Favorite Childhood Cookies

When I was a child, one of my favorite afternoon snacks was jam cookies with tea. The kind with strawberry jam in the center of a round soft cookie. I love jams, especially strawberry jam and jam combined with soft buttery cookie makes it even better. There’s just something so cute and comforting about these cookies.

Tableware Used for This Post

For my afternoon tea and cookies, I’m using “Edwardian Childhood” tableware by Spode. Spode makes beautiful blue and white tableware and this is no exception, though I think this pattern has been retired. This set is really for children as you can see, but I love using this when I want a bit of childhood nostalgia. There’s even a message inside the cup that reads “However you try to drink me up, there’s always a swallow left in the cup”.

Cookie Recipe

I don’t bake very often but whenever I want some strawberry jam cookies I refer to a recipe from “The Charms of Tea: Reminiscences and Recipes ” by Victoria Magazine. This book is about the ritual of afternoon tea and features tea drinking scenes from classic novels along with beautiful and mouth watering recipes. It’s a must have for afternoon tea lovers and available on Amazon.

Jam cookies are simple and easy to make, perfect for an occasional baker like myself. I don’t like cookies that are too sweet and this time around, I ended up reducing the sugar content from 1/2 cup stated by the original recipe to 1/3 cup. When I made these cookies in the past, I found that 1/2 cup of sugar in the dough plus jam was just too sweet. 1/3 cup of sugar with the strawberry jam I usually use came out just right for me.

You do have to chill the dough for at least 2 hours so you may want to plan ahead to bake these cookies. Once the dough is ready for baking, work quickly so it doesn’t become too soft. If it does, refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes. You also want to make sure you smooth out the cracks formed on the side when you indent the center of each cookie. Also be careful about putting too much jam. I got too excited and piled on too much, causing the jam to spill out from few cookies while baking in the oven.

Using Paleo Flour

I usually make these cookies with organic unbleached flour but this time, I tried something I never tried before. I used paleo baking flour that I found at my local organic market. I couldn’t find unbleached flour at this particular store, so after much thought I decided to try paleo flour. I bought Bob’s Red Mill brand and the package said it’s good for basically all baking products. For a two pound package, it’s around $20.00 and it’s gluten free. The only thing I was hesitant about was that it’s partially made with coconut powder. I don’t like coconut flavor and my biggest concern was that my jam cookies would end up tasting like macaroons.

After tasting my cookies, I was pleasantly surprised that they taste like cookies made with regular flour and I didn’t get any coconut flavor.

Bit of a warning though, these cookies are super delicate. They are soft when you make them with regular flour but with paleo flour they were so soft I had to be very careful when transferring them from the cookie rack to my plate. I tried my best not to crack my cookies during the transfer, but you can see in my photo below, some of them ended up cracking. But they taste great and it does melt in your mouth.

Print Recipe

Strawberry Jam Cookies

Recipe adapted from The Charms of Tea: Reminiscences and Recipes

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup softened butter
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2½ cups paleo baking flour
• 2/3 cup strawberry jam

Instructions

• In a mixing bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Next, beat in the egg yolk and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour gradually at low speed. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 375°. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. (If the dough becomes too soft, refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.) Indent centers of each ball gently with your thumb and smooth out cracks on the edges with your fingers. With a small spoon, place jam on each cookie.
• Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes or until the bottom of cookies are golden brown. Once done, let the cookies cool on the rack.