I feel like I had a bit of a eureka moment when the idea for making these deliciously sweet and chewy gluten free crispy liquorice squares popped into my head.
I discovered (to my delight!) a few years ago that Walker’s liquorice toffees are gluten free. They’re so lovely, and have a real good and proper liquorice flavour, which is such a treat, as liquorice as a rule isn’t gluten free. So to get a proper liquorice fix via these moorish toffees is rather wonderful!
It was whilst chewing on one of these yummy liquorice toffees, that I suddenly had the idea of seeing how they’d work as a replacement for standard toffees in the gluten free crispy rice squares recipe that’s on my blog. I gave it a go and was THRILLED with the results!
I took a few squares over to my friends to get there thoughts on my creation and they loved them. My friend’s daughter polished four off, which was a fabulous endorsement and spurred me on to share the recipe with you.
Ingredients
110g (4oz) Walker’s *liquorice toffees, unwrapped weight (I’ve picked these toffees up in Sainbury’s and Morrisons in the UK)
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cubed to melt quicker
110g (4oz) *marshmallows (I used a mixture of pink and white, but Ideally I’d suggest all white ones)
175g (6oz) gluten free rice pops cereal
Method
Lightly butter and line a 8 inch square baking tin (approximately 2 inch deep).
Place the liquorice toffees, marshmallows and butter into a large pan. You’ll need one big enough to take all the rice pops once the mixture has melted.
Gently heat the pan and keep stirring until everything has melted (this does take a while). Mix well until the mixture becomes nice and smooth. You’ll find the mixture will change consistency a lot throughout the heating process, but it should all blend nicely together in the end.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the rice pops. Grab a large spoon and give everything a good stir until all the rice pops have been nicely coated – things DO get a bit sticky!
Transfer the mixture into the prepared tin and spread out evenly. Press down firmly with the back of the spoon to compact the rice and then smooth the top out.
Leave to cool and set fully, before portioning up into squares.
Recipe notes and suggestions:
These delightfully moreish, gluten free crispy liquorice squares will keep well in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
I’ve just shared the basic recipe with you, but should you fancy jazzing things up a little, I think the squares would work well with a generous drizzle of meted *white chocolate. I’m feeling *blackcurrant sorbet would also be a great pairing with a crispy liquorice square.
After discovering how well this recipe worked with alternative flavoured toffees, I’m now extremely tempted to give its a whirl with Walker’s treacle toffees! Walker’s have other toffee flavours too. And, to make our GF lives easier, they pop a ‘gluten free logo’ on the back of appropriate packs.
Should you be unable to get hold of Walker’s gluten free toffees, any good quality gluten free toffee will work.
Thanks for taking the time to check out my gluten free crispy liquorice squares recipe. Hope you give it a whirl sometime!
For now,
Liz x
*Check this product to ensure that there are no gluten containing ingredients, ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable’ for a coeliac/gluten free diet warnings on the pack.
