Orange, Pear, and Cranberry Jammie Dodgers
With a buttery shortbread base and a homemade jam, these Orange, Pear, and Cranberry Jammie Dodgers are the perfect cookie to bring in the new year. They’re fresh and light with a slightly sweet and tart flavor and leave you without any guilt after grabbing another one! Yields 20 sandwich cookies
Servings
20sandwich cookies
Servings
20sandwich cookies
Ingredients
Pear and Cranberry Jam
Orange Shortbread
Instructions
  1. To make the jam: combine 1 cup pears peeled and chopped, 1/2 cup cranberries, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the juice of 1/2 an orange, 1 tsp powdered ginger, and 1/2 cup water in a medium saucepan. Place the pan on the stove on high until it comes to a boil, turn it down to medium and let it simmer for about 30-40 minutes until the cranberries break down, the jam thickens, and a candy thermometer reads 105°C/220°F (the jam should coat the back of a spoon). Once ready, pour into a glass tupperware container, mash the pear and cranberries with a fork, and allow it to cool.
  2. To make the shortbread: In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream together the butter, 75 grams powdered sugar, and 75 grams granulated sugar until light and fluffy. This will take about 3-5 minutes on high.*
  3. While the butter and sugars are mixing, whisk together the flour, orange zest, and cardamom. Set aside.
  4. Once the butter and sugars are light and fluffy, add in the orange extract and mix until fully combined. Add in the dry ingredients 1/2 at a time, mixing until the dough fully comes together. Split the dough in half and shape into two discs; wrap in plastic wrap and allow to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  5. Preheat the oven to 300°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the fridge and, using two sheets of parchment paper, roll out the dough until it is about 1/4″ thick. Using a small-to-medium circle cookie cutter (about 2 inches in diameter), cut out circles and line them on the prepared baking sheets. Using either the bottom of a piping tip, a smaller cookie cutter, or a knife, cut out a circle in the middle of 1/2 the cookies.
  6. Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet in the freezer for about 15 minutes. These aren’t docked, so chilling them will help the shortbread keep their shape.
  7. Bake about 16-20 minutes, until the bottoms are a light golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack.
  8. Once cool, take a butter knife or a small spoon and spread 1/2-1 tsp worth of set jam onto the bottom half of the jammie dodger (the cookies that don’t have the centers cut out), top with one that has the center cut out and press down so that the jam spreads to the edges and fills in the cutout circle.
Recipe Notes

* If you don’t have a mixer, you can easily mix the sugar and all the dry ingredients together and rub the butter in with your fingers, adding the extract as you do so.

* You can re-roll the dough to get more cut-outs, but I would only recommend re-rolling it once to keep the shortbread from overworking the shortbread and making it tough.

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