Happy Birthday Jam Gems cookies

It’s my brother-In law’s B’day today and he is still a fan of Gems (who am I kidding…we all are…gems for us in India. MnM’s for others). I had planned for Chocolate dipped cookies with Gems…but last minute….no chocolate (what a crime I know). So used the same shortbread cookies recipe and quickly made Cherry Jam to top the biscuits. Initially had planned to sew all of them together with ribbon to form a garland but with jam topping not possible so, just plated them like that. Smile on my sis-in law’s face and the twinkle in the eyes of the birthday boy was sufficient to say they were good to go.

Preparation time- 15 min

Cooking time- 35 minutes

Ingredients-

Flour – 2 cups

Butter- 250 gms chilled

Castor sugar – ¾ cup

Cinnamon powder- ½ tsp

Cherry Jam – 1 cup

Gems / MnM – 1 ½ cup

Method –

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon powder and butter in either a food processor or if doing by hand rub all the butter into the flour and make a soft smooth dough. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour. Flour the slab and roll out the dough keeping the thickness ¼ inches. By using cookie cutter (I didn’t had access to them) cut the cookies and place them on prepared baking tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes or till the cookies are golden brown. Cool them on wire rack. If using fresh jam then you can use it straight away on the cooled cookies. If using refrigerated jam, melt it and then directly apply on cookies as per the shape. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with Gems. As the temperature here is touching 47°C, had to refrigerate the cookies till serving.