The idea of making these biscuits came as, what they call, a “happy accident”. I was testing a caramel sauce for another recipe, and I wanted to taste the caramel I had just made to ensure it wasn’t burnt. I grabbed a teaspoon that I forgot I had used earlier to measure some lemon juice and scooped up some of the caramel. To my surprise, the leftover taste of lemon on the spoon paired so well with that of the caramel that I immediately wrote down “lemon plus caramel something” on a post-it note. For some reason, a pairing in my mind I had never considered. Then I went online, and I found out I was the only one who didn’t know it. A bit like when you find out about Santa.
I started thinking about a different way of using those flavours without adding too many other elements. And then I had another Santa moment: “jammy dodgers”. With a tart lemon jam (yep, not marmalade) and an indulgent salted caramel sauce. Thank you Santa.
It took me “a few” attempts to get the right texture of jam and caramel, as initially they were too runny and kept oozing out of the biscuits at every bite. However, not in a million years I was gonna pop down to the shop to buy a jar of jam and a tin of caramel sauce. I like making my life more complicated, but also more delicious.
And so the story goes, after 25 lemons and a couple packs of sugar, I eventually managed to get the texture and flavour I was looking for, and now these salted caramel and lemon jam sandwich biscuits are just messy enough to make you lick your fingers when they are over. And perfect with a cup of black tea (or on their own).
Makes 15 biscuits
Ingredients
FOR THE DOUGH
- 185g plain flour
- 100g cornflour
- 200g cold butter, chopped
- 20g egg yolk (1 large)
- 100g icing sugar
- 0.5g salt
FOR THE LEMON JAM
- 100g lemon juice
- 70g fructose (or 100g caster sugar)
- 2g pectin (powder)
FOR THE SALTED CARAMEL
- 220g caster sugar
- 40g glucose syrup
- 130g water
- 300g double cream
- 15g cornflour (2 tbsp)
- 6g fine sea salt (1tsp)
Method
MAKE THE DOUGH (at least two hours before baking)
- Make the dough (at least two hours before baking). Combine the plain flour, corn flour, icing sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until all the dry ingredients are incorporated and you achieve a crumbly consistency. You can also use a food processor to whiz and incorporate the butter.
- Add the egg yolk and bring the dough together quickly, without kneading for too long. Flatten to a disk, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or ideally overnight.
MAKE THE LEMON JAM
- Mix 1 tbsp of the fructose with the pectin to disperse the thin molecules of the pectin and avoid any lumps. Pour the lemon juice and remaining sugar in small pan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Once it starts boiling, add the pectin mix, stir until dissolved and leave to boil on medium low for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to set at room temperature.
MAKE THE SALTED CARAMEL
- Pour the water in a medium saucepan, add the sugar and glucose syrup, and bring to a boil over a medium heat. When boiling, wait for the mixture to start turning a nice amber colour, this should take around 5 to 10 minutes. When the caramel is looking amber, but not too dark, remove the pan from the heat and lay it on a heatproof surface. Stir in one third of the cream and whisk promptly to mix and cool down the caramel. Be careful as it will bubble a lot and might splash on your hands. When the bubbling slows down, add the rest of the cream while whisking to achieve a nice and silky texture.
- Put the pan back on the hob and bring back to the boil on a medium-low heat. Once it boils, mix three tablespoons of the sauce to the corn flour and stir until smooth, then pour back into the pan. Keep stirring for a couple of minutes to cook off the flour flavour and thicken to a pipeable consistency. Pour into a bowl, add the salt and briefly stir again. Set aside to cool down.
BAKE AND ASSEMBLE THE BISCUITS
- Pre-heat the oven at 180°C. Take the dough out of the fridge and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough out to a 5 mm thickness. With a 6 cm cutter, cut out as many discs as you can fit. Re-roll the leftover dough again to cut more discs, until you have 30 pieces. With a 2cm cutter (or the back of a piping nozzle) stamp out a disc in the middle of half the biscuits.
- Line a large baking tray with baking parchment and bake the biscuits for 14 to 15 minutes. Take them out of the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. In the meanwhile, add the salted caramel to a piping bag with 1cm opening at the front and set aside.
- Once the biscuits have cooled completely, take the whole ones and spread a layer of lemon jam over each one of them. Then pipe a generous quantity of caramel over the jam, keeping a few mm from the edge of the biscuit. For the perfect flavour balance, use 5g of jam and15g of caramel for each biscuit (but you can always adjust that to your liking).
- Dust the remaining biscuits with icing sugar and pop them over the bases, gently pressing down to even out the caramel. Enjoy with a nice cup of tea or coffee, or on their own. They are equally delish.
One thought on “Salted caramel and lemon jam sandwich biscuits”