Embrace Autumn with our simple Shortbread Pumpkin Biscuits

Enjoy the shorter days with our Shortbread Pumpkin Biscuits

Growing up, I always loved Autumn with its blue skies, crisp colourful leaves and fresh air but for allergy sufferers and those who care for them, the season can often bring along some unwanted guests…and I don’t mean trick or treaters!

Colder air, the annual switch on of the central heating and schools returning after the summer break, can lead to increased asthma, eczema and allergy flare ups and the inevitable misery that comes along for the ride. 

So to help embrace the best of the changing season we’ve cooked up a beautiful buttery (dairy-free of course) shortbread pumpkin biscuit for you to enjoy together at home. 

Unlike a lot of free-from baking, this simple shortbread biscuit recipe is only four ingredients, easily sourced from your local supermarket, and doesn’t require a weird and wonderful egg replacer (phew!).

Shortbread Pumpkin Biscuits

Makes 8 large or 16 small shortbread biscuits

100g gluten free oat flour 

80g corn flour 

55g caster sugar

125g dairy-free butter

*extra flour for rolling

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees (gas mark 3) before creaming together the dairy-free butter and caster sugar by hand or in a food mixer. Add the oat flour and corn flour and fold into the mixture. Best to do this by hand and not overly vigorously. 

Once in a round ball shaped dough, leave to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

Roll out the dough with a rolling pin using extra oat flour to dust your surface. Use cookie cutters to create whatever shapes you desire. 

Prick the biscuits all over to help the shortbread cook evenly and place on greaseproof paper on an oven tray. 

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Try to resist picking them up until they've cooled and firmed up.

You can sprinkle your shortbreads with caster sugar and eat immediately or decorate using rolled out fondant cut to the shape of the biscuits. 

Enjoy your buttery shortbread biscuits with the hot drink of your choice :)

Notes on ingredients used-

 In order to get a really buttery flavour for the shortbread we used Flora’s Vegan Salted Butter (the blue one) and were really pleased with the results. It comes as a block or ‘spreadable’ pot but the block was the only one available at the time and worked really well. 

With regard to flour we use Glebe Farm gluten free oats and oat flour in the bakery but other brands like Doves Farm would work just as well. If you don’t need to avoid gluten you could, of course, use plain flour. And if you are avoiding corn remove the corn flour and use solely oat flour.  If, like us, you need your biscuits to be a little bit more robust (think sending through the post!) we added 1/8th of a tsp of xanthan to the flour to provide a bit more resilience. 

There are many different types of fondant available in the supermarkets. We use fondant by The Sugar Paste company because they have a nut free factory. You can find it- amongst other places- in small packets in Hobby Craft. We also use Couture Luxury Sugar Paste for the same reasons. Couture is also a coconut free option.

As always, remember to check the full ingredients of all the butters/flours/fondants or any ingredients mentioned to make sure they are suitable for your specific needs. 

Tried it? Liked it? Let us know in the comments :)