Jam Madness Pt 1: Jam Roly Poly

I am such a jam fiend. I am also a chilli fiend, chocolate fiend, ginger fiend, corn fiend, brie fiend, cinnamon fiend...oh heck, I guess I'm a food fiend. But my point is, I am going through a huge jam phase at the moment, which is probably related to that fact that I am also going through a huge scone phase. Any recipe with jam in it jumps out at me, like I have an internal jam radar. Most recently I spotted a jam roly poly and jam drops biscuits in the Essential Baking Cookbook. Both were so ridiculously easy and tasty that I will definitely be repeating them soon. In particular the buttery, golden jam roly poly. I just like the name roly poly.

I woke up early and Saturday morning, itching to bake after spending the night flicking through that book. It sitting warm and gooey on the kitchen counter before anyone else had even woken up. It helps that there is no electric beater involved, so no loud noises to wake people up with :) The method for mixing up the dough was exactly like a scone recipe. As a result the rolypoly was a cross between a jam swiss roll and a buttery scone. Yuuuuuum.

Jam Roly Poly
(from The Essential Baking Cookbook)
2 cups (250 g) self-raising flour, sifted
125 g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
2 tbsp caster sugar
50 ml milk
2/3 cup raspberry jam (I only had strawberry, any jam will do)
1 tbsp milk, extra

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Sift the flour into a large bowl and rub in te butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre.

Add the milk and 50ml of water to the well in the flour and mix with a flat bladed knife, using a cutting action, until the mixture comes together in beads. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and gather together to form a smooth dough. Roll out the dough, on a large sheet of baking paper, into a rectangle measuring about 33 x 23 cm and 5 mm thick. Spread with the raspberry jam, leaving a 5 mm border all around.

Roll up the dough lengthways like a swiss roll and place on the tray seam-side-down. Brush with the extra milk and bake for about 35 minutes, or until golden and cooked through Leave for a few minutes before cutting into thick slices with a serrated knife. Serve warm (and with custard if you fancy it, I enjoyed it on its own).

Note: During cooking, the jam will ooze out slightly from the pastry, but this is fine.

It was wonderfully moist and crumbly straight out of the oven, and still delicious the next day warmed up in the microwave. Next time I think I will try this recipe with a recent favourite of mine, apricot jam :)

Stay tuned, jam drop biscuit recipe coming soon :)