Jam Jams with Date & Raisin Mince Filling

On to further adventures here this week...I tried my hand at making some Jam Jams. For those of you who may not know what these are - these are cookies with some jam baked inside. Actually it can be jam or jelly or some other yummy filling - but it's basically a filled cookie.

I am digging back into my long distant past here - these would have been a childhood treat made with partridge berry and apple jam traditionally, as well as lots of molasses as a sweetener. They were lovely and even better when homemade.

When I had decided to make them, I wasn't sure what kind of jam I would use as a filling - but I wanted something very sticky. So that leaves out most of my jams because they do not have any sugar in them. But what I did have was date and raisin mince meat and this would do very nicely.

To make the cookie dough I used about 3 cups of spelt flour, 1 cup molasses, 3/4 cup goat's butter, 1 duck egg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and a pinch of salt.

I mixed all of these together - using softened butter and warm molasses - then crumbling this into the flour (dry ingredients). After a few minutes a soft dough was forming - usually this recipe is made with brown sugar and wheat flour....

However I avoid these items and it always comes out just fine. As well, the dough is often chilled for a few hours before cutting into cookies. But with spelt flour it can become quite hard (though not impossible) so unless this is really too soft - I would just make the cookies right from the soft dough.

I rolled out the dough onto a floured surface and then cut some round cookies out to be baked in the oven at 175C for about 9 or 10 minutes. Once these were done enough I removed them and placed a spoonful of the mince in between each one to make a sandwich. But I let them cool down a tiny bit first..they were quite soft.

These went back into the oven for about 3 or 4 minutes further....and then came out to cool onto a rack.

They were big! Almost like giant Jam Jams - but were they ever good!

April

Jam Jams....Very tasty!