Normally I don’t really like Halloween, probably because I didn’t grow up with it, but I have come to realise that it is a good excuse for baking something nice. And if you have ‘trick or treaters’ coming to your door, it is a good and cheap way to keep them happy. I made these for a party at a friend’s house, and they proved to be very popular. The recipe is based on one found in Phil Vickery’s ‘Gluten-Free Baking’.
220g flour (I used Doves Farm gluten free white bread flour)
¼ teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
75g granulated sugar
80g butter
1 medium sized egg
zest of 1 lemon
50ml water
icing sugar and lemon juice for decoration
Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together into a bowl, and then place it with the butter in a food processor and blitz until it has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Pour the mixture back into your bowl, and add the egg, lemon zest and water. Carefully mix together, first with a spoon and then using your hands. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to cool down.
Preheat your oven to 190OC.
Lightly dust your work surface with flour, then use a rolling pin to make a flat dough. Use cookie cutters to make shapes from the dough. Place these on a non-stick baking tray, and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the biscuits are lightly browned. Remove them from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
Sieve some icing sugar into a bowl, and add a little bit of lemon juice. The amount of icing you need depends on how much icing you want on your biscuits. You can make several batches if you find that you didn’t make enough first time around. Be careful when adding the lemon juice, it very quickly becomes too runny. You can also add food colouring if wanted.
Pour the icing into a piping bag and decorate your biscuits. If you don’t have a fancy ready-made piping bag, you can do what I did, use a sandwich bag and cut a tiny hole in one corner.