Jam Drops

Jam Drops

Biscuits in the camp oven are so delicious & pretty easy. You might remember when we did Choc Chip & Macadamia Biscuits, we got some great feedback on those, so we hope you enjoy these Jam Drops as well. Most of these I made as normal round Jam Drops, but I also saw this idea on Pinterest from the Kraft website, they made their Jam Drops as larger logs & then cut them up after baking. I tried this in one batch. It worked okay although they did fall apart a bit once cut up especially near the jam part. So up to you if you want to give that way a go, but I prefer the traditional way. 

Jam Drops

Ingredients

125g of softened butter

1 1/2 cups of raw sugar

2 eggs

3 cups of plain flour

2 heaped tablespoons of custard powder

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 to 1 cup of jam, I used raspberry

Directions

- Start your fire at least an hour before you want to bake your biscuits to get some coals going 

- Dig a hole to place your camp oven in while baking to help regulate heat

- To start the biscuits, cream the butter & sugar until creamy & pale

- Add the eggs & mix well

- Add all the dry ingredients, flour, custard powder, baking powder & salt & combine until you have a firm dough

- Take 2 tablespoons of the dough & shape into a ball & then flatten onto your baking trays (for the log shaped ones, form a large flattened log shape with about 6 tablespoons of dough) 

- Make an indent in each biscuit to hold the jam, I used my finger but you can use the end of a wooden spoon

- Place about a teaspoon of jam into each indent

- You will need to do the biscuits in batches, so if it's a hot day keep your dough in the fridge between batches

- Preheat your camp oven for about 5 minutes over the fire

- Place 1 shovel of coals in your camp oven hole

- Place the first batch of Jam Drops on a trivet in your oven, put on the lid & place in the hole

- Top with 1 shovel of coals on the oven lid

- You don't want your oven to hot or they will burn

- Check after about 10 minutes & add more coals if needed

- Cook for a further 8-10mins

- Check if they are cooked by gently touching a biscuit, they should feel firm but still soft & cooked, they will harden up further once cooled completely 

- Place on a wire rack or trivet to cool for 10 minutes before removing from oven tray to cool completely

- Keep baking till you have used up all your dough

The temperature of your camp oven is important, but it can be trial & error & depends on many things including the type of wood you have used, if it's windy & how hot you preheated your oven to before baking. A good indication is to sit near the oven when you are baking them, if you can smell them cooking like normal biscuits at home then they are probably going well. If you smell any burning smell check them immediately. From the photos you will see one batch is quite light in colour & some darker. The darker ones were more crunchy & obviously baked a bit hotter than the light coloured ones. We prefer crunchier biscuits, but sometimes it's a bit luck of the draw. The more you experiment with your camp oven the more you will learn to bake in it well. Sometimes you will burn things & others it will be not hot enough, always check by lifting the lid if you feel/think it's not quite right. Most of all just have fun & enjoy cooking in this very unique way. We always get lots of interest around our camp fire when we use the camp oven as a lot of people have no idea how to use one. Some of the best conversations with people on our trip has been around the campfire when we have the Furphy camp oven out.