Jammers

I love shortbread.  I love sugar cookies.  And I especially love sugar cookies with jam.  When I saw a recipe that incorporated all three of these cookie loves, it was a given that I’d be making these hitting-the-trifecta “Jammers.”  I’ve categorized these Jammers as a cookie, but they could also be thought of as a mini coffee cake.  They are definitely large enough to share!

I realize that not everyone has English muffin rings or a whoopie pie pan (I have both!)—but if you love shortbread, sugar cookies, and jam as much as I do, I’d consider investing in the equipment.  And don’t be put off by the length of the recipe as it goes together easily and is well worth the effort in any case.

I used my English muffin rings and got 8 huge jammers out of the recipe.  If I had had any apricot in my pantry (usually a staple), I would have definitely made half using apricot.  Instead I made half with raspberry jam and the other half with strawberry.  They were both spectacularly good.  If you eat them while they’re still warm, you’ll need a fork.  After they cooled down, I was able to pick it up and eat it as you would a cookie—a rather large cookie, indeed.  I don’t know what it is about eating something handheld, but it always tastes better to me.  Maybe it’s because I can get more in my mouth that way than I can with a fork.  Oink!

Jammers

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Ingredients for the Sablé Dough

  • 2 sticks (8 tbl.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
  • 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour


Directions

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until smooth and very creamy.  Add the sugars, cinnamon, and salt and beat until well blended, about 1 minute.  The mixture should be smooth and velvety, not fluffy and airy.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the egg yolks and vanilla, again beating until the mixture is homogeneous.

Turn off the mixer.  Pour in the flour, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and the counter from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time.  Take a peek—if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple more times; if not, remove the towel.  Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough and the dough looks uniformly moist.  (If most of the flour is incorporated but you’ve still got some in the bottom of the bowl, use a rubber spatula to work the rest of the flour into the dough.)  The dough will not clean the sides of the bowl, nor will it come together in a ball—and it shouldn’t. You want to work the dough as little as possible.  What you’re aiming for is a soft, moist, clumpy (rather than smooth) dough.  Pinch it, and it will feel a little like Play-Doh.

Ingredients for the Brown Sugar Streusel Topping

  • 3 tbl. unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
  • 1 tbl. granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp. salt (I used regular table salt, and it was fine)
  • 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions for the Brown Sugar Streusel Topping

Melt butter in a small saucepan on stove or in microwave.  Add the rest of the ingredients all at once and stir with a fork to form crumbs.  You should have a kind of wet sand texture with pea-sized crumbs throughout the mixture. Cover and set aside until ready to use.  The crumbs will harden a little as the streusel cools but that’s fine.

To Assemble the Jammers

Ingredients for Assembling

  • 1 recipe Sablé dough
  • 1 recipe streusel topping
  • 1/2 – 3/4 cup of your favorite jam (I used raspberry and strawberry—next up, apricot!)

Equipment:

8 to 10 3? x 1.5? ring molds (I used my 3.5? x 1.5? English muffin molds and got 6 large jammers) OR a whoopie pie pan

Directions for Assembling

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Ring Mold Method:  Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.  Roll dough to approximately 1/2-inch thick.  Use 3-inch round rings to stamp out cookies (I ended up getting 8 cookies using this method.  I took the scraps and pressed them into extra molds).  Transfer the dough and rings to prepared baking sheet.

Chill in the fridge or freezer for 10-15 minutes until the dough firms up a bit (while the dough chills, you can make the streusel).  Top the chilled dough with a couple of teaspoons of  your favorite jam (strawberry, raspberry, apricot, etc.) and a sprinkling of the streusel.

Bake in the preheated oven for 18-22 minutes (my large molds took about 25 minutes), or until golden.  Remove from oven and let cool 15 minutes before removing the rings.  Allow to cool completely before serving.

Whoopie Pie Pan Method:  Fill each cup of the pan with a piece of dough and flatten with your fingers. The dough will be just slightly lower than the top of the pan.  Proceed as above.  Allow cookies to cool for 15-20 minutes in pan before using a small offset spatula to carefully ease them out of the pan and onto a cooling rack.  Makes 10-12 really substantial cookies.  If they aren’t devoured immediately, they will keep well for 2-3 days.

Source:  Adapted from a Smells Like Home recipe using a Dorie Greenspan recipe

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