Jam drops

I made these on a whim over the weekend - I had an urge to bake but hadn't been to the supermarket so I was limited by what we had at home. We had jam in the cupboard, so the decision was made! Next time I'm going to go a step further and make my own jam.


Makes about 20 cookies.


Ingredients:

• 130g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 2 tbs cornflour
• 1 cup plus 3 tbs plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup jam - I used strawberry

Method:

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy.

Add the egg and beat until combined.

Sift in flours and mix until combined using a spoon. The dough will be quite soft and fluffy. Refrigerate the dough for half an hour to firm in up.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (fan forced). Line two baking tray with baking paper.
Once taken out of the fridge, the dough should be firm and easier to make into cookies!

Roll heaped teaspoons of dough into balls and place them evenly spaced on the baking trays. Make a deep indentation in the centre of each ball. I used the end of a chopstick.

Place half a teaspoon of jam in each hole. Try not to overfill them, or they will overflow during baking.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a golden pale colour. Allow to cool before trying them, the jam will burn you otherwise!

On a slightly random side topic, I also made lemon curd the same day as the cookies. Instead of filling all the cookies with jam, I baked some without, and added a teaspoon of lemon curd to the top of them after baking. Sort of like a mini lemon tart, but in a cookie instead! Forgot to take a photo of the finished product though :(

Lemon Curd (A Martha Stewart Recipe)

Ingredients:

(Note - the ingredients below is for half the original recipe)

• 4 large egg yolks
• Zest of 2 lemons (fine)
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold)

Method:

Add yolk, zest, lemon juice and sugar in a heavy bottomed pan, whisk to combine.

Cook over medium high heat - making sure you stir it constantly with a wooden spoon. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the pan. When the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon (after approx 10 mins), remove saucepan from heat.

Add salt, then add the butter one tablespoon at a time, stirring until smooth. Strain through a sieve into a medium sized bowl. Cover with glad wrap (press glad wrap directly onto the lemon curd to stop a skin from forming on it). Place in the fridge to set for a minimum of one hour. mine set within two hours but apparently it can take up to a day according to Martha (she did make double the qty though)

Shoeboxgirl