Jammy Almond Melts

These biscuits certainly lived up to their billing...they literally melt in the mouth and due to the copious amounts of butter they tasted divine...a little bit like really soft shortbread!

The dough for these biscuits was easy to make but it was extremely soft as there's a whole block of butter in them, so when it came to rolling out, it was really difficult. My advice would be to roll out as quickly as possible. Due to the excessive softness, some of my biscuits spread during baking...in order to avoid this it is advised to put the baking tray back into the fridge once the biscuits have been cut out. This allows them to firm up again before going straight into the oven.

Kids will love these biscuits, and they'd make a lovely little treat for anyone with a sweet tooth! :-)





225g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

200g plain flour

100g gound almonds

Pinch of salt

55g jam - either strawberry or raspberry

Preheat the oven to 150c/130c fan/gas 2. Prepare 2 baking sheets, grease and line. I used a reusable silicone baking mat. Using your electric whisk, beat together the butter and sugar until it becomes pale in colour and nice and fluffy. Then sift in the flour and add the ground almonds and salt, you should then be able to bring it together in a dough with your hands.

The ball of dough can then be wrapped in cling film and fridge for two hours. After chilling, the dough can be rolled out to about half a centimetre thick.  Take a heart shaped cutter and cut out as many biscuits you can out of the dough. Then cut smaller heart shapes in the centre of half the biscuits...these will make the tops.

The biscuits should bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden. They should then be left to cool on a wire rack before spreading jam on the bottom biscuits without the small heart cut out. Finally, place the cut out heart on top and sandwich together. To present your biscuits, dust the tops with icing sugar. However, to prevent the jam from being covered with icing sugar, cover it over with a small bit of baking paper.



* Adapted from Love Baking Magazine