I remember having polenta biscuits a few years ago on holiday in Venice, they were S shaped and served with an after dinner liqueur for dipping them in. These are very easy to make and something the kids enjoy having a go at too. We made a chocolate version at the weekend (just substitute about 15g of the gluten free plain flour with a tablespoon of cocoa powder), the kids rolled them into sausage shapes and called them “chocolate polenta snakes” they tasted great but didn’t look very appetising – best to keep them round I think. I sometimes do a nice lemon and ginger version, just replace the orange zest with grated lemon zest and add 1 level teaspoon of ground ginger in place of vanilla extract.
The original recipe came from Nigella’s “Feast” cookbook. I’ve adapted it to make it FODMAP friendly by using gluten free flour, omitting the rum (it’s high fructose) and my version is orange and vanilla flavoured instead of lemon and sultana (which would both be fine FODMAP wise). One important point to note though if making polenta biscuits is to make sure you use fine cornmeal/ polenta, not the normal coarse polenta which would make the biscuits quite grainy.
For more baking ideas, have a look through my low FODMAP baking recipes.
- 75g butter, cubed
- 150g fine cornmeal/polenta
- 75g plain gluten free flour (I used Doves Farm)
- 50g caster sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Grated zest of 1 small orange
- 1-2 tablespoons water
- Place the fine cornmeal and gluten free flour in medium bowl, add the butter and rub the butter into the flours (or you can use a food processor to do this)
- Lightly whisk the egg together with the orange zest and vanilla extract then add it to the bowl containing the flour and butter, add the sugar then mix together with a wooden spoon
- Add 1-2 tablespoons water to bring the mixture into a soft dough and form it into a ball, wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm it slightly
- Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan oven) and line a large baking sheet with parchment
- Remove the dough from the fridge and take approximately desert spoon sized pieces, roll them into balls then flatten them slightly between your hands (you should make about 20)
- Place them on the baking sheet and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden
- Cool on a wire rack