Jammy Dodgers

So for this last 8 days I have been away from my normal working day and on a training course. At the beginning of the course the usual rules were explained which included an understanding that as busy professionals we may need to answer our mobile phones and that this is ok. However there would be a sanction if it rang out loud during the course. The sanctions were as follows:

1. If it rang once you would have to buy doughnuts for the rest the group
2. If it rang twice you would have to buy cream cakes for the rest of the group
3. If it rang three times you would have to buy a round at the pub at the end of the course

According to the trainers no one had ever made the mistake of letting it happen more than three times but if necessary a further sanction would be created! After 7 days not one phone had rung out so we had to take matters in to our own hands and whilst a phone was left unattended during a break it was quickly switched on to loud, needless to say today lots of doughnuts were eaten!

Anyway, the point of that little tale was that for a two week course tea breaks and treats have proven to be key in keeping us on task and concentrating. So not to disappoint, when my colleagues discovered I enjoy baking I quickly convinced to bring in something for the troops. One of the ladies on the course is dairy and gluten free so I decided to make these little dodgers so that everyone could enjoy a biscuit during our morning tea break. Last week I also made a lemon drizzle cake and some chocolate brownies for my course mates as well.

Right, enough chit chat, lets get baking! 

I used a recipe from 'The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town' and simply substituted standard plain flour for an equal amount of gluten free plain flour. 

To make around 20 jammy dodgers you will need:

• 350g gluten free plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• A pinch of salt
• 140g dairy free margarine
• 100g brown sugar
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 jar of jam (any favour of your choosing)
• Icing sugar to dust

• Start by creaming the dairy free margarine, sugar, golden syrup and vanilla.

• A little at a time, mix in the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. You may need to use your hands towards the end to bring the ingredients together into a dough.

• Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for at least half an hour - the longer the better really. Towards the end of the chilling time, preheat your oven to 180c fan.
• Select the cutters that you want to use, I picked a round cutter with a 1.5 inch diameter and then picked a number of smaller cutters in a variety of different shapes. 

• Flour your work surface and roll your dough out until it is around 3mm thick. This dough is very fragile and can easily tare so you have to be very careful when rolling it. 
• Make sure that you cut an even number of disks cutting a smaller shape out of the centre of half of them.

• Carefully transfer the disks to a baking tray and bake for around 7 minutes until they start to go  golden brown. 
• Once removed from the oven, allow them to cool for a few minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a cooling rack.

• Allow your biscuits to cool completely before sandwiching the two layers with jam.
• Dust with icing sugar before putting the kettle on and settling down to a cuppa' and a biscuit or two!

And that's all there is to it - let me know how you get on!

Rach x