I’ve been lucky enough to spend this weekend by the seaside with my family. I grew up in the countryside, and I’ve lived in cities for the past few years, but nothing compares to the seaside in my opinion. Every time I’m here I think, the Victorians got one thing right, health-wise: this place has healing properties. Something about the air and the water helps even the most wound-up amongst us to get some rest. As my mum says, the biggest problem around here is what to eat for lunch (a problem easily solved; platefuls of smoked fish and prawns for me, fresh lobster and chips for the parents).

I decided that during my visit I wanted to bake something which complimented my surroundings. That’s when the Salty Dog cocktail popped into my head. The name alone makes one think of the sea, and then when you consider the ingredients (gin, grapefruit juice, and a salt rim), it sounds like a very tasty way to keep scurvy at bay.

The next question to solve was the form of the bake itself. I briefly considered a traybake, but I don’t want this blog to be full of cake. I need to stretch myself a bit and do some other bakes. I’m not much of a biscuit baker though, and I was worried about how to get the strong flavours of this cocktail into a biscuit.

In order to do this, I added the zest of a grapefruit into my biscuit dough, as well as something a little more experimental. Before I mixed my dough ingredients together I dampened my sugar with a bit of grapefruit juice; not enough to dissolve the sugar or make it syrupy, just to make it sort of damp and clumpy. The citrus flavour definitely carries through these biscuits.

The icing is also made with grapefruit juice and some gin, and the biscuits are finished with a little more zest and some sea salt. The salt is my favourite part of these biscuits: it enhances the other flavours so well without being overwhelming. It’s not a consistent flavour either, as you would expect from a salted caramel, for example. The flecks of salt burst on your tongue at unexpected moments as you eat the biscuit.

I also really like the ‘sunburst’ design of the icing on these biscuits, but it’s tricky to master and required a bit of practice. I used a teaspoon with the icing, dripping the icing in a thin stream over the biscuits, but you could probably achieve more precise results with a piping bag.

These biscuits are quite light and crumbly, so for goodness’ sake PLEASE don’t even think about putting them in your tea. I think the elegant nature of these biscuits make them perfect for an afternoon tea. Pretty and delicate, with unexpected flavours, I reckon they’d be a hit.

Salty Dog biscuits: (makes 28)

300g plain gluten free flour

200g butter or substitute

100g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

2 grapefruits

1 tbsp gin

300g icing sugar

Sea salt

1. Combine the zest of 1 grapefruit with the flour and butter. In a separate bowl, dampen the sugar with a wedge of grapefruit until it is damp and clumpy but not syrupy or dissolved.
2. Add the sugar to the flour/butter mixture with the egg yolk and combine into a soft dough. Wrap with cling film and chill in the fridge for at least one hour.
3. Prepare a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper and preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
4. Take your dough from the fridge and place it between two pieces of greaseproof paper. Roll it out until it is about the thickness of a pound coin, then cut circles. I used a glass to do this; my circles were about three inches across.
5. Place the biscuits onto the paper. You can place them closely together, the dough doesn’t really spread as it cooks. Bake them for 10-12 minutes until they are dry and do not stick to the baking paper. They should be golden brown at the edges.
6. Place the biscuits on a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely. Combine the icing sugar with the gin and mix. The icing should be of a pourable consistency. If it is not, add fresh grapefruit juice (you can use a sieve to avoid getting chunks of grapefruit flesh in the icing).
7. Drizzle the icing back and forth in a ‘sunburst’ pattern. Then, before the icing dries hard, sprinkle on a little sea salt and grate some fresh grapefruit zest on top.