Melting Moments with Strawberry Jam

I donate plasma as often as I can, it's such a wonderful thing to do and because I don't really make enough money to donate to charities I donate my time and my plasma instead. And the best part of donating blood or plasma is the food the lovely ladies feed you afterwards! There is always such a delicious selection of biscuits, cakes and savouries you always leave with a full tummy.

My favourite by far is the melting moments biscuits they serve. I cannot remember the brand, but they are large and individually wrapped. They literally melt in our mouth and are just what you expect the perfect melting moment to be. So naturally I had to try and recreate them for myself. I added a strawberry jam to these ones because of the abundance of strawberries that were around at the time so they are a bit of a melting moment / monte carlo hybrid. I have tried a couple of recipes to get the best one and this recipe was given to me by D's mum, it's just a recipe from a magazine but unfortunately I don't know which one :(

Melting Moments with Strawberry Jam

Adapted from Barb Northwood

What you will need

250g butter, room temperature

1/3 cup icing sugar

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup cornflour 

For the icing

100g butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

For the jam

100g strawberries, green leaves chopped off

100g sugar

1tsp gelatine

What you will need to do

Preheat the oven to 180*C and prepare a baking tray with baking paper. Set aside. Beat the butter and icing sugar in a small bowl until pale and creamy. Stir in sifted flour and cornflour until combined. Roll spoonfuls of mixture into balls and place onto the baking tray and flatten with a fork dusted in flour. Cook for about 12 minutes or until just starting to brown. Cool on the trays then transfer to a wire rack.

Meanwhile to make the jam, chop the strawberries into small pieces and place in a small saucepan. Add the sugar and cook over medium heat until sugar has dissolved, stirring all the time. Let mixture simmer until it thickens slightly. Dissolve the gelatine in one tablespoon of warm water then add to the jam mixture. Remove from heat and stir. Pour the jam into a heat proof container and place in the fridge to cool and thicken.

To make the icing, beat the butter  until light and creamy. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and beat until thick and pale. Spoon or pipe icing onto half the biscuits. Spread jam on the other half and then sandwich together.