Updated 27th February 2022
A few years ago, my cousin Rachel, arrived at one of our family get togethers with a tin full of gluten free ginger biscuits. They were delicious! And it turned out, that the original recipe she’d used to make them, came from our grandma.
Whilst I had the sheer pleasure of sampling many of my grandma’s homemade bakes, I couldn’t ever remember tucking into her ginger biscuits. So, it was a delight that Rachel had introduced them to me, and also passed on the recipe, which I’d now like to share with you.
My grandma’s ginger biscuits filled with ginger spice are deliciously buttery and sweet, with a delightful fudge like chew. I love them and could quite happily munch on more than one with a cuppa!
Ingredients (makes about 18)
350g (12oz) gluten free self-raising flour or mix (add ½ teaspoon xanthan gum if this or guar gum is not in the flour already)
225g (8oz) light muscovado sugar
110g (4oz) softened unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2-3 teaspoons *ground ginger
1 teaspoon *bicarbonate of soda
1 large egg
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4/160C Fan.
Line 3 large flat baking trays with sheets of greaseproof paper. If you don’t have enough trays, bake the biscuits in batches instead.
Add the softened butter, sugar, syrup and egg to a large mixing bowl.
Using an electric, hand or stand mixer (a large spoon would be OK, just requires a little more elbow grease!) whisk until all the ingredients are nicely blended.
Sift in the gluten free flour, bicarb and ground ginger.
Mix well with a large spoon. Once the mixture starts to come together get your hands in to form a dough.
Break off small pieces of dough and roll into small balls (walnut size) and place onto the tray. Space out well, as the biscuits will spread in the oven.
Pop into the oven and bake for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove the biscuits from the oven and leave to cool completely before transferring them onto a serving plate or into a tin for safe keeping.
Recipe notes and suggestions:
These delicious ginger biscuits are at their absolute best on the day you make them. Whilst they’ll keep well in an airtight container for five days (and longer), you will find they go a little soft. However, they will still taste rather super! Should you wish to crisp the biscuits up again, simply pop them into a preheated oven (180CC/350F/Gas 4/160C Fan) and bake for 5 minutes.
If you prefer your ginger biscuits to be crunchy and remain crunchy, bake them for a shorter time on a higher setting; 200C/400F/Gas 6/180C Fan for 12-13 minutes. This is what I did in my YouTube video.
There is no need to chill the biscuits before baking. I tested it out to see if it made much difference. But only found that chilling the biscuits, resulted in them not spreading out quite as much and being slightly chunkier.
I’ve not frozen this biscuit dough myself, but you can. Simply portion the dough into balls, place on a tray and freeze them spaced out (covered to prevent cross contamination), so that when you bag them up, they don’t all stick together. Bake from frozen (chunky biscuit) or allow to defrost a little (flatter biscuit).
If you only have gluten free plain flour in the cupboard you can still make these biscuits; just add 1½ teaspoons of gluten free baking powder to the dry ingredients.
For a delicious bonfire night treat (my cousins suggestion), make the biscuits with half syrup and treacle.
I love these biscuits just how they come. Should you wish to jazz them up, you could add any *chocolate chunks of choice (*white chocolate works really well) or chopped*crystallised ginger to the dough before rolling into balls.
Thanks for checking out my grandma’s ginger biscuit recipe. Let me know if you get around to making them. I really hope you do!
For now,
Liz x
*Check this product out to ensure no gluten containing ingredients or ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable’ warnings on the pack. If in doubt leave it out.
Ooh buddy going to have a go these, they look delicious xx
You really must buddy! I think you’ll love them!xx
I’ve just made these for coeliac friend. They look delicious, I cooked them for shorter time
I bet your friend was over the moon to receive a batch of fresh made gluten free ginger biscuits! How kind of you 💫
How could I use fresh ginger ?
Hi, you could use finely grated fresh ginger in this recipe if you like. As it’s something I’ve not done, I did google to check it out, and it appears that you would need to add more fresh ginger if you choose to use this instead of dried ground ginger. Do let me know how you get on.
Enjoying these with a nice cup of tea.
I will definitely be making these again thumbs up from all the family.
Thanks.
Yay! This makes me so happy. Delighted you like them!
ROY WATERFALL 84 YEARS OLD thank you for your programs I have been gluten free most of my life. my late wife was a lovely cook and cooked gluten free well Sadly 3 years ago she passed away with Cancer and untill I came across your program I found it very very hard . now thanks to you recipes I am once again enjoying my food thank you Elizabeth , u are so easy to under stand fantastic programs
Roy, thank you so much for your message. I’m so sorry to hear about your wife. She would be extremely proud of how you are trying your best to navigate the world of gluten free cooking/baking…well done you for having a go! Lovely kind messages like yours are the reason I continue to write my blog and share the things I do. Take care and very best wishes to you✨
Made these for my wife who is a coeliac. Didn’t have any golden syrup, so substituted with 1 tablespoon of dark treacle and 1 of honey. Turned out absolutely spot on. You can’t tell the difference between gf and non-gf, fabulous.
Delighted they were a hit! What great ingredient subs… thanks for sharing!
Made these last week and so pleased with them. And a fraction of the price of store bought gluten free ginger biscuits. Made exactly 18 but spread out so each was quite large and think my wife only had a few and I ate the rest! Need to make more now and share with the family. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
You’re so welcome Michael. I’m delighted that the recipe has been such a hit for you and I’m sure your family will very much appreciate sampling your next batch!!
These are fantastic. My wife and daughter know that these are gluten free and as such they really shouldn’t eat them so much and instead leave them for the poor coeliac sufferer (me!). However they simply tell me to make more. 🙂
Thanks so much.
Aw love this!!! Delighted they’re a hit for you all!🤩
I used your recipe to make ginger biscuits for a retreat – I knew we’d need a lot of them so I rolled out the dough and used a cutter to make thinner rounds, then cooked them for less time. They were fabulous! Still chewy and gingery, a good big size in your hand and they all disappeared far faster than I expected! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe, it was exactly what I needed! 🙂 xx
What a great idea! Thanks so much for letting me know. You’ve inspired me to try making them this way in the future xx
Hi. Trying GF baking for the first time since a family member was diagnosed. Does it need to be flour with xanthan gum? I’m trying to avoid UPFs as much as possible and wondered what would happen if this ingredient is missing please?
Hi, I haven’t tested the recipe without xanthan gum so unfortunately wouldn’t be able to advise how things would be if you didn’t use it. Sorry. I will do my best to test the recipe again without it and get back to you with how things go.
I can always tell when a biscuit has been a success when my “human-food” partner wants to steal them all from me! I added the white chocolate chunks and crystalised ginger before I’d gotten to the end of the page… great minds and all that! 🙂
Aw fabulous stuff!!! Do love it when a recipe is such a hit!🤩
Just made these today, and they’re a big hit. My oven can be contrary when it comes to baking times, but this recipe worked perfectly first time. I’m gifting some of them away tomorrow as a thank-you to a neighbor (for letting us cut firewood from their property) 😉
Oh this makes me so happy!! I’m delighted that they were a baking success for you… bet your neighbour will be chuffed to bits with such a thoughtful and very delicious gift too!🤩
Absolutely fabulous, I’ve added dark chocolate chips to them an all which has just excelled them ✨
I’m absolutely delighted to hear that the ginger biscuits have been such a hit with you!!! The dark chocolate chip addition sounds wonderful. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave such a great comment, which I’m sure will encourage many other people to give these yummy biscuits a go! Liz 💫
hi Liz my husband and I are newcomers to your blog we loved your video on the t loaf we will be giving it a try today many thanks from Eric & Sheila
Aw hi, welcome to my blog! Lovely to have you here. Do hope you enjoy your freshly baked gluten free tea loaf 💫