Artery-blocking PB&J shortbread

I never understood the American fondness for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. A staple feature of the books and movies I consumed as a child, its appeal eluded me. Like Hershey's chocolate, grape juice, and Twinkies, it just seemed wrong. Until that fateful day at work when we'd run out of butter and I needed something to put under the jam on my toast. Delicious! I was hooked! PB&J on toast, PB&J tarts, and, best of all, PB&J shortbread.

This recipe was the serendipitous result of our holiday in St Lucia, a bringing together of a jam-filled shortbread recipe from Paula Deen's Food Network show and a peanut butter shortbread recipe in Bread on Arrival, a culinary mystery by Lou Jane Temple. Magpie-like, I also incorporated a peanut butter cookie recommendation for using ground peanuts in the dough to add more peanuttiness, an idea from my copy of The Best Recipe. The first time I tried this, I used the 16 tablespoons of butter in Lou Jane Temple's recipe -- and could feel my arteries seizing up as I just loooked at it. You could see butter oozing from every crevice of the finished product. Subsequently, therefore, I've reduced that by a quarter, with fine results.

As a result of all these American influences, the recipe uses American cups rather than weights for measurement, other than for the butter. If you're a Brit who loves baking, get yourself a set of cups; US cookies and cakes are fabulous, and the cups make life a lot easier!

1 1/2 cups of plain flour (US all-purpose)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup corn flour (US corn starch)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
160 grammes butter (US 12 tablespoons), left out at room temperature to soften
1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy
1/2 cup ground peanuts (salted but not roasted)
Raspberry jam (the cheap stuff is fine, not Bonne Maman!)
Chocolate drops, if you really hate your heart and hips. Nestle's peanut butter/chocolate swirls are particularly good here.

Set oven to 325F/170C. Grease and line a 9"x9" cake tin.
Blend the first 9 ingredients together in a food processor till you get a smoothish dough. It probably won't come together in a single ball, but that's fine.
Press half of the dough into the tin and spread with about 3 large tablespoons of raspberry jam. Drop the remaining dough in lumps over the jam to cover. Sprinkle over peanut butter-chocolate drops if you want.
Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Leave to cool for as long as you can before eating: hot jam can be painful.

I've been trying to post a picture of the batch I made yesterday -- in vain! What is up with Blogger's photo service at the moment?