Jammy Dodgers

I’m not posting these because it’s February and just a few days from Valentine’s Day.

Nope. Absolutely not.

I just thought you might like a biscuit recipe that you can make whilst you’re stuck at home with reduced access to gifts and tacky cards. The fact that you can cut little hearts in the top is purely coincidental.

You could just as easily cut stars or letters. In fact that’s an excellent idea…write someone’s name in biscuits, or ‘Marry Me?’ or ‘Put the bins out’.

Baking. It really is keeping me sane in these weird times.

Ingredients

150g cubes of very soft butter
70g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 medium egg
250g plain flour
50g ground almonds
Raspberry seedless jam
Icing sugar and flour for dusting
You will need a 6cm cookie cutter and a heart shaped cutter and a baking tray (or 3)

1. Put the butter, sugar and vanilla in a mixer and beat well for 5 minutes*
2. Add the egg and beat for another 2 minutes until light and creamy (it may look curdled at first but it’ll come good) 
3. Add the flour and almonds and mix through until just combined
4. Split the dough into 2 balls and dust with flour
5. Roll out between two sheets of well floured baking paper then place in the fridge for 30 minutes
6. Preheat your oven to 170ºC
7. Take your cool dough and cut into circles with a cookie cutter
8. Cut hearts out of half of your circles, balling up and re-rolling any spare dough, you will need to re-flour and if it gets sticky put it in the fridge for a few minutes 
9. Pricking holes around your biscuits with either end of a skewer adds a cute touch
10. Place your cookies on baking sheets on baking paper (I re-use the fridgey paper scraping off any bits of dough) You can bake these in batches if you don’t have 3 baking trays.
11. Bake for around 10 minutes until just turning golden on the edges
12. Cook on a wire rack and dust with a little icing sugar 
13. Spread the round cookies with a scant teaspoon of jam and place a heart cookie on top

*Tip My tip for a frosty February: If your butter and sugar are not mixing smoothly, or if your egg won’t beat in nicely, aim a hairdryer at the outside of the mixer bowl to warm it slightly. The mix will soften up and go light and creamy in no time. Don’t heat for too long though or you will get scrambled egg.

This recipe was originally created for the Center Parcs blog February 2019.