Vegan and gluten free ginger spice biscuits

So I mentioned in my last blog post that during May's Foodie Pen Pal process I sent a parcel to Nicky  full of gluten free and vegan treats to meet her dietary requirements. It is always great to have a particular motivation or request to fuel the development of a new recipe to fit the blog (so if you have any particular requests for recipes to appear here let me know). I think biscuits also lend themselves well to being sent in the post and as a mega fan of the good old ginger nut I went about creating a gluten free and vegan version. And thanks to my baker’s intuition Nicky is a big fan of gingery things too so everything worked out pretty well on this one in then end!!

INGREDIENTS

60ml vegetable oil

100g molasses

40g dark brown sugar

170g rice flour

40g tapioca flour

40g ground almonds

1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon all spice

50ml water

Makes approx. 24 biscuits (depending on size!)

Preheat oven to 180 deg C / 350 deg F

Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper or non-stick baking parchment.

Place the vegetable oil, molasses and brown sugar in a saucepan over a low heat and stir occasionally until the sugar has melted to create a syrupy mixture.

Place the remaining dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir until well combined.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in the melted sugar mixture and stir well.

Once the ingredients start to combine use your hands to give the mixture a light knead and bring everything together. If at this point the mixture seems a little dry and doesn’t stick together add the water a little at a time until the mixture will hold together when formed into little balls.

Then using your hands form the mixture into small balls (approximately the size of a golf ball).

Place the balls of mixture onto the baking tray evenly spaced apart and squash down with the palm of your hand to make little discs.

Place into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before carefully transferring the biscuits from the baking tray to a cooling rack.

Once fully cooled tuck in and enjoy!!