Gluten-free Custard Cream Biscuits

Delicate, Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sandwich Cookies

I have a dear friend that has developed a gluten sensitivity. Just like me, she loves a good treat. She misses lot of the fabulous baked goods experiences she used to have. I’ve made macarons and meringues for her but I’ve been wanting to expand my repertoire of gluten-free baking so she can have a little more variety. AND, I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a good while now :).

I recently purchased a new springerle cookie mold (yes, I’ve become obsessed with them) and thought this would be the perfect way to make some lovely GF cookies for my friend. Of course, you don’t have to make them so fancy. You can just cut out simple shapes, and I promise they’ll taste JUST AS GOOD! LOL!

I used Costco’s Namaste Flour, as my friend suggested, since it swaps out pretty evenly with AP Flour. It’s a very delicate cookie, and the GF flour seems to make it even more so. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see where some of them have cracked. They were SO FRAGILE! But let me tell you: their fragility is what makes them so incredibly tender and they seriously MELT IN YOUR MOUTH. Not kidding. Try them.

Gluten Free Custard Creams

  • Servings: 50-100 Biscuits
  • Print

Ingredients

    COOKIES

  • 3 Tbsp. Whole Milk
  • 1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract
  • 1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder (or 1/2 tsp. Baker’s Ammonia + 1 tsp. Baking Powder)
  • 225g (7.9 oz) Unsalted Butter, softened
  • 115g (4 oz) Caster Sugar or Baker’s Sugar (you can blitz reg. sugar in the food processor to make it into Caster Sugar, but you do want finer crystals for this recipe).
  • 1/2 tsp. Salt
  • 340g (12 oz.) Gluten-Free Flour (such as Namaste from Costco) Flour
  • 125g (4.4 oz.) Bird’s Custard Powder (in the pudding section at many grocery stores)

    • CUSTARD CREAM FILLING

  • 300g (10.5 oz.) Confectioner’s (Powdered) Sugar
  • 150g (5.25 oz.) Unsalted Butter, softened
  • 4 tsp Bird’s Custard Powder
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions

    COOKIES

  1. In a small cup or bowl, combine the Milk, Vanilla Extract and Baker’s Ammonia (if using), then set aside to allow it to dissolve.
  2. Place the Butter, Salt and Sugar into the bowl of your mixer and beat until fluffy. Meanwhile, whisk the Flour, Baking Powder and Custard Powder together in a small bowl.
  3. When the butter is fluffy, begin drizzling the Milk/Vanilla mixture into the mixing bowl while the paddle continues to run on medium speed. It may look a little strange at first, but keep beating it and it will all come together into a beautiful, homogenous mass.
  4. Add the Flour, Baking Powder and Custard Powder mixture and beat together until you have a ball of smooth dough (it takes a bit of time, but it will come together – if it doesn’t, add an additional tsp. of milk).
  5. Shape the dough into a long oblong shape about 1/2″ in depth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes to firm up the dough.
  6. Once firm, roll the dough out, on a lightly floured surface, to a thickness of about 5mm (or 1/4″).
  7. Using a cookie cutter, cut out cookies and place on a parchment line baking sheet (you can place them fairly close together, as they will not spread much). You will want to cut out enough cookies for both tops and bottoms.
  8. If you are using a cookie mold, make sure you use a shallow pattern. If you use deep-patterned molds, the cookies will not bake all the way through before the edges begin to over-brown.
  9. Place your cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and chill for 20 minutes or more, or at least as long as it takes you to pre-heat your oven to 325F for regular oven, and 300F for convection.
  10. Remove baking sheet from refrigerator and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn a pale golden-brown color.
  11. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes before moving them to a wire rack, with an offset spatula to cool and crisp up. I let my very fragile GF cookies sit a bit longer on the sheet.

    12. CUSTARD CREAM FILLING

  12. Cream together the Confectioner’s Sugar, Butter, Custard Powder and Vanilla Extract with a hand mixer until smooth and light.
  13. You can either spoon the filling onto the backs of the cookies and spread it evenly to the edges with a small, offset spatula, or place the filling in a pastry bag and pipe the filling onto the biscuit.
  14. Top with another cookie and repeat until all the biscuits have been used up.


The biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week, or frozen for 1 month.

Original Custard Creams recipe can be made by using regular, AP Flour. For the leavening, if you don’t have Baker’s Ammonia (Hartshorn) please use 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder.

Springerle Mold from Anis Paradies (Etsy) #8915 “Several Flowers” (it has 5 flowers). Cutter is from Kitchen Vixen (Etsy).

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply