Foodie Friday On A Sunday - Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas, I certainly did and I'll tell you a little bit more about it tomorrow but in the meantime after a few days break I'm back with a new post. I meant to put this post up on Christmas Eve but I just didn't have time, never mind whist this recipe is associated with Christmas there is nothing to stop you making these lovely cookies, all year round - I present to you my Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookie Recipe. This recipe took a long, long time to perfect. If you've seen the Waitrose / Ocado advert then you'll probably feel my pain. Gluten Free flour is a bit of a pain to deal with as it seems to absorb liquid completely differently to wheat flour, so throughout my experiments the dough ended up both way too soft and way too dry until finally I got it right. This recipe is specifically for gluten free flour so it's not one that you can adapt back to to wheat flour.

Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies

500g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

3 tsp Ground Ginger

1 tsp Xanthan Gum

3 tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda

A Pinch Of Cinnamon 

 A Pinch Of Salt

75g Butter Or Margarine

125g Soft Brown Sugar 

3 tbsp Golden Syrup

1 Egg Beaten

1. Sieve your flour, your cinnamon, your ginger, your xanthan gum and your bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Then add a pinch of salt.

2. Set your bowl to one side and add your golden syrup, your fat and your sugar to a large pan

and warm until the fat and sugar are melted.

3. Preheat your oven to around 180 C, grease some baking trays and in a small bowl beat your egg.

4. Once your fat, sugar and syrup are melted add them to your flour 

and then add your beaten egg.

5. Mix all of the ingredients together until you achieve a firm dough. Start off with a spoon and then get your hands in and give it good knead. If it's too dry add a little milk or a egg and if it's too soft add some more flour

6. Leave the dough to cool for a little while then divide your dough into 4 - Gluten Free dough is notoriously hard to roll out so it's easier to do it in smaller batches.

7. Then flour your work surface and rolling pin and start to roll out your dough

and then using a floured cutter start cutting out your shapes. I find it easier to use a smaller cutter with gluten free dough because it's so fragile.

8. Put your cut out shapes on a baking tray, leaving a gap between each one because they do have a tendency to spread and bake for about 10-15 minutes till golden brown. Keep an eye on them though, all ovens are different and one of my trays only took about 7 minutes.

9. The cookies will still be soft so leave them to cool on your baking tray for a few minutes before carefully removing them with a palette knife and putting them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies should be crisp on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle. Obviously I've cut mine into Christmas shapes but you can cut them into all sorts of shapes including the traditional ginger bread person.

I intended to decorate mine with white glace icing and festive sprinkles, but I never got round to it. Obviously for gingerbread people you can add currants and mark out a face before their baked but you can also decorate them with icing, sprinkles and even melted chocolate.

These cookies are lovely with a nice cup of coffee and especially with a nice gingerbread latte. The taste just makes your think of Christmas but the child in me loves a gingerbread person all year round, and just for your information I bite the legs off first not the heads :)  x Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon with a Christmas outfit and nails post, and just a sneaky peek of some of the pressies that I was lucky enough to receive from Santa x