Gluten Free Lemon & Cinnamon Sugar Biscuits

These sugar biscuits actually hold their shape when baked! Making them ideal for fun shapes to ice, which is especially amazing in a gluten free recipe.

I have successfully made these biscuits vegan before, by using flaxseed instead of egg, which gives the biscuits a cute speckled look that suits the cinnamon flavour.

For this batch, I based my biscuits on a Guitar Hero guitar in honour of my boyfriend achieving affiliate status on his Twitch stream. He is actually pretty good at Guitar Hero, but I think I’ll just stick to baking.

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You will need:

• A stand mixer with a dough hook (optional)
• Sieve
• Silicone mat or baking paper
• Rolling pin
• Small sharp knife or biscuit cutter
• Baking tray
• Cooling rack
• Piping bag
• Round #1 piping tip
• Round #3 piping tip
• Cocktail stick

Ingredients:

• 110g (8 tbsp) hard vegetable shortening
• 280g (2 cups) plain gluten free flour
• 1 tsp xantham gum
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 100g (½ cup) granulated sugar
• 22g (3 tbsp) icing/ confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ tsp lemon juice
• 1 egg or 1 tbsp ground flaxseed and 3 tbsp water

To decorate:

• 150g icing/confectioners’ sugar
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tsp egg white or liquid glucose (optional)
• Food colour to match your design

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Step 1

Preheat the oven to 170°C (350°F)

If you’re using flaxseed mix the ground flaxseed and water together and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Step 2

Cube the vegetable shortening and cream with a stand mixer or a whisk.

Step 3

In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients then sift half into the vegetable shortening. Rub the shortening into the dry ingredients to remove any lumps. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and repeat.

Step 4

Add the vanilla extract, lemon juice and egg or egg replacement, then beat using a stand mixer with a dough hook or a fork if you don’t have a stand mixer. Continue until the batter is smooth and forms a dough when pressed together with your hands.

Step 5

If you want to make guitars like mine, print this Guitar Hero Template and cut out, simplifying if necessary. Or draw a free hand guitar on paper and cut that out.

For another shape, design your own template or use a biscuit cutter.

Step 6

Knead the dough for a few minutes, then roll out between 2 silicone mats or sheets of baking paper dusted with icing sugar, to about 1.5-2cm thick. The biscuits will rise very slightly but not much, so aim for your desired thickness of baked biscuit.

Step 7

Place the template on top of the rolled out dough and cut out with a sharp knife, alternatively cut out with a biscuit cutter. Transfer into a silicone mat or sheet of baking paper on top of a baking tray and repeat until the tray is full with the biscuits spaced an inch apart.

Step 8

Bake for 6-8 minutes. The biscuits will remain pale in colour so be careful not to over bake. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Step 9

Repeat steps 6-8 until all the dough has been baked. Leave to cool completely.

Step 10

Place 100g of icing sugar in a bowl and add either the egg white or liquid glucose to help keep the structural integrity of the icing. Add your food colour and mix. I suggest gel rather than liquid to avoid making your icing too runny.

Step 11

Slowly add some of the lemon juice and mix , continue until you have the right consistency. For the outline you want a thick mixture that holds it’s shape. Transfer to a piping bag with a round #1 piping tip and pipe the outline. Store the remaining icing in an airtight container and let the outline set.

Step 12

Add additional icing sugar and lemon juice to the remaining icing until you have a runnier consistency this time. Or make a fresh batch if you are using a different colour. Transfer to a piping bag with a round #3 piping tip and fill in the bare parts of the biscuit according to your design, spreading the icing to the outlines with a cocktail stick. Leave to set completely.

Good luck piping and thanks for reading 😊