Speculaas – Gluten-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free and option for Rice-free and Corn-free

I’ve had the recipe for these yummy little spice biscuits for a while but I wanted to modify them further to make them dairy-free. I also have a friend whose son can’t have gluten, dairy, soy or rice, so I’ve come up with a version which omits rice and corn also. Here’s the recipe for the regular version (the rice and corn free version follows):

Ingredients

250 g gluten-free plain (all purpose) flour – I use Aldi or Orgran

1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

150 g brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon each ground cinnamon and ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon each ground nutmeg, ginger and cardamom

150 cold Nuttelex (or other dairy-free margarine) – or use butter if you can have it

30 ml ice cold water

Method

1. Place all ingredients except water into a food processor or Bellini Intelli and pulse until combined.
2. Add water and pulse until it comes together.
3. Lightly flour a cutting board with rice flour (or sorghum flour for the rice-free version) and tip out the mixture. Bring together by kneading lightly. If it is too sticky, work more flour into the dough.
4. Roll until a few millimetres thick.
5. Cut out with push cutters.
6. Place on a tray lined with baking paper and cook at 150 C (fan-forced) for 20-25 minutes or until golden.
7. Cool and place into containers to keep at room temperature.

For the rice-free and corn-free version:

Omit the 250 g plain flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Substitute with: 150 g sorghum flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Sweet white sorghum flour), 100 g potato flour, 50 g tapioca flour, 3/4 teaspoon xantham gum, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.