Jam Biscuits

Melanie Louis gives me a gem of a cookbook, a collection of recipes through the eyes of Enid Blyton's Famous Five. As children, those of us who read her books were transported to an England of thatched houses, village greens and meals with potted meat and sausage rolls. As a child I was an inveterate reader, so the cookbook transports me to when I wandered the cliffs with the Famous Five and Secret Seven. Played lacrosse at Mallory Towers. Solved mysteries with the Adventurous Four. And dreamt of picnics under periwinkle skies, suppers of thick slices of bread with lashings of butter and midnight feasts of jammy buns and ginger beer. 'Lashings' was a particular favorite word of both the author and me, for it conjured up a magical plate of literary goodies.

This is an easy biscuit recipe. Butter is rubbed into self raising flour and salt. Sugar and eggs are stirred in to make the thick batter. Small balls of rolled dough are placed on a parchment lined baking sheet. I make a small depression in the dough for the smidgen of jam. Baking biscuits beguile our senses. The moment of truth comes as the biscuits emerge deep brown.


JAM BISCUITS
Adapted from Enid Blyton's Five Go Feasting
Makes 12

1 cup Self Rising Flour
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
2 tablespoons Butter
1/4 cup Sugar
1 Egg
Raspberry Jam



Place flour and salt in a bowl. 

Cut butter into thin slivers. Add to flour. 

Use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Rub sugar into flour. 

Make a well in the center of the flour.

Break the egg into the well. Stir vigorously with a spoon till egg is incorporated. 

Heat oven to 350F or 180C.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or  silicone liner.

Divide dough into twelve balls. 

Roll each ball and place on baking sheet.

Use an apple corer to make indentations in the top of the balls. 

Spoon a half teaspoon of raspberry jam into each indentation. 

Bake biscuits for 12-15 minutes till golden brown. 

Cool on a wire rack. 

Enjoy these with a cuppa or even better, some ginger beer.

The flip side of the cookbook are the old fashioned methods and ingredients that hark back to post-WWII Britain. The best parts are the foods, a familiar slice of my Enid Blyton filled childhood. 

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