Gluten Free Gingerbread Food

GLUTEN-FREE GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• In a small pan heat the butter, syrup and sugar together until melted, stirring occasionally. Set to one side to cool slightly. In a large bowl mix together the bicarb, ginger, cinnamon and flour. Pour in the melted butter mixture and stir to combine and using your hands, bring together to form a dough. This will be soft but will set up in the fridge.
• Take 2 sheets of greaseproof paper, lay the dough down on one, shape it into a rectangle and place the other sheet on top of it. Roll the dough out to 1/2 cm thick and put flat in the fridge for 1 hour to set and firm up.
• Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line a large baking tray with non-stick greaseproof paper. Take the rolled dough out of the fridge and cut out shapes from it. We did 9cm stars, but you can also choose any shape, depending on the size it will need a few mins less/more in the oven. We also did some with, smaller stars cut out the centre of them.
• Meanwhile make the icing, combine the icing sugar with 1 - 2 tbsp water, until it's thick and pipeable but not thin enough that it will run. Decorate the cooled biscuits with whatever designs

GLUTEN-FREE GINGERBREAD MEN

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, sift together the rice, tapioca and buckwheat flours, the baking soda, xanthan gum, ginger, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Whisk until well blended, and set aside.
• In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to cream the butter with the brown sugar until the mixture is light, airy and pale tan, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and mix again on medium until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add the molasses and vanilla, and mix again at medium speed for another minute. Add half the dry ingredients and mix on low until incorporated. Add the second half of the dry ingredients and mix on low until the dough comes together in small clumps. (The dough will resemble thick brownie batter.) If the dough is too wet and not clumpy, add another tablespoon or two of rice flour. Using your hands, bring the dough together into a ball and knead for 1 minute, or until you can make a smooth ball of dough. Shape the dough into a disk and place in a resealable plastic bag, removing excess air. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for about 1 hour. (If the dough chills much longer than an hour, let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes to soften before proceeding.)
• When ready to make the cookies, adjust oven racks to the top and bottom thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
• Divide the dough in 3 equal portions. Refrigerate two portions while you work on the first. Roll the dough out to a 1/8-inch thickness. (Best method for GF cookies is to use parchment paper barely dusted with rice flour on the top and bottom of the dough - this avoids needing to use a lot of extra bench flour to keep the dough from sticking to the counter). Use cookie cutters to cut out gingerbread men. You should be able to cut out 5 to 6 gingerbread men from each third of the dough, assuming they are 3 inches tall. Gather and re-roll the scraps. (Don't worry about overworking the dough, there isn't any gluten.)
• Arrange the gingerbread men on the prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart and bake until the edges just begin to take on golden color, 8 to 10 minutes. (For softer cookies, cook a minute or 2 less.) Let the cookies cool for a minute on the cookie sheet, and then remove and place on a cooling rack to cool completely. Let the baking sheets cool completely.
• Repeat the process for the remaining dough portions.
• Once completely cooled, decorate the cookies with colored Easy Royal Icing, along with candies, nuts and sprinkles.
• In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer on low speed to mix the egg whites until frothy, about 2 minutes. Add the orange juice and vanilla and mix again until blended. Sift in the confectioners' sugar, 1 cup at a time, and then mix on low speed until incorporated. After the third cup of sugar is added, keep mixing until the icing is smooth, thick and shiny, about 2 more minutes. (Add an extra tablespoon or 2 of confectioners' sugar if the icing seems runnier, like a glaze.) Divide into 2 or 3 portions, add desired amount of food coloring and mix well.
• Fill a few tablespoons of royal icing in the corner of a resealable plastic bag, snip the tip and draw (or spread the icing with a paintbrush) onto the cookies (thin with a drop or 2 of extra juice). Chill the cookies in the refrigerator for a few minutes to harden the icing.

GINGERBREAD COOKIES (GLUTEN FREE)

Steps:

• In a bowl cream the butter and brown sugar.
• Add golden syrup and egg and mix till combined.
• In a seperate bowl sift together all the dry ingredients, then add to the wet ingredients.
• Mix together and then refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Remove dough from refrigerator and place onto a floured surface and knead lightly.
• roll out to 5mm thickness and then cut into shapes using cookie cutters.
• Bake in 170 degree celsius oven for approx 15 minutes or till well browned.
• Leave to cool on trays for 5 minutes then transfer to cooking racks.
• when cool ice with royal icing or any hard setting icing.

GLUTEN-FREE GINGERBREAD CAKE

Steps:

• In a mixing bowl, cream the softened butter and the brown sugar, together. Once it is lighter and both ingredients are fully incorporated into one another, set aside.
• Add the remaining ingredients and slowly mix to combine. You should get a sticky, thick batter.
• Pour into two oiled-and-floured (with gluten-free flour) 9" baking pans.
• Place into a heated 350 degree (Fahrenheit) oven for about an hour. Test the cakes with toothpicks starting around 45 minutes. When the toothpicks can be inserted into the center of a cake and removed with no sticky residue on the pick, it is done.
• De-pan and turn out to cool.
• Serve with whipped cream.

GLUTEN FREE GINGERBREAD MEN

Steps:

• In a food processor combine the flours, xanthan gum, spices and bicarbonate of soda. Whizz the ingredients to mix them thoroughly. Add the butter and process again till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and process again.
• Add the golden syrup and egg and process until the mixture starts to come together. Tip out onto a (rice) floured surface and form the dough into a smooth ball. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
• Take out the fridge and roll to the thickness of a £1 coin. Use a gingerbread man cutter (or any cutter you like) and cut out as many shapes as you can, re-rolling the left overs to use it all up.
• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Line a baking sheet with non stick baking parchment (reusable is best) and bake the cookies for approx 12 minutes until nicely browned but not burnt. Leave to cool on the tray for 5 mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• While the biscuits are cooling, mix some icing sugar with enough water to make a fairly stiff icing, adding food colouring if you wish. We decorate ours with smartie buttons (the Aldi equivilant are GF and jelly belly beans work well too). Decorate as you please. Now watch them disappear!!
• Taken from my blog www.cookingforkenza.com