Friday 18 December 2015

Proper Christmassy dairy-free gingerbread biscuits


Ginger and cinnamon are, however much you use them all year round, undoubtedly the flavours of Christmas. And Christmassy baking is the one thing that really gets me in the festive mood! I was heading to a friend's this week for a bit of festive making, and as she can't eat dairy I thought I'd have a go at dairy-free gingerbread biscuits. Now most of the recipes I found online called for non-dairy spreads to just replace the butter, but I didn't want to buy a whole tub that we probably wouldn't finish. So I experimented with olive oil, and the results were pretty good, so I thought I'd share what I did.


Olive oil gingerbread and honey biscuits

Adapted from BBC Food

Makes: really quite a lot!

Ingredients: 

350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Olive oil
175g/4oz light soft brown sugar
1 free-range egg
4 tbsp honey



Method
  1. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into the bowl of a food processor. Add olive oil a little at a time and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. 

  2. Lightly beat the egg and honey together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in clingfim and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

  3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line three baking trays with greaseproof paper.

  4. Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them. 

  5. Bake for 8-10* minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for a bit to cool and then move to a wire rack until completely cold. Make icing by adding way less water than you think you'll need to icing sugar, pop it in a bag and snip a small hole in the corner. Ice away!

    You could always use half the dough, and keep the rest in the fridge wrapped well in clingfilm for a couple of days - I tried this and it came out fine.


    *I left one batch of mine in longer, and they weren't as good. Live and learn! 


We're off to my parents' for Christmas Part 1 this weekend, I'm really looking forward to getting away, seeing everyone and getting the festivities started early! Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are. And let me know if you try these!


4 comments:

driftwood said...

these look oh so tasty. my daughter has to be dairy free for a 3 month trial so we could try this, the dairy free marg we bought is very odd....

CJ said...

I bet they're delicious, and how beautifully you've decorated them, they're really pretty. I used to be a vegan, using olive oil instead of butter is a great tip, I shall remember that idea.

Louise said...

driftwood - Thank you! Regarding the 'marg', I find them all a bit weird too... but then I suppose it's what you're used to! Have a lovely Christmas xx

Louise said...

CJ - oh, good! Thank you very much, I really enjoyed the decorating part :) Have a lovely Christmas!