rollin' down the track again | jam drops for autumn

By no means am I the creator of this recipe I'm going to share with you today. Jam drops are something I'm sure my grandmothers would've made, something my own Mum made lots growing up, something I have that instinctual, familiar love of. Sometimes you have to question instinctual love - in the case of jam drops, you do not!

I made my first ever jam, using leftover redcurrants - the ones too squishy to use in this loaf - and raspberries. It made one large jar of sweet jelly-jam. It dripped off toast and was rather sweet - but it was good in unsweetened yoghurt. On the phone to Wellington, I told Mum about it. "Why don't you make jam drops," she said, "I'll send you the recipe." So, courtesy of Mum, potentially from the piece of paper I wrote the recipe out on as a 12 year old .. here's the recipe.

jam drops

200g butter

1/4 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 and 3/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup cornflour

about 1/4 cup jam - I like berry flavours but I've made them with apricot jam before too.

Preheat oven to 170ºC fan bake.

Cream butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add sifted flour and cornflour and mix until the mixture comes together. Mould dough into a soft ball and chill for 10-15 minutes.

Roll mixture into teaspoonful sized balls and place on a lined baking tray. Press an indent in the centre and fill with jam. Bake for 12-15 minutes until pale golden and set.

Note -

One of the key things with jam drops and other buttery biscuits is that you don't make them on a hot day or you try and keep the mixture cold. I made these on a day that felt freezing after summery temperatures - the butter was hard on the bench and the olive oil was going a bit cloudy (as it does when it's cold).

Another is to not fill the indents completely. A smaller amount of jam than you think will be sufficient! They will not look perfect but they will look rustically beautiful.

Our oven does not have fan bake and is usually cooler than what it says - so mine took longer to cook. We did 20 minutes at 180ºC and then 5 minutes at 200ºC.

This recipe made 16, but in retrospect I would make them smaller. They disappeared very quickly - and that was excellent, as with the amount of butter in the recipe makes these a definite treat food! 

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Hope you and yours have a happy weeekend! Around these parts I'm looking forward to a quiet Saturday night in, possibly involving scrubbing the bath. Sometimes I can be introverted like that - I think it's good to be a little introverted now and then.

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title from neil young - see the sky about to rain.