Gingerbread Dinosaurs (FODMAP Friendly)

I was invited to a Disney movie marathon session this weekend, with the caveat that you had to bring a dish reminiscent of a Disney movie. Now, I’ve had the cutest dinosaur cookie cutters that have been sitting WASTING away, and I happen to adore the movie The Good Dinosaur (although, frankly, any excuse to use these cookie cutters will do). This recipe has been adapted from The Bear and Me with the quantities of spice and cooking times altered, and the addition of icing.

Makes ~30 medium biscuits (I made 29 of varying sizes (3 small, 11 medium, 15 large)).

Ingredients (biscuits)

• 1 cup plain GF flour
• 2 cups self-raising GF flour
• 1.5 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ginger powder*
• 1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice*
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb powder
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 2 eggs

*The original recipe called for 1.5 teaspoons ginger, however I had run out due to poor planning and an excessive love of ginger…

Ingredients (icing)

• 1 egg white
• Lemon juice (of half a lemon)
• 200g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line baking tray with baking paper.
2. Mix dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl, melt coconut oil, and add maple syrup, vanilla essence, and eggs
4. Stir wet ingredients into dry until almost combined
5. Knead until fully combined and the dough is smooth.
6. Chill in refrigerator for 10 minutes. (or, as the official baker that I am, long enough to do the dishes of the other bowls and pop everything away)*
7. Roll out dough so it is around 1 cm in thickness.
8. Cut out cookies and place onto a baking tray.
9. Cook for approximately 13 minutes.
10. Leave to cool (approximately 10 minutes).

Method for Icing

1. Whisk egg white until slightly frothy
2. Add sifted icing sugar, mixing well as you continue to add
3. Keep mixing until it is white and glossy
4. Add squeeze of lemon juice, and colour
5. If too runny, add more icing sugar. If too thick, add more lemon juice.
6. Spread (carefully!) the icing around the biscuit.
7. Let icing dry for about 10 minutes
8. Dig in!

If you can be bothered, and are feeling a bit fancy, divide the mixture into two, and make one slightly thicker than the other. This thicker one can be used to pipe around the edges to keep all the icing contained.

These smelled amazingggggg, but were quite dry. In the future I would add in more coconut oil from the get-go or even a small amount of butter? The spice mixture was lovely, and they are a good basic biscuit, but they do fall prey to the gluten-free stereotypes of being a bit dry. The icing definitely helps counteract any dryness, add some extra flair, and adds a nice flavour (legitimately just sugar,  but sugar is nice, so).

I would give these a 7/10, and would make them again with an attempt to make them a bit squishier, as well as more icing!

Happy eating!

FODMAPula.