Jam Buns

In my family we have a Christmas treat called Jam Buns, they're my favourite treat at Christmas and are practically a tradition. Apparently it allstarted when my Grandma tried to make Jam Tarts, but kept burning the jam, so she just plopped some sponge mixture on top!

As I'm in America this Christmas, I asked my Grandma if she would send me the recipe so I could make my own. That was today's project.

A Jam Bun is made up of three things -

: BASE - Short crust pastry ("Pie pastry")
: FILLING - Jam ("jelly")
: Topping - Sponge (like for fairy cakes)

I started by making the sponge mixture, which was soft butter, castor/granulated sugar, self-raising flour and 2 eggs. I got a little impatient (patience was never my best feature) and briefly microwaved the butter. Apparently only 20 seconds is enough to melt it! Woops!! I distinctly remember reading somewhere that you do NOT want oily or melted butter. Never mind, I threw it in there anyway...! My mixture didn't end up "pale and fluffy", but it looked ok anyway, I didn't want to waste all the ingredients...!!

As I've never made these by myself before I decided to buy premade pastry, which just rolls out into a nice big circle (ready to be put in a pie dish) and just cut out the circles. I was a little stumped when I found every cookie cutter under the sun BUT a circle one, but my Boyfriend kindly pointed out I could just use a cup. Duuh!

I was told to grease a bun-tin, but I decided to just use bun cases instead, it seemed easier! So I put the circles into the bun cases, then plopped a spoonful of jam into them, then covered them with the sponge mixture, making sure the edges were sealed so the jam didn't boil out.

Then they went into the oven for what was supposed to be 15 minutes but turned into more like 25. When the sponge was springy, I took them out. My boyfriend, being a typical guy, was soon in the kitchen eyeing them up. I warned him they were hot, but he was welcome to eat them. He disregarded this warning and ate one....and quickly regretted it!! It was apparently like "molten lava!!!"

I tease him for it, but I didn't realise how long they took to cool down and burnt my hand! Some jam squeezed out when I took a bite and onto my hand, it actually went quite red!! Woops!

I only made 10 since I wasn't sure how much I'd messed up with the sponge mixture, and that was how many I got out of 1 pie pastry "circle". I had a bit of sponge mixture left over so I just plopped some into the two remaining cases and am now cooking two huge fairy cakes! And I mean HUGE, I just went and checked on them and they're more like American Muffins!! I'll take a photo, I didn't quite mean for that to happen, I just didn't want to waste so much mix and only had 2 bun cases left...!!!

I'm not sure what to make of the Jam Buns. I used Strawberry Jam rather than Mixed Fruit like my Grandma, so it tastes a little different. The pastry on the bottom doesn't seem entirely cooked but I don't know how I'd fix that, as the sponge is totally cooked and I wouldn't want to burn it. My Boyfriend says they're nice, but I never know when he's just being polite!! I think I'll just conclude that I need more practice, they're edible but not as good as Grandma's.

When I'm a mother of four and Grandma of 10, I'm pretty sure I'll be good at them too! :)