Scrumptious Gluten Free Biscuits...

...well they're a kind of a cross between a cake, a biscuit and a cookie! Whatever, they are lovely, and wonderful if you have a sweet tooth like me, but need to be gluten free (like me!).

Ingredients:

225g Cooking Margarine (eg. Stork)
110g Caster Sugar
Vanilla Essence to taste
250g Doves Farm* Gluten & Wheat Free Plain Flour
50g Ground Almonds**
Seedless Raspberry Jam

*I use this brand of gluten free flour in all my baking, only because it is easy to get hold of and, although more expensive than regular flour, does not cost and arm and a leg... you are welcome to try with your own preferred brand - results may vary!!

**The addition of ground almonds helps to keep the cooked biscuits soft - without them they tend to be a bit brittle or dry (a common result for gluten free flour) if you don't want to use any almonds then use 275g of flour.

Preheat your oven to a moderate temperature... I set mine at 160 Centigrade as it is a fan assisted oven and is prone to being "hot" but if you are not sure about your own, try 170 degrees first time and adjust from there.

OK, let's get baking...

Cream the margarine with a wooden spoon until soft and gooey (technical term), add the sugar and cream again.

Add the vanilla essence (only if you like, it's not essential).

Weigh in half the flour. Note: most recipes say to sift flour when baking - I don't bother... bit of a faff, and I don't think this flour needs it anyway as it is very "slippery" (another technical term!).

Mix with wooden spoon until smooth, weigh in the rest of the flour, and mix again until you have a "dough".
(The mixture should be pretty stiff, this helps to keep the biscuits shape during cooking, and prevent spreading.)

Now for the fun bit...

You can simply mould the dough into biscuit shapes with your fingers (they do not tend to rise or spread, so make them the size you want to eat them!); but this is what I like to do...

I fit a large spiky nozzle into a piping bag, and spoon the mixture into this.

I then pipe out my biscuits as swirls - starting in the middle, working out and then up to create a "well".

(You will need strong hands for the piping bit, the stiff mixture is easy to shape, but less easy to squeeze!)

Then comes the jammie bit. I use seedless raspberry - purely because I hate seeds in my jam, and my local supermarket do their own cheap brand - you use whatever you like best! Just splodge a good amount into the centre well of each biscuit (approx 1/2 a rounded teaspoon per biscuit).

Bake your biscuits for approximately 16 mintues, or until they just begin to go slightly golden on the edges... again, exact timing will depend on your oven.

Transfer to a cooling rack as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Et voila!

My jam has splurged a bit in these ones - it was the runny bit at the end of the jar, but I'm sure yours will look a lot neater!

Variations:

If you like coconut - try only 25g of almonds, but add in 50g of dessicated coconut, keeping the quantity of flour the same.

Instead of vanilla you could use cinnamon or ginger to flavour your biscuits... you may want to hold off on the jam though!

If you feel like spoiling your dog - make a couple with peanut butter instead of jam... he will "woof" them down!