Baking for beginners: Kate Shirazi's Jammy Splodgers

A while ago we told you about the marvellous Cupcake Magic book that teaches you not only how to make yummy cupcakes but also brilliant tricks like how to make roses out of icing. Well, it turns out that the fabulous Kate Shirazi doesn't just limit herself to cakes, she's also a dab had with a biscuit too, and her great new book Cookie Magic doesn't disappoint. I've never really got on that well with biscuits and found them a bit daunting (plus I am not a hue fan of 'getting my hands dirty' when baking). But yesterday I threw caution to the wind and made....Jammy Splodgers!

You will need:

• 250g unsalted butter, softened.
• 140g icing sugar, sifted.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• 1 large free range egg yolk.
• 375g plain flour, plus extra for dusting.
• Jam, I went for old school Strawberry but you can pick whatever flavour takes your fancy.
• A cookie cutter and something small to use to make the small hole in the middle of your biscuit (I used the top of a piping bag nozzle attachment!)
  

Now make it:

• Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. I got a bit impaient waiting for the butter to soften so I naughtily chivvied it along a bit by giving it a very short blast in the microwave. I am sure this is a baking sin but it worked just fine!
• Add in the vanilla extract and egg yolk and mix well.
• Sift in the flour and mix well until it forms a dough. Mine came together really well and wasn't sticky at all!
• Work the dough into a ball, wrap it in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge for an hour. Go watch some telly or have a glass of wine, or both!
  
• After an hour, pre-heat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5 and line two baking trays with silicone liners (I can't sing the praises of this stuff enough.)
• Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out on a floured surface until it's about 5mm thick.
• Use the cookie cutter to cut out as many biscuit shapes as you can. I managed 30 out of this recipe which will equate to 15 jammie splodgers. Mine were quite big so you could probably get 40 rounds/20 biscuits if you made them smaller.
  
• Use your small round cutting implement/piping bag attachment and cut a smal ring in the centre of half of these biscuits.
• Bake in the oven for 10-15minutes until pale and golden then leave them to cool on a wire rack - this doesn't take long, about 20 minutes or so. You may need to do more than one batch - I ended up baking three!
  
• Last but not least, take your cold round biscuits and put a dollop of jam on the solid rounds, being careful not to go too close to the edge. Take the rounds with holes in the middle and stick them on top of the biscuits with jam on, et voila, 15 jammy splodgers!
  
• You can eat them straight away if you want but I found that if you can resist temptation and leave them overnight the jam sets a bit firmer, making them even more scrummy!

There are loads of amazing recipes in Kate's book (especially some really easy and delicious peanut cookies) and you can buy it from Amazon for £5.99!