“I’m going to need a SWAT team ready to mobilize, street maps covering all of Florida, a pot of coffee, twelve Jammie Dodgers and a fez.” – The Doctor
Click here to skip to the recipe for The Eleventh Doctor’s Mocha Sesame Jammie Dodgers and a Fez.
I made up this recipe for my roommate, Briana “The Lady Nerd” Lamb’s time-traveling themed birthday party. For one crazy night in April (yes I know it’s June now, DON’T YOU TELL ME WHEN I’M SUPPOSED TO POST, INNER CRITIC!) I had a whole number of chrononauts invade my household.
Guests included the Flash, Marty McFly, and even the Eleventh Doctor. And you know what the Eleventh Doctor loves?
The Eleventh Doctor (played by Matt “don’t-mind-me-while-I-somehow-make-bowties-sexy-enough-to-make-you-consider-polygamy” Smith) loves Jammie Dodgers.
For those who have no idea of what I refer to, Jammie Dodgers are a brand of biscuits from the UK consisting of shortbread and raspberry jam. For my fellow American readers by biscuit I mean cookie, and by jam I mean jelly. Yes, I know the last two are interchangeable here. It won’t be when you start looking on the shelves of your local grocery store for ingredients. Your sanity and pocketbook will thank me.
Since Jammie Dodgers have been done by practically every Whovian with a food blog, I wanted to make something a little different. The quote at the top of this post is from Season 6, Episode 1 “The Impossible Astronaut” when the Eleventh Doctor describes what he needs to find the child calling President Nixon. The Doctor gets the first two items, but no coffee, no jammie dodgers, no fez….I would be sad too!
No one, including himself, can stand a sad Doctor. So I decided I would complete the list with these instructions on how to make Mocha Sesame Jammie Dodgers AND a Fez!
For some chocolatey java flavor, I blended instant coffee and cocoa powder into the batter. Since a fez is a Morrocan hat, and almond extract and sesame seeds are common in Moroccan desserts, I folded some of the latter into the dough as well. To save time look for pre-toasted sesame seeds and don’t be afraid to buy the larger jar if it’s less expensive. They taste marvelous if you add a teaspoon or two to the crust of my Hazelnut Chocolate Rack of Lamb, or you can even mix them into the sushi rice cakes for my Pokémon-inspired Seared Duck Breast. In this dish, though, they sweeten and give depth to the coffee notes so that they smoothly blend into the raspberry jam with each bite.
Big tip for this recipe: make up the dough the night before you plan to bake them, roll and cut in batches, and chill any leftover dough that may have warmed up too much from handling. It took a few stabs with some trial and error to figure them out, but I think these instructions will help you get into the rhythm of the process quickly. A ravioli stamp should work well for the cookies themselves, and you can also find heart-shaped fondant cutters on Amazon for stupid cheap. Just remember to cycle things out and don’t cut the hearts out until you have the rounds already on the baking sheet.
So what about the Fez, you may wonder? Don’t worry, folks! I’ve included instructions on how to make that too. I will warn you, though, it is not edible. I will leave it up to you to decide whether to wear it or use it as a cute centerpiece for your party guests to Instagram weeks before you actually post said recipe.
Bake them now!
The Eleventh Doctor's Mocha Sesame Jammie Dodgers and a Fez
Makes 30-40 cookies
Equipment: Mixing bowl, flour sifter, cheese grater, refrigerator, rolling pin, 2 1/2″ round ravioli stamp, 15 mm heart-shaped fondant cutter, parchment paper, baking sheets, oven, scissors.
Ingredients:
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for rolling
- 3/8 cup instant coffee granules
- 1/8 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- 1/2 to 5/8 cup seedless raspberry jelly
- red solo cup
- small tassel
- safety pin
Instructions:
- Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, instant coffee, and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the powder with a fork until it’s thoroughly incorporated in a uniform color.
- Shred the butter with a cheese grater into the bowl and stir to coat with the dry mix. Pour in the almond extract, then press and mix the contents of the bowl until you have a thick batter. Fold in the sesame seeds and chill in the refrigerator at least an hour before baking.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare your work surface and rolling pin with a light dusting of flour. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into eighths. Place a portion of dough on your work surface and put the rest back in the fridge. Roll dough until about 1/4 inch thick.
- Cut rounds with the ravioli stamp and place each round on a lined baking sheet, about an inch apart. Cut out two hearts with the plunger cutter on half of the rounds – these will be your top cookies. The heartless cookies will be on the bottom. Put all excess dough back in the container in the fridge. Set the tray in the oven for 10 minutes and repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Allow cookies to cool until they harden enough to handle. Scoop a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry jelly onto the middle of the underside of each bottom cookie, and top with a heart cookie. Place all cookie sandwiches back onto a baking tray. Bake another 3-5 minutes to set it.
- Let cookies cool completely.
- Make the fez by trimming the red solo cup to your desired height with a pair of scissors. Poke a hole in the top of the cup using the pointy end of the safety pin. Thread the tassel’s hanging loop through the hole on the top. Thread the loop onto the safety pin and close the pin inside the cup. Pull on the tassel to secure.
