Homemade Jammie Dodgers

Soft, buttery shortbread sandwiched with homemade strawberry jam! A homemade version of the classic British snack, beloved by many – including the Eleventh Doctor! These are Britain’s answer to the Linzer Cookie

Homemade Jammie Dodgers by Giraffes Can Bake - Buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched with homemade Strawberry Jam. The classic British snack, beloved by the Eleventh Doctor. Britain's answer to the Linzer Cookie

There are a few things that Britain takes pride in, usually they are things most people might find odd – like our ability to queue for anything and everything, we take queuing etiquette very seriously. One thing we rightfully take pride in is our biscuits – nothing beats a British biscuit! From the tough cookie HobNob to the beloved Custard Cream, and everything in between – we love our biscuits! Of course, these are not to be confused with what American’s call biscuits, when a Brit says “biscuit” we mean a cookie. I’ve picked up many Americanisms over the last few years, having an American best friend will do that to a person,  and I’ll refer to lots of things as “cookies” – but the British classics? They will always be biscuits – a custard cream, a jammie dodger, a chocolate bourbon, a rich tea – always biscuits! 

Homemade Jammie Dodgers by Giraffes Can Bake - Buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched with homemade Strawberry Jam. The classic British snack, beloved by the Eleventh Doctor. Britain's answer to the Linzer Cookie

 

Jammie Dodgers are a national favourite, if your mum bought a pack of Jammie Dodgers with the weekly shop you knew you were in for a treat at lunch time! As a student at univeristy they were my essay fuel – you can’t write a good paper without some classic British biscuit fuel, that would be madness (it would be like getting through exam time without alphabetising your CD collection!). Jammie Dodgers are shortbread with a raspberry jam filling, and a cute little heart cutout so you could see that delicious sweet treat waiting for you! There’s lots of different varieties these days, but nothing beats the classic. If you’re not convinced that Jammie Dodgers are a British classic – well, they’re also the Eleventh Doctor’s favourite, you don’t get much more British than Doctor Who!

Homemade Jammie Dodgers by Giraffes Can Bake - Buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched with homemade Strawberry Jam. The classic British snack, beloved by the Eleventh Doctor. Britain's answer to the Linzer Cookie

It was only a matter of time until I made a Homemade Jammie Dodger recipe, and here it is! It’s not an exact replica of the beloved biscuit of course, in fact it’s better (gasp!). The shortbread is much softer, so much more buttery and, of course, has that delicious homemade taste you won’t get with a mass produced biscuit. I picked up a few pounds of strawberries from the local market recently and made some amazing jam with them, so it was only right that I used that delicious homemade jam in my homemade jammie dodgers – the classic jam flavour for jammie dodgers is raspberry, but the strawberry works amazingly well. I’m including the recipe for the jam with these, I was going to do a separate post for it but honestly it’s so easy to make it really doesn’t warrant one! This is one of the things I love most about this recipe, every part of it is homemade but it’s still incredibly simple – anybody can make it at home. Of course, you’re free to use store bought jam if you’d like – just make sure to use a good quality one, the taste is so important in these cookies!

Homemade Jammie Dodgers by Giraffes Can Bake - Buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched with homemade Strawberry Jam. The classic British snack, beloved by the Eleventh Doctor. Britain's answer to the Linzer Cookie

Homemade Jammie Dodgers
Yields 20
Soft and buttery shortbread sandwiched with homemade strawberry jam. A British classic that you can make from scratch at home!
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For the strawberry jam
  1. 1.25kg/2.75lb fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered*
  2. 600g sugar
  3. 200ml water
  4. 2 lemons, juice
For the shortbread
  1. 250g unsalted butter, softened
  2. 120g icing sugar (confectioners/powdered), plus more for dusting surface
  3. 1tsp vanilla extract
  4. 1 egg yolk
  5. 350g plain flour (all purpose)
  6. 20g cornflour
  7. 30g white sugar
To make the jam
  1. Put the hulled and quartered strawberries in a maslin or large saucepan. Add sugar, water and lemon juice and mix to combine.
  2. Bring to a boil on a high heat, let boil for 5 mins. Reduce to medium low heat and simmer for approx 1 hour, until mixture reaches a temperature of 105C/220F.
  3. While it's still hot, pour into warm, sterilised jars - tighten lids and leave to cool overnight.
To make the shortbread
  1. Beat the butter and icing sugar together using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer, until fluffy and pale - about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and egg yolk and beat to combine.
  2. Sift in the flours and mix by hand with a wooden spoon until combined. Chill dough in the fridge for 1 hour.
  3. Preheat the oven to 190C/370F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  4. Lightly dust your worktop with icing sugar and roll out your cookie dough to 3mm thick. Use a fluted 5cm cookie cutter to cut out circles. Use a small round cutter (or heart shaped if you have one) to cut out the centre of half of the cookies - I used the wide end of a piping nozzle to do this. It's up to you how big you make the hole.
  5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until pale golden in colour. Transfer to wire rack to cool, and sprinkle with the white sugar while they're still warm.
  6. When cooled, spread 1/2 tbsp of jam on the cookies without a hole, and sandwich with one of the cookies with a cut out. Repeat with all cookies.
Notes
  1. *Cut the strawberries as large/small as you'd want your pieces to be in the jam. My strawberries were quite small so quartering was the perfect size for me, personal preference is key here.
  2. The jam recipe will make a lot more than you will need for the cookies, feel free to halve it or you can just keep the rest of the jam - we went through ours very quickly!
  3. I used a 5cm fluted cookie cutter, but you can make these as big or as small as you like - you may need to adjust the baking time if you go much smaller or larger though.
  4. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days
  5. Jam will keep in sealed, sterilised jars at room temperature for up to 3 months. Longer if you use a canning method or store in the fridge. Store in fridge once opened.
A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/
Viennese Whirls are my other favourite way to enjoy shortbread

Viennese Whirls are my other favourite way to enjoy shortbread

 You really are going to adore these cookies, it’s crazy how simple they are to make – even when making the jam from scratch – but they’re so delicious! I have a soft spot for shortbread as it is, the way it melts in your mouth is divine – sandwich them with some sweet jam and I’m in heaven – double the shortbread and some yummy jam in between, what could be better? What makes shortbread, well, short, is the butter of course (when something in the baking world is described as “short” it basically just means there’s a high fat to flour ratio) so the type of butter you use here is important – the better the quality, the better your cookies are gonna taste. I like to use lurpak because the taste is just heavenly, but I know that’s ridiculously expensive for those outside of Europe, whatever good quality, real butter your local store stocks will be great! 

Homemade Jammie Dodgers by Giraffes Can Bake - Buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched with homemade Strawberry Jam. The classic British snack, beloved by the Eleventh Doctor. Britain's answer to the Linzer Cookie

While the classic Jammie Dodger is filled with jam, the world really is your oyster (or cookie, hehe) when it comes to filling these. Go with whatever flavour jam you love, I definitely want to try them some some apricot jam – yum! And don’t just limit yourself to jam – how about salted caramel? Or, drool, nutella? If it’s sweet and you like to spread it, you’ll love it in between these cookies. You don’t even have to stick with sweet fillings, how about some blue cheese and chili jam? Ooh, I’m getting hungry now! 

Homemade Jammie Dodgers by Giraffes Can Bake - Buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched with homemade Strawberry Jam. The classic British snack, beloved by the Eleventh Doctor. Britain's answer to the Linzer Cookie

I wish I had some of these Homemade Jammie Dodgers to snack on while I write this and drool over those photos, but unfortunately they didn’t last very long in my house! In fact, these cookies alone made my mum come off her diet for a week – she refused to take them into her office like she normally does with my baked goods, she wanted to keep them all for herself! A common phrase uttered in my house during the 3 days these cookies survived was “it’s no good, I keep thinking about them, I have to have another!”. The only reason they even lasted 3 days is because I somehow controlled my will power and resisted, I only had about 4! Trying to lose weight sure is hard work when you spend most of your time coming up with these delicious treats, you should all feel very sorry for me 😉 I can almost feel the collective laughter of all the friends and family I’ve teased on Facebook over the last couple years with my baked goods, I finally feel their pain! 

Homemade Jammie Dodgers by Giraffes Can Bake - Buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched with homemade Strawberry Jam. The classic British snack, beloved by the Eleventh Doctor. Britain's answer to the Linzer Cookie

Some people I definitely want to share these delicious treats with are my fellow Fiesta Friday party goers! Hosted by the lovely Angie, with co hosts Loretta and Jess. Do come join us, it’s always a lot of fun and you’re sure to make some good friends and pick up some great ideas and recipes along the way!

Homemade Jammie Dodgers by Giraffes Can Bake - Buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched with homemade Strawberry Jam. The classic British snack, beloved by the Eleventh Doctor. Britain's answer to the Linzer Cookie

I really hope you liked the recipe, I know I did! If you try it out, please let me know what you thought in the comments – and don’t forget to tag me in any photos you post when you try my recipes with @GiraffesCanBake (instagram, twitter and facebook!), I’d love to see your versions! 

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53 comments

  1. Loretta says:

    My favorite kind of biscuit – I often make these around Christmas time. They are a tad time consuming, but oh so worth it. Thanks for bringing these to Fiesta Friday. Happy weekend!

  2. Donna says:

    Oh my goodness, I was totally addicted to jammie dodgers as a kid! I grew up in the UK, but left when I was 15, so I haven’t had one in years. These definitely look better than the real thing 🙂

  3. Christine says:

    Exquisite and THANK YOU for the link, I was dying to know the origin of the name. I’m a geek like that. I also may be British because the way we Americans “queue” drives me batty!!! Thanks for linking up at #SaucySaturdays.

  4. Sadrudin Lalji says:

    Thank you very very much for the best recipes for short bread cookies. I love baking. One problem with is .weights in grams. I am always confused in preparing weight in grams. Would request let me have weight in ups ie. how 120 Grm is in a cup? This way weight in cups will sole May problem.so please let me have the chart in grams.Thank you in advance for the favour. God blessyou

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