These are dreamy, swirly, tahini brownies, based on a superstar recipe by Ottolenghi. I took that brownie base, bolstered it with a bit of coffee powder and good chocolate (but of course), and made it extra swirly and gooey. Instead of convincing you to make it through paragraphs of prose, how about some cringy poetry to really drill that in, eh?

Tahini Brownie Poetry

Type ‘tahini brownies’ into the web and what do you see?
“Vegan, paleo, and gluten-free” brownies. Oh, the bourgeoisie!

My god, mon dieu, they are all so healthy.
Whatever happened to decadent desserts that made you guilty?

But then I scrolled down the search bar, and found quality,
A devilishly rich brownie recipe, by Ottolenghi.

Oh, this brownie.
It treads the line between cakey and gooey,
with walnuts and cocoa, whisked till creamy.
No skimping on the butter, it sure pleases me.

But there was one problem, I did not foresee,
his was with halva, and I only had tahini.
No worries, no sweat, this was an opportunity
for me to add my own twists, turn up the ante.
So I made do without halva, replaced it with coffee,
topped with more chocolate, and made it all marble-y.

This was a brownie alright, chocolate-y and fudgy,
A tray of gorgeous, gooey, glorious gluttony.

So thank you Helen Goh, thank you Ottolenghi,
for gracing us with this super recipe.

So make these sweet treats, I proclaim to thee.
They are so stellar, I wish I made three.

Tahini Brownies

based on Ottolenghi’s tahini and halva brownies

makes a dozen brownies (one 7x7-inch tray)

Ingredients

250g dark chocolate (I used 73% cocoa), cut into rough chunks
250g unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 eggs
100g caster sugar
200g dark brown sugar
3g (½ tsp) vanilla extract
120g all-purpose flour
30g cocoa powder
3g (½ tsp) salt
15g (1 tbsp) ground coffee or espresso powder (optional)
100g walnuts, roasted and chopped up into small pieces
120g tahini

Directions

Place the dark chocolate and butter in a bowl, and melt it in a microwave in 30-second bursts. (Set it for 30 seconds, take it out and give it a stir, then give it another 30 seconds. Repeat 2-3 times until thoroughly melted.) In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the eggs, caster sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract together for 2-3 minutes on high speed until fluffy. Then, in a separate bowl, sift your dry ingredients—flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Add the ground coffee and chopped walnuts into the dry ingredients too.
Now, let’s bring everything together. Add the melted chocolate and butter into the egg and sugar mixture, and whisk it for 20 seconds until it well combined. Then, add in the dry ingredients (I like to do this in 2-3 incorporation), and fold until just mixed and no streaks of flour remain. Make sure not to overmix the batter at this point.
Heat your oven to 180°C. While the oven is heating up, brush or spray a 7x7-inch baking tin with oil, then line it with baking paper, making sure the baking paper fits snugly into the bottom. Pour the brownie batter into the baking tin, and smooth out the top with a spatula.
Now, ready your tahini, making sure to stir it from the bottom of the jar until its a smooth, homogeneous mixture, and dollop the tahini onto the brownie batter. I find a 3x3 grid of dots works well (see photo for reference). Then, using a toothpick or a chopstick, gently swirl and circle your way through the batter to form a marbled effect.
When the brownie is nicely marbled, pop it into the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a cake tester poked through it comes out clean. When done, let the brownie cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before removing it from the tin and setting it on a wire rack to continue cooling to room temperature. Slice it up into pieces, and serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or just devour it on its own!