I did it. I put my better judgement/ OCD to one side. I baked with my boys. Not just me actually making everything and occasionally letting them stir but full on, hands in, licking every feckin’ spoon kind of baking. Baking with children fills me, mostly, with mild dread. They have a habit of destroying everything. Today was different. I really enjoyed letting them help and the resulting cookies (biscuits) are genuinely delicious even if the raspberry jam ones look like a nasty rash.

Despite the questionable levels of handmadeness I reckon these cookies should still be edible. The molten nature of jam should wipe out the extraordinary levels of baby germs.

I found the recipe in a book that Ma got free with Green & Black’s chocolate years ago. It’s also the one I found the Nigella’s clementine cake in. Good work free book.

Nothing much has happened in my life this week other than heat exhaustion. Dublin was in the high 20s. Madness. Unfortunately I bought summer clothes for the boys and thus broke the weather. Good and cloudy today.

To the biscuits, this recipe makes a healthy batch of 30.

Oven temperature 180 Celsius

Butter                      175g

Caster sugar           175g

Vanilla essence      1 teaspoon

Egg                           1

Plain flour              175g

Self raising flour   200g

Pinch o’ salt

Fillings of your choice; let them be jammy. I used raspberry and apricot jam and Nutella

Preheat the oven and line about three baking trays with baking parchment.

Put the butter and sugar into a big mixing bowl and beat together till smooth.

Add in the vanilla and crack in the egg.

Beat some more.

Add in your flours and salt and GENTLY beat. If you aren’t gentle you will regret it. Dare you.

You should now have a lovely smooth dough. It’s quite soft but shouldn’t be too sticky.

Now, admittedly it did say leave the dough in the fridge for an hour to rest but that was never going to happen.

Myself and the boys persevered. Roll ping pong ball sized lumps and place them on the trays. Give them as much room between them as you can. No doubt that hour in the fridge would have stopped them spreading so much. Sigh.

Anyway.

When your balls are rolled you’ll need to lightly squish them…

Then stick your thumb into the middle of each to make a little hollow.

Get out your jam and use teaspoons to carefully fill each one.

Put the trays into the oven for 12 – 15mins. The biscuits should be pale golden all over.

Take them out and let them cool down as completely as you can. Remember how magmatic PopTarts were? No one wants to bite into boiling jam.

They’re not too unhealthy so you can happily let your children, or indeed yourself, eat them till they/ you vomit.