Paul Hollywood’s Jammy Biscuits

Paul Hollywood
Paul Hollywood

Series 12

We all know that ripe, summer raspberries produce the most delicious jam – here it’s sandwiched with a buttercream filling between crisp biscuits. The swirl is optional (if you have a patterned stamp), but it does make for an extra-professional finish.

Makes: 12
Difficulty: Needs skill
Hands-On Time: 1 hr, plus chilling
Baking Time: 12 mins
  • Ingredients
  • Method
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Method

Step 1
Make the jam. Place the raspberries in a small, deep-sided pan and crush them with a potato masher. Add the sugar and bring the liquid to the boil over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Then, increase the heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and pass the jam through a sieve into a heatproof bowl. Discard the seeds in the sieve. Leave the jam to cool, then chill it to set.

Step 2
Heat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/325°F/Gas 3.

Step 3
Make the biscuits. Place the butter and caster sugar in a mixing bowl and beat well for 3–5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again until thoroughly combined.

Step 4
Sift in the flour and cornflour and mix by hand to a crumbly dough. Bring the dough together with your hands and knead it gently on a lightly floured work surface until smooth. Do not overwork.

Step 5
Halve the dough and shape each half into a flat disc. Wrap the discs and chill them for 20 minutes.

Step 6
Unwrap one of the dough discs on a lightly floured work surface and roll it out to about 3mm thick. Using the fluted round cutter, cut out 12 rounds, re-rolling the trimmings as necessary.

Step 7
Lightly flour a biscuit stamp, if you have one, then stamp each round to create a pattern. Re-cut the rounds with the fluted round cutter, then place the 12 discs on one of the lined baking sheets. Chill them while you roll out the remaining dough.

Step 8
Repeat steps 6 and 7 with the remaining dough disc, then, using the heart-shaped cutter, stamp out the centre of 12 of the rounds. Place these on the other baking sheet and chill them for 20 minutes.

Step 9
Bake the biscuits for 10–12 minutes, until the edges start to turn a pale golden colour. Leave them to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 10
Make the filling. Put the butter into a bowl and sift the icing sugar on top. Add the vanilla and, using a wooden spoon or an electric hand whisk, beat until very light and smooth.

Step 11
Dollop a spoonful of the filling onto the smooth side of each of the 12 plain biscuits, spreading it to the edges with a palette knife. Spoon a little jam over the buttercream, then sandwich, smooth side downwards, with the 12 cut-out heart biscuits. Dust with icing sugar to serve.