Spur of the moment baking.

Some days my baking is a project, the result of great planning and cookbook scanning. Other days it’s spur of the moment, what’s in the cupboards, what needs using. Yesterday was one of those. A ‘let’s see what we’ve got ‘day.

Like so many people during lockdown, and the strange semi lockdown we’ve drifted into, I know I’ve probably been overdoing it on the sweet treat baking. What used to be a weekend thing has slowly stretched out to fill the week. Somehow there just has to be a little something sweet to go with my mid-evening cup of coffee. I’m conscious of the sugar levels involved and do try to keep the more indulgent baking to the weekends, or at least I like to think I do. Over all, I feel there are worse vices than baking.

Yesterday there was the additional issue of it being Bake Off evening on TV. Ninety minutes of watching bakers at work were never going to pass without the need of some sustenance. A sugar rush to keep me going. The coconut macaroons I baked at the weekend were long gone, so what was a boy to do.

A quick hunt through the kitchen found me some limes in the fruit bowl which were in danger of turning into green golf balls if left too much longer, a half jar of tahini paste that had worked it’s way to the back of the fridge, and the remains of a pack of chopped hazelnuts from a previous project. A perfect combination for baking a version one of my favourite biscuit recipes. Previously it’s been lemon & tahini shortbreads, but after yesterday they have a rival in the lime, hazelnut & tahini version. The lime flavour is a bit subtler than the lemon, while the chopped hazelnuts add extra texture to these crumbly biscuits.

Ingredients

• 120g unsalted butter..softened
• 120g tahini
• 120g caster sugar
• Zest & juice of 2 limes
• 240g plain flour
• 30g chopped hazelnuts..as long as they are finely chopped most nuts would work. Pistachio would be particularly good.
• 1tsp baking powder

Method

• Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line a baking tray
• Cream the butter, tahini and sugar together until pale. Then mix in the lime zest and juice.
• Combine the flour, nuts and baking powder in another bowl. Stir this mixture into the wet ingredients and gently combine. Mashing it with a fork works better than trying to stir it.
• Roll the mixture into small balls and place them on the baking sheet. I made 14, but they were a bit on the large size. Pat each ball into a disc, you can either use your hand or a fork for this.
• Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. When they are ready the edges of the biscuits should be golden brown.
• Leave the biscuits to cool 100% on the tray. If you try to move them too early they will crumble.

I think I might try an orange and pistachio combination next.