Enjoy a food adventure
Tahini biscuits savoury, sweet and chewy
Eto play with your food and enjoy the adventure. It’s born of an eponymous restaurant in inner Sydney, but it’s proudly not a restaurant book. Think of it more as the foundations for some new ideas in your kitchen and at your table; written to be used, shared, read aloud, perhaps burnt.
Mat Lindsay’s cooking resists easy labels. Certainly it’s a distinct kind of full-flavoured Australian food: generous, mindfully chosen seafood; darkly caramelised woodfired bread; vegetables cooked to just the right level of doneness; meat that’s been treated with respect and, often, time; and the odd burnt pavlova, a true signature.
The ethos of Mat’s acclaimed and widely beloved restaurant has always been to offer guests a no-rules good time and the intention within these pages is just the same. Whether it prompts you to rethink the possibilities of toast, roast your fruit, try the classic cauliflower, or embrace Sunday lunch, the Ester playbook presents many ideas to cook and live by.
SALTED CHOCOLATE TAHINI COOKIES
Simply my favourite cookie. Ever. Savoury, sweet and chewy, I feel that everyone should know of it. This makes about 20 cookies weighing about 150g apiece. This may seem like a lot, but do it anyway.
Ingredients
345g unsalted butter, at room temperature
360g (1 1⁄3 cups) tahini 300g caster sugar
270g brown sugar
3 eggs, plus 3 egg yolks 450g (3 cups) plain flour
2 1⁄4 tsp baking powder
3 tsp flaky sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
840g chocolate chips 200g toasted sesame seeds, for sprinkling
Method
Beat the butter, tahini and both sugars in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed for about 3 minutes or until pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs and egg yolks and beat, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally, until fully incorporated.
Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. With the mixer on its lowest speed, add the dry ingredients to the tahini mix and beat until only just
FOOD
combined. Lastly, add the chocolate chips, spinning the paddle only enough to disperse them. If there’s a crucial element in this recipe, it’s to not overmix. Cover the dough and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, heat oven to 160C. Roll the dough into 150g balls. Dip the top half of each ball into a small bowl of toasted sesame seeds, then place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, with the seedtopped side facing up. Sprinkle with a healthy pinch of salt.
Bake the cookies for approximately 16 minutes, or until they’re golden around the edges, pulled up slightly, still a little pale and almost liquid in the middle.
Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes on the baking tray, then transfer to a wire rack to continue to cool to room temperature.
These cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a week, if they manage to make it that far.
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