Tea at Three

Winter has arrived and Christmas is most definitely around the corner. The temperature has dropped, Band Aid are playing on the radio again, choirs and brass bands are bringing Cambridge town centre to life and the shops are looking particularly spangly and sparkly at the moment.

One of my most favourite parts of this time of year is being cosy with friends and family, meeting in warm pubs, toasting by the raging fire; watching strictly and the xfactor with friends, passing comments and judgements like you would and indeed could have done it more impressively and delving into those treats which really only come about this time of year and that is why they are so much more special and delicious.

One of my most favourite tastes and smells of this side of winter is mulled wine, in any form. For me, it holds everything Christmas is and I am not ashamed to say I have already been delving into it for some of my baking - although I am yet to indulge in a glass. That is on the list of things to do this evening.

Earlier this year Rich's mum very kindly gave us a jar of her homemade plum and mulled wine and jam and whilst spreading it very generously over my toast one morning, decided it might work extremely well as a biscuit filler. It does.

One way I have incorporated it into my baking is through these rather cheeky jammie dodgers. These are rich and indulgent crumbly bites of goodness. Glorious. I'm working on how to try and get the jam a little more stretchy - like the jam in a actual jammie dodger so will let you know when that one is worked out.  Enough chat.

Mulled Wine Jammie Dodgers

I used the Martha Stewart recipe for Linzer cookies as she uses hazelnuts which really does add that extra Christmas zing to them.

• 1 cup unblanched hazelnuts
• 227g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• Icing sugar, for dusting
• 2/3 cup mulled wine jam

Pre heat the oven to 190c and pop in the hazelnuts for about 10 minutes, until toasted. Once out of the oven, allow to cool  and then rub in a towel to remove as much of the skin as you can. Throw these into the blender and blend away for a couple of minutes, until they are finely ground.

Using your electric mixer and its paddle attachement, beat sugar and butter together on a medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat on a low speed until all combined and smooth then beat in the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the ground hazelnuts, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and sifted flour. Add these to the wet mixture and beat on a low speed until just combined. 

Split the dough in two and flatten into discs. Wrap the discs in clingfilm and pop in the fridge for at least an hour until firm or overnight (the flavours have time to come together). 

Pre heat the oven to 180c and on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until about 1/4" thick and cut out your chosen shapes using a cookie cutter. Using a smaller cutter, cut out the middle of half of the cookies.

Bake until the edges are golden (around 12 - 16 minutes) turning half way through. Pop them onto a cooling rack until completely cooled. 

Once completely cooled, spread a teaspoon of jam on the bottom layer of the biscuit and then put the top on. Once all have been made, sift a bit of icing sugar on top to give that extra bit of something. 

Enjoy these as part of a tea at three pick me up with a cup of darjeeling tea (it's lightness is a good contrast) and a little listen to some Billie Holiday and Guilty.

Lizzie x