Tahini Dark Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Candied Ginger & Figs

I am frequently asked how I come up with recipes. It's one of the top questions along with "what the heck do you eat"? Well if you read the blog you have a rough idea of what I eat so I don't feel like that question needs to be answered here. However, if you are still curious about that one, shoot me an e-mail and I'd be more than happy to discuss it. For now, I'll focus on giving you some insight into my creative process.

My process is rather organic. The path for each recipe is different though they all have the same origination point: a couple of beat-up and well-used notebooks. Every so often I will brainstorm and write down a few ideas I have for recipes in a small notebook. I try to keep everything separated by season since I base my cooking (and baking) around local, seasonal produce. Some of the ideas never come to fruition and some of them get tweaked and altered way beyond the original iteration. And sometimes, if the stars align, I'll have a wild hare about something and translate it directly from my mind and into my ingredients. This cocoa pear tart with lavender coconut cream I posted recently is a perfect example of that. The idea came in a sudden flash while driving to yoga.

As for where the inspiration comes from, there are many sources but I'll focus on the biggest ones. One of my favorite sources of inspiration is other food blogs. I might see a flavor pairing that really speaks to me or a featured ingredient that I want to create my own recipe around. Some of my favorite blogs are Will Frolic For Food, The First Mess, Faring Well, and My New Roots. The farmers market is another important source of inspiration. Part of my philosophy regarding food is that one should strive to eat locally and seasonally as much as possible with regards to produce. There are times when I create a recipe around a beautiful farmers market find in the hopes that it will inspire you to do the same. And sometimes, farmers market beauties end up being natural props like you'll see in this post.

And now we arrive at these tahini dark chocolate chunk blondies! My inspiration for these came from several sources and the result is what I'm sharing with you here. I made and loved these cashew butter chocolate chip cookies with turmeric from Will Frolic For Food recently. I'd been thinking about trying out a version with tahini when I saw this post for dark chocolate chunk molasses blondies from Faring Well. With both of these posts in mind I knew I wanted to try to make a tahini blondie of sorts. And since fig season is coming to a close where I live, I wanted to try to include some in the blondies. A bit of brainstorming and experimenting in the kitchen led me to create these amazing tahini dark chocolate chunk blondies with candied ginger and fresh figs. So, now you know a little bit more about how my brain works and how I come up with my posts. And your reward, should you choose to accept it, is these blondies :)

Tahini Dark Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Candied Ginger & Figs
inspired by these cookies and these blondies

100g sweet rice flour
80g teff flour
50g oat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
heaped tbsp minced candied ginger

135g tahini
100g unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
170g grade B maple syrup

3/4 cup dark chocolate chunks

3 to 4 figs, sliced


Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8x8 or 9x9 square pan with coconut oil then line it with a sheet of parchment leaving an overhang so you can easily remove the blondies.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the dry ingredients until combined. Stir in the minced candied ginger then set this mixture aside.

In a separate bowl whisk together the tahini, applesauce, vanilla, and maple syrup until smooth and uniform. You can do this step in a blender if you choose.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly until the dough comes together. Stir in the chocolate chunks until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Using wet fingers or the back of a spatula, spread the dough into an even layer in your prepared pan. Decorate the top with fig slices, gently pressing the figs into the dough a bit.

Bake the blondies for 25 to 27 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time. The blondies are ready when the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Makes 9-16 blondies depending on how large you cut them. If you have leftovers they can be stored covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.