Jam Sandwich Cookies (Jim Jams)

 My niece and nephew are visiting from Mumbai for the Christmas hols and its been great fun having them here. The lil' one at 3 is a complete delight and my 6 year old daughter is thrilled to have someone younger than her. My niece is now 12 and she has grown into such a poised, mature girl :) Its always nice catching up with SIL as well. \

The kids were asking for cream biscuits (which is what we call cookies in India) the other evening so I asked them whether they wanted to bake jam biscuits. My niece was especially thrilled at the idea since she wants to learn to bake. So, I gave her the ingredients and she measured them out, kneaded and rolled and very painstakingly applied the jam gently on the cooled cookies before sandwiching them. She was so pleased with the biscuits, she couldn't stop beaming. K was suitable adoring of her elder cousin and even forgot to even ask to taste the batter at every stage.

I divided the dough into two parts, one part went into making the jam cookies and the other we mixed in candied fruit (Tutti Frutti) into the dough and made cookies from it. I had rolled out the jam cookie dough a tad too thin than needed so it was a bit crisper than needed. You could also cut out the cookies after making a roll of the dough - but the dough might be a bit too soft for that. I did cut out the dough for the Tutti Frutti cookies and they were thicker.

The Jam cookies were a hit with the kids - which one of us didn't like those jam filled biscuits!!And they did exactly what I used to = first took apart the biscuits, licked the jam from both sides and then ate the biscuits! Somethings never change :)

 Jam Sandwich Cookies

Flour - 1 1/2 cups plus more for dusting and kneading
Salt -  a pinch
Egg - 1 (can omit, use 2 tbsp milk and 1 tsp baking powder)
Butter - 1/2 cup
Castor Sugar - 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 -2 tbsp (as required)

Jam - any jam, I used pineapple - about 1/4 cup

1. Cream butter and sugar together till shiny. Add and egg and then beat till fluffy.
2. Sieve flour and salt together and then gently fold into the egg mixture.
3. Add vanilla extract and gently mix together to form soft dough, If too dry, add about a tbsp or two of milk. If too sticky, add flour one tbsp at a time till you are just able to form a rough ball of dough.
4. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour till firm.
5. Sprinkle flour on the work platform and roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/2" inch high.
6. Cut with a cookie cutter, remove the uncut versions, form into ball and roll out again. Repeat till the dough is exhausted.
7. This step is optional, if you have a small cookie cutter or a tiny bottle top, you could cut out holes in half of the cookies to form a window for the jam to be seen on top.
8. Pre heat the oven to 180C, arrange the cookies in batches on a greased baking tray, leaving some space in between.
9. Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookies and number of cookies on the tray - start checking after 6 minutes to ensure they are just cooked and don't get burnt. Remove when tops are firm and just starting to change colour.
10. Remove. cool and bake next batch. Once all the cookies are baked and cooled, spread jam on the the flat side of the cookies without holes on top and cover with the cookies with holes. Press gently and store in piles in an airtight container.