Friends at my table: Sesame biscuits with iced watermelon

The iced watermelon involves nothing more fancy than a bowling ball-sized whole watermelon, thoroughly chilled overnight. Get a bag of ice to sit the sliced melon on, stealing a few cubes to keep drinks cool.

Soft-crumbed biscuits are a lovely way to use up the jar of tahini that sits around between sporadic bouts of hummus-making. Use 15g less butter and add a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil in its place if you particularly love sesame.

Dark brown sugar will garner moodier results than light. I have also had much success substituting peanut butter for the tahini and finely chopped peanuts for sesame seeds, so I’m quite sure any nut butter and its matching nut would work too. Lastly on the variation advice, ground ginger and/or cinnamon make warming additions in the colder months.

Makes: about 25 biscuits

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking: 12 minutes

110g unsalted butter, softened

150g light or dark brown soft sugar

1 egg

8 tbsp light tahini paste

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

200g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

50g sesame seeds

30g demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Line two large baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment.

Using electric beaters, or a wooden spoon and elbow grease, beat the butter and sugar together until light, followed by the egg. Follow with the tahini, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, then the vanilla extract and salt.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda over, followed by a tablespoon of the sesame seeds, and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

Empty the remaining sesame seeds on to a plate with the demerara sugar. Roll heaped teaspoons of the dough into spheres, then roll these firmly in the sesame-sugar plate. Space well apart on the baking sheets and cook for 10-12 minutes, until pale golden. Leave to firm up on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe taken from Friends At My Table by Alice Hart (£19.99, Quadrille)

More recipes by Alice Hart:

Deep and chewy flapjacks - click here

Eggs en cocotte - click here

Green mango salad - click here

Baked white chocolate and rhubarb custards - click here

Squash and manouri salad - click here

Luxurious tart of buttery leeks, mascarpone and smoked garlic - click here

For more food ideas, click here