Grandma’s (gluten free) ginger biscuits

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 and they were delicious! 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. 

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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.