 c unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract 

*dusting your work surface with cocoa powder will yield a beautiful, dark, chocolatey aesthetic, but using a lot of it could make the cookies taste a little bit bitter on their own since the cocoa powder is unsweetened. when they're paired with the super sweet buttercream, i love it. but if you know you'll prefer a sweeter cookie, dust your work surface with powdered sugar or a mixture of powdered sugar and cocoa powder. 

filling:

1/2 c unsalted butter, softened

1/4 c tahini

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

a pinch of ground cinnamon

a pinch of kosher salt

clues

make the cookies:

preheat oven to 325ºf. line two baking sheets with parchment and set them aside.

in a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. mix in the vanilla. slowly add the dry ingredient mixture and beat until just combined. it will still be a bit crumbly.

pour the mixture out onto your work surface and give it a few kneads to bring it all together. dust your surface with cocoa powder and/or powdered sugar, and working swiftly and carefully, roll out your dough and cut out 2-inch circles. transfer them to your baking sheet, about an inch apart (using a small offset spatula really helps with this step). re-roll scraps and cut out remaining circles.

this is a super delicate dough, so try not to handle it more than you need to, and if it gets too soft, stick it in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to firm up. this dough can also be made a day in advance, wrapped tightly, and kept in the fridge.

bake the cookies for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny. cool on the pans on a rack for 5 minutes and then remove to the rack to cool completely.

make the filling:

in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and tahini until creamy. gradually add the powdered sugar. add the vanilla, cinnamon, and salt and beat to combine. 

assemble:

fill a piping bag with the filling and pipe a blob onto the center of half the cookies. top them with the rest of the cookies to make little sandwiches. place them in the fridge for a few minutes to allow the filling to firm up before serving. store in the fridge.

enjoy!

this is based on my matcha oreo recipe! so if you need more oreos, here, make some green ones too. 

-yeh!