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These Gluten Free Halloween Biscuits are the perfect baking activity for spooky season! Vanilla-flavoured, gluten free sugar cookies which hold their shape perfectly during baking. Perfect for icing with your spookiest decorations!
The BEST Gluten Free Halloween Biscuits!
- Why choose this recipe? These gluten free sugar cookies hold their shape perfectly, making them ideal for cutting out your favourite spooky shapes. The dough handles really well so they’re ideal for making with kids too.
- Tried and Tested! It’s taken me years to perfect a gluten free biscuit recipe that perfectly melts-in-the-mouth, but doesn’t crumble to dust or melt into one giant mess in the oven. This biscuit dough is very forgiving and so easy to work with, thanks to the addition of xanthan gum and short chilling time.
- What Equipment Do I Need? For the best Halloween biscuits you’ll need some Halloween biscuit cutters and some spooky gluten free sprinkles and edible eyes. And of course gluten free food colouring for extra flair! I’ve listed the specific gluten free brands I used in the ingredients section below.
- Easy Guide: I’ve included both step-by-step photos and a handy video tutorial below to make this recipe as easy-to-follow as possible.
- Love Halloween Baking? Fill your weekend with spooky bakes, like my gluten free Halloween Rocky Roads, Halloween Donuts and Pumpkin Cupcakes.
Ingredients and Substitutions
There’s a printable recipe card below for these iced Halloween biscuits with the full quantities. But here are the main ingredients and ideas for any swaps, plus the specific gluten free brands I used.
- Plain Gluten Free Flour: I always use the FREEE Plain Gluten Free Flour for this but any plain gluten free flour blend will work, such as Asda or M&S flour.
- Cornflour: This is naturally gluten free, and helps to hold some of the moisture in the bake, making these biscuits melt in the mouth.
- Xanthan Gum: This is crucial to ensure the biscuits hold their shape and aren’t too crumbly. If your flour blend already contains this, just add 0.25 tsp instead of 0.5 tsp.
- Egg
- Butter: For dairy free, be sure to replace this with a hard vegan margarine or a baking block so your biscuit dough isn’t too soft.
- Sugar: I use caster sugar (bakers sugar or superfine sugar in the US) and icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar) for decorating these biscuits.
- Vanilla Extract: This is usually gluten free but always double check.
- Decorations: I used these Cake Decor Sprinkles which I’ve so far found in Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. The Cake Decor Edible Eyes are also gluten free and the ones I use every year. Always double check as some brands contain wheat starch.
- Food Colouring: I always recommend a gel food colouring so it doesn’t water down the icing too much. Sugarflair is my go-to brand as they produce amazing vibrant colours and are gluten free. I once got glutened by food colouring with a ‘may contain’ warning which is why I always use these now!
How to Make Gluten Free Halloween Biscuits
There’s a printable recipe card below with the method. But here are some step-by-step photos to show you how easy this gluten free Halloween biscuits are to make.
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Add the softened butter, sugar and vanilla extract to a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk. Crack in the egg and beat again.
Pour the gluten free flour, cornflour and xanthan gum into the bowl and use a wooden spoon to bring the mixture together until it forms a sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a piece of clingfilm, wrap it up and pop it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (you can also leave it overnight at this stage or freeze it to bake later – see notes).
Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 180C / Fan 160C / Gas Mark 4. Line two large baking trays with baking paper.
Unwrap the dough and roll it out to around 5mm thick – it can be helpful to do this between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap, so it doesn’t stick.
Cut out the shapes and place them on the baking sheets with a little space between them. Scrunch up and re-roll the dough as much as necessary.
Bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes – they will stay quite pale. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheets for around 10-15 minutes until moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
To decorate the biscuits:
Add the icing sugar to a bowl and gradually add the milk until it forms a thick paste. Add the food colouring if using (see recipe notes). Either spoon the icing onto the cooled biscuits or use a piping bag, then decorate with edible eyes and sprinkles galore!
- For the icing: I used a piping bag with a tiny bit cut from the end to pipe my icing onto my shapes, and a cocktail stick to ‘drag’ the icing to fill any gaps. If adding food colouring I recommend using a gel colouring (Sugarflair is my favourite and is gluten free). This will stop the icing becoming too runny, but if it does, just add a little extra icing sugar until it reaches the desired consistency.
- Making Ahead: You can easily make this biscuit dough ahead of time and then refrigerate it for a couple of days before baking. You can also freeze it and then defrost in the fridge overnight before rolling out and baking.
- Weighing Scales vs Cups: You can toggle this recipe card to convert the ingredients into cups. However, I always recommend using weighing scales – these are cheap to buy and much more accurate. And in gluten free baking, a tiny variation can make a huge difference!
- Like this Recipe? It would mean SO much to me if you could leave a 5* rating and a little comment if you made this gluten free Halloween biscuits recipe and loved it. It really helps support my website and get my recipes out there. Thank you! xx
Serving: 1biscuit (no icing) | Calories: 43kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 0.5g
Storing and Freezing Instructions
TO MAKE AHEAD: You can easily make this biscuit dough ahead of time and then refrigerate it for a couple of days before baking. You can also freeze it and then defrost in the fridge overnight before rolling out and baking.
TO STORE: Once baked and decorated, store in an airtight container for 3-5 days.
TO FREEZE: Any baked biscuits can be frozen but I’d recommend doing this before decorating. Then you can defrost and decorate when needed.
More Gluten Free Halloween Recipes
If you like this gluten free iced Halloween biscuits then make sure you check out these other gluten free recipes too…
- These easy Halloween Donuts are my spooky take on my easy baked doughnuts, topped with spooktacular icing and a spiderweb design!
- For something a bit gory, try my Broken Glass Cupcakes – a gluten free red velvet cupcake with edible blood and peppermint glass shards.
- Or for a gory surprise try my gluten free Monster Cupcakes with a surprise jammy filling. A great way to use up any leftover edible eyes!
- And these Halloween Pumpkin Cupcakes are topped with cute buttercream pumpkins that are easy to pipe – and great fun to make!
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