Jam Drop Biscuits With Strawberry Conserve

The recipe for jam drops, step by step

1. Beat the butter and caster sugar together until they are just combined and no longer grainy, about a minute. Stop there.
2. Beat in the egg yolk and the vanilla until the mixture is smooth.
3. Add the flour and salt and mix on the lowest speed until the dough comes together in clumps, then bring it into a ball with your hands. It should feel like firm pastry, not like cake batter.
4. Roll 24 balls of about 25g each and sit them on two trays lined with baking paper, a few centimetres apart.
5. Press a well into each ball with the round end of a wooden spoon handle, straight down, about two thirds of the way through. A spoon handle gives you steep sides. A thumb gives you a saucer, and a saucer is what lets jam escape.
6. Chill the trays for 30 minutes. This is the step people skip and then blame the recipe for. Over 25°C in the kitchen, give it 45 minutes and bake one tray at a time.
7. Heat the oven to 180°C, or 160°C fan. Take the trays out of the fridge and reopen any wells that closed up while the dough rested.
8. Fill each well with about half a teaspoon of conserve, level with the rim and no higher. Overfilling is the most common cause of a boiled-over tray.
9. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges are pale gold and the bases are set. The jam will bubble up and then settle back as it cools.
10. Leave them on the tray for 10 minutes before you move them. Hot jam is molten sugar: it slides, and it burns the mouth that gets there early.

Questions we get asked

Why does the jam run out of my jam drops?

Almost always one of three things. The well was too shallow or too wide, so nothing held the jam once it loosened. The well was overfilled, and jam expands before it sets. Or the jam was too loose to start with, which the cold plate test catches in 30 seconds. If it keeps happening with a jar you like, fill the wells partway through baking: give the biscuits six minutes, pull the trays out, spoon the jam in and finish them.

What jam is best for jam drops?

A thick, full-sugar preserve with real fruit in it. Strawberry and raspberry are traditional and apricot is the sharper option. Avoid jellies, which melt to liquid and run, and avoid reduced-sugar spreads, which have less structure to hold with. If it holds a mound on a tilted cold plate, it will hold in the well.

How do you stop jam drop biscuits spreading?

Keep the butter cool, mix rather than cream, and chill the shaped balls for 30 minutes. Use a cold tray for every batch, weigh the balls so they bake at the same rate, and work in another tablespoon or two of flour if the dough feels sticky rather than like firm pastry.

How long do homemade jam drops keep?

Four to five days in an airtight container at room temperature, best on days one and two. Baked biscuits freeze for two months, though the jam dulls and the surface turns tacky as they thaw, so freeze the unbaked shaped dough instead.

A jar in the cupboard makes this a decision you can put off. The strawberry conserve sits with the rest of The Regimental Condiment Company range, the ready-baked version with Jen's Biscuits on the biscuits shelf, and if they are meant to travel rather than come out of your own oven, the Christmas hampers do that job. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, and shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.