The weather was perfect on Saturday here in Sydney. It was also the day the of The Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Party. Organized by the lovely Helen From Grab your Fork and Suze from Chocolate Suze, every one who attended had a great time feasting, drinking and basking in the glorious sunshine. There was also a “Kris Kringle” where everyone got to contribute a present that did not exceed ten dollars. Whilst everyone else was fighting over the Ninja shaped cookie cutters, I was overjoyed when I picked my present and saw that it was a jar of home made jam. Yes, something you can actually eat! I’d like to thank Tammi from Insatiable Munchies for gifting her hard earned “labour of love” in a jar.
There’s only so much one can do with a jar of fresh, home made jam. I’ve had a few goes at making my own jam on Souvlaki For The Soul. These have been “quick jams” such as this blackberry jam and this mandarin jam featured recently. With all the Christmas cheer and festivities being full on at the moment, I thought it would only be appropriate if I made some sort of biscuit or cookie to celebrate. I decided to have a go at making one of those “classics” of yesteryear,jam drops. I think the last time I made these was when I was in primary school for a home economics class! They might not be “traditional” for this time of the year but they’re a whole lot of fun! If you can’t work it out, they get their name because you “drop” a little jam in the centre of each biscuit prior to baking them. The end result is a delicious shortbread like biscuit with a soft centre of jam. Enjoy the jam drops and be sure to play around with different flavours and even shapes.
- 125g butter, softened
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 200g self-raising flour
- 115g (1/3 cup) strawberry or raspberry jam
- Pre heat your oven to 180 deg C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until very light and creamy. Add the egg and mix until well combined.
- Proceed to sift the flour into the creamed butter mixture and fold everything together until you have a soft but useable dough. If you find it’s sticky add some flour a little at a time until you reach the correct consistency.
- Using floured hands shape a teaspoonful of dough into a ball and place on a baking tray a few cms apart. Using your floured index finger pierce the center of each ball to make a well. Spoon half a teaspoon of jam into each biscuit.
- Bake in the oven for 15 mins or until the jam drops are nice and golden (shouldn’t be more than 15 mins).
- Serve with milk, tea, coffee or eggnog.
Hi! I'm Peter. Welcome to Souvlaki For The Soul. My "little" space on the web. My blog is choc full of recipes, travel stories and photos. Have a good look around and enjoy your time here. Cheers!
Oh my… I’m seriously salivating and wanting to bake up a batch of these cookies. I love the simplicity of it. I am imagining myself scoffing a whole lotta these in one sitting!
That jam looks kickass! I’ve love to make some homemade jams one day too! I hope to see you at the next event and be able to talk to you alot more..
Thanks Phuoc…I’m sure there’ll be a next time! Great to finally meet you too!
Peter, this looks amazing and yum!!! I want a bite right now!
I vote that Tammi brings us all a jar of her homemade jam next time we have a bloggers picnic…and you can make us jam drops (I’d make my own, but baking literally makes me cry). Your cookies look so delicious and very festive.
An oldie but a goodie. I haven’t made these in years either. They do look delicious
sooo pretty! I adore simple cookies!
MY mom makes these on occasion with dates but I like your idea with raspberry jam even more! Raspberry jam is my fave of the jams.
I remember making something similar with my daughter called Thumbprints with a dollop of our favourite jam in the centre. These sound like more tender morsels but I do remember how child proof and fun they are to make.
=) I’m glad you liked it. I was so worried that I didn’t contribute something cool enough
. Those Jam Drops look awesome! Fantastic food gift idea hehe.
Pretty cookies! They look divine.
Great clicks too.
Cheers,
Rosa
Remember when I asked you what jam drops were? I can’t believe I’ve been missing these all my life! The perfect afternoon snack you’ve got here. Ps loving loving loving the pics!
They look irresistible Peter! And yeah, although they aren’t the traditional Xmas cookies, much less kourambiedies aka crack-cocaine cookies, the red and white contrast deems them worth of Santa & Co.
What I most like about this recipe is that it is indeed a showplace for really good jams and jellies and I have a few of those that were gifts that I would love to use in this recipe. I like your white backgrounds for this too. As always you get it perfect.
Love the recipe and the photos. The use of good jam and vanilla makes such a difference in the flavor! In our house, we call these cookies thumb prints because the girls love to “smoosh” the center with their thumbs.
Peter, jam drops are one of my top favorite cookies – these are amazing! And that jam looks delish, too!
Alongside all the typical Greek holiday cookies, my mom always made these jam drops (aka thumbprints) for Christmas. It’s been a while since she’s made them though … so you’ve satiated my craving!!
Hey Peter,
Awesome blog! Terrific photos! It was very nice to meet you on Saturday, and I’m glad you are enjoying your KK present, those cookies look addictive, specially with un vaso de leche helada… hmmm…
I don’t think I have ever seen prettier jam drops in my life. I don’t even really like jam drops – but I LOVE them, here. Absolutely gorgeous!
Valerie
These take me back to 1986 when I used to make them after school. You didn’t waste much time using that beautiful jam!
Great post with wonderful photography.
Whilst it’s well and good to have the latest and greatest, there’s something about doing all time old school favourites that gives you the warm fuzzies, as does this post.
For that, I thank you!
No better gift than homemade ones. Lucky you!
Wonderful use of the jam – they look luscious. It’s nice that you have a food blogging community that gets together in person!
Thanks for reminding me of how great these are – and the perfect thing to bake for Xmas parcels, too!
Gorgeous! I really love thumbprint cookies but I’ve never made the traditional ones (only chocolate/peppermint). I really need to give these a try.
Jam and cookies. Yum. I’ve become addicted to jam making lately. Even made pomegranate jelly recently. It’s easy. I just follow the directions on the pectin packages. I love to scour garage sales for old jars too.
So cute! Love these cookies, they look super delicious.
What beautifully clean pictures of such excellent cookies. Jam drops so often get overlooked but yours make such a perfect holiday treat. I was thinking of making some gooseberry-cranberry jam tomorrow and these cookies give me that much more incentive. Great page, I am glad I ran across it.
I just love the simplicity of these. i’d love to slather some on sourdough toast!
What a great way to appreciate a good homemade jam by making homemade cookies. Perfect for the festive season!
What a great idea – nice to know that Tammi’s labour of love was used possibly before any cake-which or ginger ninja had been baked.
I think my yia yia would love a batch of these for the holidays!
These look so fab! Bookmarked!
Beautiful and vibrant color of that jam, Peter!
Such gorgeous shots Peter . Its amazing how you manage to get the time from your busy schedule to make so much and take the trouble of styling and creating such beautiful visuals. Keep it up
What gorgeous little cookies Peter! Love it!
I might not be reading this right but, where does the egg in the ingredients come into the recipe?
These jam drops reminded me of jam drops I used to make from a recipe by Ellice Handy…….I’m going to try yours…they look divine.
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 3 trackbacks }