Studio Frantzen

tahini chocolate cookies, my quiz addiction

Food news of the week:

It’s the crispy curves and drapes of a hasselback potato for me, at a Studio Frantzen re-visit, for today’s review below, and the thin, chewy delight of my tahini chocolate cookies for today’s recipe. Also went back to Flour and Grape, London’s consistent pasta hotspot that dishes up the best cacio e pepe. In sadder news, my favourite pho place in London Hoa Sen has closed, but as a perk, Daku has opened on High Street Kensington, all cute and new with just strong flat whites (and matcha for the matcha lovers!) to establish itself amongst the line of more boring chains on the high street.

Science of the week:

I grew up loving quizzes, and had fun refining this one, which is a compilation of mood quizzes designed to assess the severity of your mood parameters (namely anxiety and depression) together. I used one of them for the bulk of my PhD! As they say, what gets measured, gets managed.

Insight of the week:

Was listening to a nutrition podcast on all things trans fat and sugars just a few days ago and it was a hell of a biology refresher– trans fats have a double bond which increases the shelf life of the foods it’s contained in (basically most commercial processed food), so it is almost impossible for the body to break down, sticking to your insides like gum. Yummmm.

Recipe of the week:

Currently experimenting a lot with stuffed cookies (check out my previous recipe which, in the words of my friend, was ‘the best thing she has ever put into her mouth’) While I’m trying to touch up a blueberry cheesecake version, I have another cookie recipe for you…

Tahini Chocolate Cookies (makes 10-12 medium cookies)

Ingredients

120ml (0.5 cup) light tahini

1 egg

115g salted butter, at room temperature. If your butter is really hard, microwave it for half a minute

180g sugar (I used a mix of light brown and white, you can do the same or stick to either or)

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g plain flour

0.5 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp baking soda

150g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks