These treats take me right back to my childhood, when I spent every Christmas in Denmark with my family. I remember going from shop to shop with my mum, doing the last little bits of Christmas shopping, and almost every shop would have a little bowl of these tasty, spicy treats. Taking a few from every shop we went into, I’d invariably give myself a tummy ache. Of course, I hadn’t been diagnosed with coeliac disease back then, so there was probably more than one reason for the tummy ache!
The nice thing about living in the Netherlands is that they share some of the food culture with Denmark, and that includes these little biscuits. The Dutch call them pepernoten, the Germans say pfeffernüsse, the Danish say pebernødder, and if the English were enlightened in the way of tasty seasonal treats, they would call them peppernuts. But really, that’s not very exotic sounding, is it?
These treats are super simple to make, and great fun for kids to get involved with as well!
This recipe was taken from the Glutenfreewebshop.com blog and the original uses Lisa’s choice flour. It’s a very nice flour to bake with, but if you can’t get hold of it where you are, I would recommend Dove’s Farm plain white gluten-free flour.
A note on speculaas spice mix – this is a specialist Dutch ingredient that is quite similar to pumpkin spice mix. There are a million different variations, but most involve a combination of cinnamon, cloves, mace, ginger, coriander, cardamom, anise seeds and nutmeg (phew!). The most important parts are the cinnamon, cloves, mace and ginger. This recipe by Kayotic Kitchen is a good place to start if you want to make your own.
Gluten-free pepernoten
By Published: October 23, 2014
- Prep: 10 mins
- Cook: 12 mins
- Ready In: 22 mins
These bite-sized, spicy biscuits are a wonderful winter treat. This recipe is also egg-free, so perfect for those with egg allergies.
Ingredients
- 150 g gluten-free plain flour
- 75 g butter at room temperature
- 50 g caster sugar
- 10 g speculaas spices if you don't live in the Netherlands, you can use pumpkin spice mix
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder be sure to check the brand is gluten-free
- 30 g milk lactose-free is also ok
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175C
- Line a baking tray with baking paper
- Weigh all ingredients into a bowl and work together with your hands for a few minutes, until you get a firm dough
- Roll small balls of dough and flatten slightly with your hands before putting on the baking tray
- Bake for around 12 minutes - they are done when they start to harden slightly. They will continue to harden after you take them out of the oven so don't overbake!
- Allow to cool and enjoy!
- Course: Snack
- Skill Level: Child Friendly
Like Christmassy recipes? Check out my book, Gluten-free Baking at Christmas!
They look SO good!! When I was little, our next door neighbours would give us a bag of Lebkuchen for Christmas every year (I have no idea why – they were as English as Yorkshire Puds but nevertheless…), but being very small, the spiced treats never held much appeal. As I got older, I started to really like them…then I was diagnosed with CD and of course, haven’t had them since! At least with this recipe, I should be able to make my own and I’m really quite excited about that! Maybe I’ll give some to my family as Christmas presents! Thanks for the recipe. :0)
I have an actual lebkuchen recipe as well which I hope to share soon. (It’s in my Christmas baking book though if you can’t wait)
Oooh!! The book is actually on my Christmas list for this year, so I’ll have to see what Santa brings me…! ;0)
Make sure Santa shops early – I’m down to my last 100 hard copies!