Jammy buns!

I love the name of these; jammy buns - it just makes me laugh and I couldn't wait to make them.

I found the recipe over on the lovely "Diary of a Frugal Family" website. What I loved about making this is that it is SO easy. Children can handle the dough easily and it's super quick to make. Definitely a recipe for a beginner.

My daughter always eyes up the jammy dodger biscuits in the shops, and of course those are loaded with sugar (and goodness knows what else), so these will make a great alternative for her. There is even REAL fruit in the jam, so a tiny bit of nutritional value. Ok, I know that's stretching it a bit, but at least there aren't any nasties in there!

Jammy Buns

Ingredients:

• 8oz self raising flour
• 3oz butter
• 3oz fructose
• Few tablespoons of milk
• few teaspoons of St Dalfour strawberry jam (or sugar free jam of your choice)
  

Method:

• preheat oven to 180
• Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs
• Stir in the sugar
• Add milk, a desertspoon at a time until you have a soft dough (I needed 8 desertspoons to give you an idea of quantity needed).
• Get your hands in the bowl and divide the mix into little balls. I made 20 ping pong sized balls.
• Place balls onto a greased baking sheet
• Made an indentation into each ball and drop 1/2 teaspoon of jam into each
• Bake until golden - it took 12 minutes in my fan oven.
  

Now here is my confession

I was in such a rush I FORGOT the fructose LOL! So I'll be serving them up for pudding today and we'll see how they are received. To be honest, I don't think DD will worry about it; anything that taste remotely like biscuits or pastry she loves. I'll slap a bit of creme fraiche with them and see what happens.

It will be interesting to see and if she doesn't say anything, then they are even more frugal than I thought!

I've just figured that you could probably use these as a savoury dish as well if you omit the sugar. I think I might experiment and see what I can come up - the easiest vol-au-vents in the world probably!
Verdict

10/10 "I think next time there is no need to put the jam in them because they are fine as they'd be fine without it."
Well there is clearly no accounting for taste! This is probably the most frugal thing I could ever make!

Sugar free fruit biscuits / cookies

My daughter loves these biscuits. You can vary the recipe by adding any dried fruit of your choice.

Her favourite fruits to add are either raisins or apricots.

Dried apricots are full of iron, so great for boosting kid's health. They are also very high in Vitamin A; an antioxidant which is essential for good vision and helps to protect the heart.

Even though bright orange apricots look more appetising (especially to children), select the dark brown ones, which are free from preservatives such as sulphur dioxide.

Raisins are high in the trace mineral boron; which helps the bones to use calcium. Remember to recommend them to your menopausal friends; as boron helps to prevent osteoporosis!

I'm yet to find dried cranberries without sugar in them, but I think they would be lovely, with the addition of some sugar-free white chocolate for a Christmas cookie.

Adding dried fruit to biscuits, cakes and cookies adds a natural sweetness and a lovely chewy texture.

Sugar free fruit cookies / biscuits

Ingredients:

• 100 gm butter
• 3 tbsp sugar free jam (we use St.Dalfour Strawberry)
• 1 beaten egg
• 50 gm ground almonds
• 50 gm dried fruit
• 100 gm plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C/350 deg F/gas mark four.
• Cream together the jam and butter.
• Beat in the egg and mix well.
• Add the ground almonds and dried fruit and mix all the ingredients together.
• Add the flour and baking powder and give the ingredients a final mix. You'll be left with a slightly sticky dough.
• You can roll the dough if you wish, but I'm not good at rolling, so we just dig our hands in, make small balls with the cookie mix and flatten them into patty shapes.
• If you're rolling the dough, use a cookie cutter to make about 12-15 shapes.
  

Place the biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden.

Verdict:

9/10 "These are delicious; thank you Mummy"