Eat With The Espinelis | 009
Jammie Dodgers / Linzer Cookies
You may know these little treats by a different name depending on where you're from. Here in England, you'll come across the jammie dodger, a biscuit as charming as its name, which is a national treasure enjoyed year-round. Others would see this treat and instead know it as a Linzer cookie, an Austrian cookie typically made at Christmas time. There may be slight differences between the two, such as the use of almond flour and whether or not you have the dusting of sugar, but overall, the concept is the same: two buttery biscuits sandwiched together with jam. YUM.
We made these back in February when we found out a neighbor had just been diagnosed with cancer. The kids had been talking about them a lot and so on Valentine’s Day, we decided to make these biscuits as a family to take to them to our neighbors along with some flowers. On a day that has love at its very center, we wanted to exemplify the verse below and what it is to look outside of ourselves and love others well. What an honor it is to demonstrate God’s love and His heart for others, remembering that we only love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.” 1 John 4:7-11
There are many ways to make these, but I am sharing a recipe that is very simple and quick, with minimal ingredients that will still get you a beautiful, yummy biscuit.
Ingredients:
▢ 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
▢ ¾ cup icing (powdered) sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting
▢ ¼ teaspoon salt
▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
▢ 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted, plus extra to roll out the dough
▢ ½ cup strawberry or raspberry jam
▢ circle-shaped and heart-shaped cookie cutters
Recipe:
Preheat oven to 325°F/162°C. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment (or a handheld mixer), beat together butter, icing sugar, salt, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour until just combined. At this point, a ball of dough will begin to form.
Remove dough from mixer and knead with your hands into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour.
On a floured surface, roll out dough with a rolling pin, adding extra flour to your rolling surface and rolling pin if the dough is sticky. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness.
Using a circle cookie cutter, cut out circle shapes, re-rolling and repeating this with the remainder of the dough (This is our kids’ favorite part).
Using a heart cookie cutter that fits inside of the circles, cut out heart shapes in the center of half of the biscuits.
Arrange them all on parchment-lined baking sheet
Bake until edges are light golden, about 15-20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let them cool.
Dust icing sugar over the biscuits with the heart-shaped cutouts. Spread jam on each whole biscuit. Place heart halves onto the jam filling, sugar side up.
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:31
What do you call these cookies and when would you bake them?
Leave your answers in the comments section!
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