Lemon Halloween Biscuits

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’.

Makes about 50 small biscuits

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 190^OC.

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. 

Oat Cakes with Tomatoes & Olives

These oatcakes have the sort of taste that goes well with a rustic look, which is just as well, because I usually decide I need oatcakes late at night, and at that point I am not normally in the mood for making anything too dainty. They’re brilliant for snacking on, and also for breakfast with some cheese and dip.

Makes 20 oat cakes

200g oats

a pinch each of ground sea salt, ground black pepper and ground dried chilli

20g sun-dried tomatoes

15g olives

3 tablespoons butter

150ml water

Pre-heat your oven to 200^oC.

Measure the oats and place them in a bowl. Add the spices, finely chop the tomatoes and olives, and add these to the oats. Melt the butter and add to the oats. Finally add the water until the mixture becomes a workable dough. You may not need all the water.

Shape the dough into oatcakes, using a spoon to drop the dough on a greased baking tray, and flattening them with a spatula. They should be about 0.5cm thick to ensure that they bake evenly.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the cakes have turned golden in colour.

Olive & Sun-Dried Tomato Cheesy Squares

These nibbly squares were intended to be crackers, but while I was rummaging around my cupboards to find ingredients and then adding things to my bowl, I got a little bit carried away, and this was the result. They are a sort of scone-like square cheese straws, ideal for nibbling on along with olives and other tapas and dips, or on their own when you want a small snack. The difficult bit is not eating them all at once, they are terribly more-ish. 

Makes 16 squares

125g gluten free flour (I used Doves farm white flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

a pinch of herbal salt

a pinch of freshly ground black pepper

⅛ teaspoon smoked paprika powder

3 sun-dried tomatoes

5 pimento stuffed green olives

50g butter

1 egg

100ml single cream

50g mexicana cheese

Pre-heat your oven to 180^oC.

Add all the dry ingredients to a kitchen mixer. Mix, and then chop your tomatoes and olives. Add these to the dry mix, and then add the butter. Mix until you have a crumbly texture. Add the egg and cream, and mix until you have a quite sticky but even dough. Finally add the cheese and mix again until all ingredients are mixed well. If you don’t have a kitchen mixer, use a wooden spoon or your hands to mix.

Spoon your dough onto a greased baking tray, shape to a flat square, and slice into 16 pieces. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden. Leave the squares to cool on a cooling rack.