The Joy of Baking: Jammy Buns

A nostalgic teatime cookie that always reminds me of my Grandma and Grandpa is Jammy buns. This is an incredibly easy recipe that creates a delicious spring time cookie that everyone seems to enjoy! The base is a mix between a short bread and soft oatmeal cookie; you could totally add quick oats as a substitute for bran if you'd like and the recipe would turn out just fine. I made these for the first time today and they turned out wonderfully!

Jammy Buns

Ingredients:

- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup bran (or 1 cup of whole wheat flour- I use bran because its cheaper)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2/3 cups unsalted butter
- 3/4 cups fine white sugar
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1 large egg
- 4-5 tablespoons milk
- 5-6 tablespoons raspberry jam

Preparation:

1. Mix dry ingredients together (bran, flour, salt, baking powder)
2. Cube the butter and rub into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs (use the hand mixture if you find the butter is not incorporating into the dry mixture fine enough)
3. Mix in sugar and cranberries
4. In a separate bowl whisk the egg, milk and vanilla and add to the dry ingredients
** continue adding milk if you find the dough isn’t coming together enough
5. Make small dough balls (about 1 tablespoon), place on a cookie sheet and make a small indent with a teaspoon for the jam filling
6. Fill the indent with jam
7. Bake for 7-8 minutes at 350 degrees

The Joy of Baking: Raspberry Jam!

Easy Homemade Raspberry Jam

Ingredients

- 6 cups (1.5 L) crushed hulled raspberry, (12 cups/3 L whole)
**Note: You can substitute the 6 cups of raspberries for any other type of fruit. When I make apriocot jam I used dried apricots and dice them into small chunks and let them soak in water overnight to reconstitute. Then follow the same procedure!
- 1 pkg light fruit pectin crystals
- 4-1/2 cups (1.125 L) granulated sugar

Preparation:

1. Pour raspberries into large Dutch oven.
2. Combine pectin crystals with 1/4 cup (50 mL) of the sugar; stir into pan.
3. Bring to full boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in remaining sugar; return to full boil.
4. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from heat. Stir for 5 minutes to prevent fruit from floating, skimming off foam.
6. Pour into your sterilized canning jars (follow the directions on the canning jar kit that you buy for proper sterilization and preparation- it is a fool proof method so don't stress about it!) leaving about 1/4 ‘’ headspace.
7. Let cool completely and this jam can be kept for up to 1 year.

The Joy of Baking!

So another passion of mine has always been baking! I try to bake something every week (when my budget allows it) and experiment with different sweets – mostly different types of cookies – and confections. I decided I’m going to start posting my recipes and pictures of my baking just for fun! Enjoy!

Jenna’s “Nuttier Than Thou” Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
(It’s a lot of ingredients but totally fool proof recipe!)
• 1 cup of unsalted butter
• 1 cup of peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg and cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda and baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 ½ - 2 cups flour (depending on how chewy you want them)
• 1 cup quick oats
• ½ cup chopped peanuts
• ½ cup coconut
• 2 bars of milk chocolate with nuts (you know those variety of Hershey chocolate bars you can buy at the gas station and stuff)

Directions:
1. Cream butter, peanut butter and sugar together until light in color
2. Mix in the two eggs individually into mixture
3. Add vanilla
4. Combine baking soda/powder, salt, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, oats and coconut into a separate bowl and gradually add this dry ingredient mix into the wet ingredient mix
** Note: Add more flour if the mixture is too sticky (you should be able to touch it with your finger tip and not have the mixture stick to your figure)
5. Chop the 2 chocolate bars into chunks and add into mixture along with the chopped peanuts
6. Shape into large, rough looking balls and bake at 350 degrees for about 7-9 minutes
** Note: Do not wait until the edges of the cookies are light brown that means they are over cooked; take them out when they look as if they could use another 1-2 minutes- this means they are perfect!