Biscuits are a big deal in the UK. There’s the likes of chocolate hobnobs and digestive biscuits, but it’s a really complex world full of all sorts of tasty stuff.

Enter the fray, Jammie Dodgers! These popular biscuits are famous for their jam filling, as well as for linking in with a popular bit of slang for underserved good luck.

Let’s explore this biscuit-based excellence and the world behind it!

What are Jammie Dodgers?

Jammie Dodgers are shortcake biscuits that look a bit like cookies, with a heart-shaped opening in the middle of the biscuit that exposes some jam.

The jam is either strawberry or raspberry flavoured.

They’re a very popular type of biscuit with children, dominating as much as 40% of the market in the UK. Burton’s Biscuit Company is responsible for producing the, from its factory in Llantarnam, east Wales.

And they are nice biscuits!

As with British foodstuffs such as liquorice allsorts, they’re part of many a childhood and can instantly transport you back to life as a kid.

But they are generally viewed as biscuits for children. As such, mature adults like us tend to favour PROPER biscuits for ADULTS (i.e. Garibaldi biscuits).

What’s the History of Jammie Dodgers?

A geezer called Garry Weston invented them in 1966. Weston (1927-2002) was actually a Canadian businessman from Toronto.

He also invented the legendary Wagon Wheels biscuit! We’ll cover that one on another occasion. We’ve seen accounts online say he was an unassuming type of bloke and was down-to-earth about things.

His business Weston Biscuits took the name Burton’s Biscuits in 1973 and that’s what they’ve been called ever since.

Jammie Dodgers were, apparently, named after Rodger the Dodger from The Beano comics.

In the UK, there’s a slang term for being lucky. And that’s where jammy dodger kicks in. You might use it in a sentence like this:

“Wow, he’s a jammy dodger, isn’t he?”

What that means is an individual has been rather fortuitous and in the sense that it’s probably undeserved. But fair play to him.

Jammie Dodgers are officially classed as a linzer biscuit. That’s a baked buttery torte made from various spices and jam/preserve.

Around the world, Americans may look at the foodstuff and consider it a type of cookie.

Pepperidge Farm (the famous US bakery) makes a similar type of product available as a linzer raspberry cookie.

Elsewhere in the world, New Zealand has linzer cookies called Shrewsbury biscuits. One example is the Cookie Bear Shrewsbury biscuit. Here they are in action.

Bear in mind Shrewsbury is a county town in Shropshire here in the UK, so we find NZ’s wanton THEFT of everything British pretty much an act of war.

Get your own bloody biscuit-based foodstuffs, New Zealand!

How to Make Jammie Dodgers

Above is Barry Lewis and his pet dog to take you through the intricacies of baking some Jammie Dodgers. Quite the undertaking!

The ingredients you’ll need are as follows:

100 grams of unsalted butter
175 gras of caster sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of vanilla paste
200 grams of plain flour

Obviously, you’ll also need a jam of your choice. We recommend strawberry jam. Because!

Basically, you need to make the shortcake dough stuff and then you’re pretty much good to go! But if you’re in the UK then you can just walk to your nearest shop and buy a pack. Up to you, Bruce!