Giant jammy biscuit
A giant version of a British classic — perfect with a coffee.
Serves: 4-6
INGREDIENTS
For the biscuit
1 tbsp vegetable oil/ spray oil - to grease baking tin
200g unsalted butter, softened 150g caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
425g plain flour, plus extra to dust
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp cold water
For the filling
1 tbsp cornflour
200g strawberry jam
METHOD
• Grease and line the base of 2 x 23cm springform cake tins with baking parchment.
• Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with electric beaters until pale and fluffy. Add egg and beat again until just combined.
• Mix in flour, vanilla and water with a wooden spoon. Bring together and shape into two equally sized discs. Wrap in cling film and chill for 1hr in the refrigerator or 10 minutes in the freezer.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll each disc to a large circle 1cm thick. It should be a little wider than the tins. Using the tin’s base as your template, cut the dough into two circles the size of the tins with a sharp knife, reserving off-cuts for decoration.
• Place inside the prepared tins.
• With a rolling pin, roll the dough trimmings out to 5mm thick.
• Cut out a the large ‘splash’ shape with a small knife (see picture above for reference), along with some smaller ‘splashes’.
• Put the splash mark on the middle of one of the biscuits, then use a heart-shaped cutter to stamp out the heart hole from the centre. Discard the dough removed or bake separately as a cook’s perk.
• Decorate the dough with the small splashes. Leave the bottom layer as it is. Chill for 20 minutes or freeze for 5 minutes. While the dough is chilling, heat oven to 200°C (fan 180°C).
• Bake both biscuits for 1520min, until the edges are golden. While still hot, cut out the heart again if it’s not well defined. Cool completely in the tins.
• Meanwhile, mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp jam until smooth. Melt the remaining jam in a small pan on medium heat. Add the cornflour mixture and bring to a simmer, whisking constantly, for 2min. Leave to cool completely.
• Once cool, spread the jam mixture on top of the plain biscuit — still in its tin.
• Carefully remove the decorated biscuit from its tin, peel off the baking parchment, and place on top of the jam-coated biscuit, decoration side up.
• Return the biscuit to the oven for 5 minutes, then leave to cool completely in the tin. Once cooled, carefully transfer to a board. Present whole, then slice.