Almond Jam Drops with Homemade Strawberry Jam

So it is time to make some jam as the market is filled with delicious and sweet strawberries.  My mother-in-law is visiting us later this year and she has ordered two bottles of jam already.  Jam is a good gift as it always taste better than the commercial one, and it's made with your heart but doesn't cost you heaps! I  have made a bottle of strawberry and another one with pineapple and passionfruit from my bread machine.  The passionfruit tree in our yard grow like grapes and I think I have collected more than fifty passionfruit so far.  That's another good reason to make jam with seasoned fruit so you can enjoy them a bit longer.  I will post the recipes of those jam in my next post.

I'd say I have a collection of quite a few yummy cookies recipes but I don't get a good one from jam drops.  Such a simple cookie but I always have problem with the recipe that the cookies are either too hard or too sloppy and most of the time the jam goes all over the cookies.  Here is my new found from Tana Ramsay's cookbook!  It is the best I have so far, it's chewy, rich in butter taste and the jam sits in the middle of the cookie liked a jewel.

Almond Jam Drops
(make about 35)

185g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla essence
165g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
60g almond meals
1/2 tsp baking powder
strawberry jam

Method:

1. Pre heat oven to 180c.  Line 2 baking tray with baking paper.
2. Beat butter, vanilla and sugar until creamy and fluffy.  Beat in the egg yolks.  Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder, then almond meals.  Mix until all combined.
3. Take a tablespoon of the dough and roll dough into a ball. Place onto baking tray and make a 1cm deep hollow with the end of a chopstick.
4. Fill the cookies with jam and bake for 15-20 minutes until the cookies turn slightly brown.  Cool biscuits on a wire rack.

Source: Modified and adopted from the cookbook, "I Love to Bake" by Tana Ramsay.