Jammy dodger biscuits

My interpretation of a childhood favourite. A good recipe for simple vanilla biscuits also, which can be dusted with icing sugar, or decorated with royal icing.

1. 1

   With an electric hand-whisk, or in a mixer, cream the butter, sugar & vanilla together, add the egg and beat in. Sift in the flour and mix on low speed until it starts to come together as a dough, then stop mixing and bring together with your hands. Divide into 2 balls (Just for ease as it is quite a large batch of dough), wrap in cling film, flatten a little, then chill in the fridge for at least half an hour. This dough keeps well in the fridge for 5 days, so you can make them ‘on demand’, if you don’t want to cook them all in one go.
   
   Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of cling film (if it is very hard when it first comes out of the fridge, leave it for 5 minutes before rolling).
   
   Using a round cookie cutter (fluted or plain edge), cut out an even number of cookies. Then cut a circle, approx 1cm diameter, out of the middle of half of them (I don’t have a tiny cookie cutter so use the fat end of a small metal icing nozzle, but you could use anything of a suitable size).
   
   Line a baking sheet (or 2 or 3 depending on how many you are baking at a time) with baking paper. Place the cookies on the baking paper, leaving just a few mm between each one (they don’t spread very much). Put them in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
   
   Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes – until they are just starting to turn a golden brown at the edges. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.
   
   For the filling, using an electric hand-whisk or mixer, beat the butter briefly so that it is really soft, then sift in the icing sugar and add the vanilla and about 1 tbsp boiling water and beat until smooth and fluffy. If you think it needs loosening a bit more, add a little extra water (consistency should be a little less thick than that used for icing a cake with buttercream).
   
   Turn over the biscuits without the hole in them and spread a little of the buttercream onto them (about 1 tsp onto each, maybe a little more).
   
   Stir 1 – 2 tsp boiling water into the jam to loosen, then put a small dollop of jam onto the buttercream on each of the biscuits, and place the a biscuit with a hole in on top. (If you are not using seedless jam, you can press through a tea strainer or sieve first).