Halloween cobweb biscuits
All treat and no trick, these orange almond cookies with a spooky spider-web chocolate drizzle are a good excuse to get your bake on, and fun to make with kids this Halloween.
We’ve used rice flour and ground almonds instead of regular flour, which gives these biscuits a soft and crumbed texture, and – bonus – makes them suitable for anyone with a gluten intolerance.
Even though these biscuits are full of natural ingredients and use honey instead of sugar – they’re still a treat, so indulge wisely!
Makes 18-20 biscuits
You will need:
- 125g (1 1/2 cups) ground almonds
- 125g (1 cup) rice flour (find it in the ‘Free From’ aisle)
- 170g unsalted quality butter, cut into cubes and softened
- 80ml (1/3 cup) brown rice syrup, honey or maple syrup
- 2 eggs, beaten
- zest 2 oranges
- 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
- 80g dark chocolate (80-90% cocoa), broken into pieces
Method:
- Heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Blend the almonds, rice flour, large pinch sea salt and butter together in food processor until the ingredients have come together to form a rough paste and all the butter is incorporated.
- Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in the brown rice syrup/honey, eggs, orange zest and vanilla until just combined.
- Spoon even rounds of the mixture onto the trays (the mixture will be quite wet, but that’s ok), smoothing and levelling the tops with a knife. Cook for 20 mins, swapping the trays over half way to ensure they cook evenly, until golden brown. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
- For the cobwebs, melt the chocolate slowly in the microwave, or in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Spoon the melted chocolate into a piping bag with a fine nozzle or use the corner of a plastic bag with the corner snipped off to make a tiny hole. Carefully pipe the chocolate in concentric circles then drag a cocktail stick through the chocolate rings, from the centre to the edge. The chocolate will set in around 15 mins.
NOTES
Store… in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to 1 month.
Substitute… we’ve experimented using different flours in these biscuits but this is the combination we find works best. Buckwheat was too strong, and spelt was too heavy. The almond/rice flour mixture gives a light, slightly crunchy texture. We also used Dove’s Farm gluten-free flour when we can’t get rice flour, with very good results.
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