Gluten-free gingerbread cookies

These delicious gluten-free gingerbread cookies are made with homemade oat flour, simply by grinding gluten-free rolled oats. There’s no need to buy a special gluten-free flour blend – you’ll probably already have everything you need in your kitchen! Rich in honey and fragrant with festive spices, these cookies have a beautiful rustic texture and are soft from the moment they come out of the oven. Stored in an airtight tin with a piece of apple, they become even softer and melt in your mouth.

*These cookies are gluten-free only if you use certified gluten-free oats (free from gluten contamination) and a gluten-free mixed spice (or homemade gingerbread spice).

Ingredients for the gluten-free gingerbread cookies:

• 250 g gluten-free rolled oats*
• 120 g honey
• 60 g unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 50 g icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons mixed spice*
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Additionally:

• 20 g cornflour
• extra cornflour, for dusting

All the ingredients should be at room temperature.

Place the oats into a food processor and blend until they become a fine oat flour. You can also use ready-made oat flour.

In a small saucepan, gently heat the honey and butter until the butter has melted (and the honey, if crystallised, has become liquid). Stir well and leave to cool slightly, but keep the mixture pourable. Add the oat flour, egg, icing sugar, gingerbread spice and bicarbonate of soda. Mix until a smooth dough forms. Refrigerate for 1–3 hours. The dough will be quite soft at first, but as it chills, the butter and honey will firm up and the oats will absorb the liquid, making it much easier to roll out. The longer it chills, the less cornflour you’ll need later.

After chilling, knead the 20 g cornflour into the dough. Roll the dough out to about 5 mm thick on a lightly cornfloured work surface. Cut out your favourite cookie shapes. Gather the scraps, reroll and repeat until all the dough has been used. Arrange the cookies on baking trays lined with baking paper, leaving a little space between them.

Bake at 170°C for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired, for example with icing.

Ingredients for the icing:

• 120 g icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons hot water

Mix the icing sugar with the hot water using the back of a spoon until smooth and pourable. Adjust the consistency with a little more icing sugar or water if needed.

How do you keep gingerbread cookies soft?

Gingerbread cookies soften by absorbing moisture from the air or from fruit. For wonderfully soft cookies, leave them on a wire rack in a humid room for a while, or store them in an airtight tin with a few pieces of peeled apple or a slice of bread. Replace the apple every few days to prevent mould. The cookies will gradually absorb the moisture and become beautifully soft.

Enjoy!