Recently I’ve been feeling nostalgic for the bakes of my childhood – so far this year I’ve posted a gluten free version of Jammy Dodgers and Party Rings, and now I’ve come up with a recipe for Gluten Free Iced Gems.

Ice Gems may be small, but they aren’t fiddly or faffy to make. They would make an easy homemade gift or a great rainy project for the kids, as there are no difficult techniques involved – you could even save on washing up by putting all the different colours of icing in the same piping bag and making multicoloured ice gems!

These biscuits kept really well for about 5 days in an airtight container. The royal icing took about 24 hours to set completely, but they were fine to eat after a few hours.

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Iced Gem Biscuits (GF/DF options)

For the Biscuits:

75g golden caster sugar
75g unsalted butter, cold (or dairy free alternative, like Stork Margarine Block)
140g gluten free all purpose flour (I used Schär All Purpose Baking Mix)
1 small egg (you might not need it all)
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Icing:

275g icing sugar
1 egg white plus Food Colouring (I prefer using a gel or paste)

Method:
1) To make the biscuit dough: In a large bowl combine the gluten free flour and sugar, then rub in the cold butter until you have a breadcrumb like texture.

2) Whisk together the egg and vanilla in a separate bowl, then add this bit by bit to the breadcrumb like mixture whilst bringing the ingredients together with your hands – you might not need all the egg.

3) Tip the contents of the bowl out onto a lightly floured surface, then use your hands to work the ingredients into a soft dough. Don’t worry if the dough seems a little sticky as it will be refrigerated which help it to firm up – don’t be tempted to add more flour!

4) Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

5) Preheat the oven to 170 C/150 C fan/gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
8) Dust a clean surface with flour and roll out the dough until it is 0.5mm thick. Cut out small circles using the bottom of a piping nozzle as a cookie cutter and  transfer the cookies to the tray lined with greaseproof paper using a palate knife.

9) Bake the cookies for 10 – 12 minutes or until the cookies are firm and a light golden brown – be sure to keep an eye on them as they could quickly over-bake.

10) Once baked, leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays to before transferring them to wire racks to finish cooling.

11) To make the royal Royal icing: place 1 egg white in a bowl, then slowly sift in the icing sugar in batches. In between the batches of icing sugar, stir the ingredients with a wooden spoon or a balloon whisk until the icing thickens up – you can use a dash of water to encourage the ingredients to come together if necessary.

12) Divide the icing between 4 bowls, add a few drop of food colouring to each one depending on what colours you want the icing to be – you can leave one bowl of icing white if you want white iced gems.

13) Transfer the icing to 4 piping bags, each one fitted with a 1 inch star nozzle, then pipe a blob of icing onto the centre of each biscuit.

14) Leave the icing to set, then enjoy!

I love seeing your take on my recipes, so remember to share a snap of your Iced Gems over on Facebook, twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #titchytonbakes.