Mandy’s Jammy Biscuit Bars
Easy
Spread the love with these jammy biscuit bars. As it bakes, the white chocolate pieces in the buttery biscuit base caramelise and some of the juices from the jam sinks into it, so it’s crunchy in places, slightly soaked in others. The biscuit hearts nestled on top stay crisp and crumbly like shortbread, and as it sits, the dusting of icing sugar dissolves and disappears into the jam which shows the lovely pattern of white hearts on a ruby red bed. I love using raspberry conserve as it’s a little bit tart, which is a nice contrast to the sweetness of the biscuit and white chocolate, but you could also use strawberry jam if you prefer.
PREP IN
20 MIN
COOK IN
45 MIN
SERVE
16
Mandy’s Jammy Biscuit Bars
Easy
PREP IN
20 MIN
COOK IN
45 MIN
SERVE
16
Introduction
Spread the love with these jammy biscuit bars. As it bakes, the white chocolate pieces in the buttery biscuit base caramelise and some of the juices from the jam sinks into it, so it’s crunchy in places, slightly soaked in others. The biscuit hearts nestled on top stay crisp and crumbly like shor
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Ingredients
- +- 320g raspberry conserve
- 275g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 225g butter, softened
- 125g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp flaky salt
- 100g white chocolate, roughly chopped
- Icing sugar, for dusting
Method
- 1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan assisted and line a 20x20cm (8x8inch) square tin with parchment paper.
- 2. Spoon the raspberry conserve into a microwave safe bowl and heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds – 1 minute, just enough to warm it up so that it loosens.
- 3. Place a sieve over a bowl and transfer the conserve to the sieve. Using the back of a spoon, press the conserve through the sieve to remove the seeds. Tip: If using strawberry jam, you do not need to do this step, you will also use slightly less jam as you won’t lose any volume from removing the seeds, about 2-3 tbsp less.
- 4. Set aside.
- 5. Place the remaining ingredients, except the white chocolate, into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until ingredients come together in clumps with no visible dry ingredients remaining. Bring the dough together with your hand in the bowl into one dough ball, the dough will be slightly sticky, do not add flour.
- 6. Dust a clean surface with flour then break off half of the dough and use a flour-dusted rolling pin to roll dough out into a square that’s about 20x20cm (8x8inch) in size, lightly dusting as needed. Tip: Make sure to move the dough around on the surface, lightly dusting underneath as needed so that it doesn’t stick.
- 7. Using 2 to 3 different sized heart cookie cutters (ranging from 1.5 – 5cm), stamp out heart shapes as close together as possible. Tip: I only stamp out about 8 of the largest size, then the remaining with the smaller sizes so that there will be whole visible hearts when the bars are cut into squares. Place the stamped-out hearts onto a small tray and place in the freezer until needed.
- 8. Bring together the remaining scraps of dough then add this to the reserved half of dough.
- 9. Press dough out into a thick disc then place the chopped white chocolate on top. Fold over the dough to envelope the chocolate, then fold the dough a few times to distribute the chocolate through it.
- 10. Press the dough in the bottom of the prepared baking tin, making sure to get it into the corners and making it as smooth as possible. Spread the jam over the dough layer, then arrange the chilled hearts on top of the jam layer. Tip: I find it’s easier to start by placing the largest hearts, then the next size down, and finally fitting the smallest size into the remaining gaps.
- 11. Bake in the pre-heated oven until the hearts are golden and the jam is bubbling, about 45 minutes. Tip: If the hearts are browning too quickly, cover the tin with a piece of tinfoil.
- 12. Leave to cool in the baking tin for about 10 minutes on a wire rack, then remove the bake from the tin using the excess parchment paper to lift it out, dust with icing sugar and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
- 13. Once completely cooled, cut into portions. As it is quite a sweet treat, cutting into 16 squares is perfect, but if you have a particularly sweet tooth, or want to share one with your favourite person, cut into 8 bars.
- 14. Store at room temperature in a sealed airtight container for up to 2 weeks, or in the fridge for about 3 weeks. They can also be frozen.
