The summer holidays are great for families. It gives them all the chance to hang out, visit the park, see friends and family and just generally make the most of the good weather.
However, let's face it after about two weeks you are done with the constant need to entertain them, everyone's gone on holiday and the weather has turned pants. It happens. It's okay to admit it because pretty much everyone goes through it. I can still remember being a kid in the school holidays and being so bored that the only real sense of entertainment was winding my siblings up and claiming innocence when my Mum used to shout out to us with the cry of "what are you up to?"
That being said we used to do heaps of fun things together like taking a trip to the woods with a picnic and of course baking all manner of delicious treats! So here is a post that will hopefully inspire you, stop you tearing your hair out and give you that fun time together as a family. Here is my recipe for Jammie Dodgers...
Ingredients:
250g butter
150g sugar
1 egg yolk
1tsp vanilla or almond extract
300g plain flour
Dollops of jam
This recipe is just fantastic and so family friendly which means the kids can get involved in just about all aspects of it from the mixing, to the cutting all the way to the decorating which gives you a chance to start cleaning the inevitable mess in the kitchen and make a cuppa.
First of all you start my creaming together the butter and sugar as you would with most if not all biscuits. I then put the egg yolk in a cup and added a good gloop of almond extract to add a bit more flavour to what is essentially a plain biscuit, and whipped these two together before adding them to the mix. I then added the flour and began to combine with a spoon before getting my hands in and forming a ball.
Now I must warn you this mixture is very sticky initially but this is great fun for kids and is sure to set them in heaps of giggles. It's also great for their language and texture knowledge, try to get them to describe how it feels or what it might remind them of. I added a bit more flour to the mixture until I could get it into a ball and out of the bowl. I then floured the work top... A lot. I underestimated it at first and it stuck a little but this is all part of the process. Work the dough until you're satisfied with the consistency, add a bit more flour to the worktop when it seems to be wearing thin and then start to roll it out so it is about the thickness of a pound coin.
I used a round cutter for the base of the biscuits but you can pretty much use whatever you like- dinosaurs, fairies, anything! Just ensure that in your design the top biscuit will have some sort of hole for the jam to be seen. These could be spots on the dinosaur or patterns on the fairies dress. I stuck to round biscuits with a heart in the middle but I was limited in terms of cutters (I used a cup for the round biscuits for goodness sake!) Make sure that you create an equal amount of bottom biscuits to top and place them on a tray. I covered mine in tin foil so that they didn't stick and were easy to take off. This is really important given that the biscuits are fairly fragile.
I then put these in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about fifteen to twenty minutes, it will vary depending on the thickness of the biscuits so just keep an eye on them and wait until they are golden brown. Once they are done allow to cool slightly before giving them a gentle twist off of the tin (this is where the foil comes in handy because it is effortless).
Turn the base biscuits upside down and spread over the jam of your choice. I was fortunate to have two homemade jams in the fridge- strawberry jam which was made for me by a child at school and the other was blackberry jam made my Claire and George...
I used both jams, spreading them equally between biscuits which gave me seven of each. After spreading the jam place on the top biscuit. You can also sprinkle over icing sugar if you wish but I personally enjoyed the sweet, sharp taste of the jam against the biscuit. The choice is yours.
There you have it. Yummy, jammy biscuits that are simple, tasty and great fun for all the family. Enjoy!
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