Jam Daisy Drops

In my infinite wisdom, the other week while magazine menu planning, I spotted these delicious looking cookies called Jam Daisy Drops in the Donna Hay magazine I was looking at. They were basically a sandwiched jam drop but were two separate layers of cookie dough. A flat bottom, a small spoonful of jam and topped with another layer with a hole cut out. That was easy enough. I'd made plenty of rolled cookie dough type cookies before but not so much when it was 30 degrees and every time you took the dough out of the freezer, it would melt before your eyes.

As a child myself, learning to bake and even when I was an adult, I'd search through cookbooks and magazines and stumble across beautiful recipes I'd like to try. I could take all the time in the world. Not so much when you've got young children and they're chomping at your heels to have a cookie, have lunch, go to the swimming pool as promised, washing needs to be hung out, dinner prepared etc etc. When I bake now, I just want it mixed, on the tray, baked, cooked and in the cookie tin and a lot of them. Nanna's Jam Drops would've been a much simpler task but I pursued.

It was a nice cookie and there wasn't enough of them so they didn't last long. A couple hours wasted of this Mum's valuable time. My days of trying recipes that need rolling, freezing, cutting and fiddling might be over, for now anyway. Maybe its time to hand over the reigns to the children and let them pick out the cookie and let them try to make them. I can just sit back and be a lady of leisure! I wish!

Jam Daisy Drops

(from Donna Hay magazine)

• 125gm butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar (preferrably caster sugar)
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1.1/2 cups plain flour
• raspberry jam

1. Beat sugar and butter together until pale.
2. Add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated.
3. Add flour and combine.
4. Split dough into two, wrap in cling film and freeze for 30 mins.
5. Remove dough and roll out until between pieces of baking paper until 5mm (1/4") thick.
6. Cut out with 'daisy' shaped cookie cutter.
7. Top pastry rounds with 1/2 tsp jam.
8. Roll out other piece of dough, removing centre. (You could use a smaller cookie cutter or I used an apple corer.)
9. Sprinkle with more caster sugar if desired.
10. Top onto other piece of cookie dough and bake in a 160 deg C oven until golden.