Chocolate Creme Icing

Ingredients

  3 tsp Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour

50 g Icing sugar

5 g Cocoa

30 g Hot water

10 g Vanilla essence

20 g Glucose syrup

80 g Copha

* Copha contains soy lecithin. At least 55 g of copha is needed to make the icing creamy but with this amount the mixture starts to split a little (this means the biscuits may not stay as crunchy). The amount of copha added will depend; on the season (eg in Winter you may need to add less, summer a bit more) & where you live (in Australia further north you may need more copha).  

Method

Melt the copha in a small saucepan. Leave it on the stove.

In a microwaveable bowl sift together the Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour, cocoa & the icing sugar.

Add in the hot water, vanilla essence & glucose syrup. Glucose syrup is very sticky & it is very slow to pour. I dip a knife into the glucose, bring it out, twirl the knife & then let the syrup fall off the knife into the bowl. When enough syrup has fallen off I twirl the knife again & scrape the remaining back into the syrup container.

Taste a little of the mix - Is it gritty? If it is gritty gently microwave (low - medium low power) the mix to dissolve the sugar. When most of the sugar has dissolved the mix will be clearer & slightly brownish (from the vanilla extract).

Add in ~25 g of the melted copha. Stir (a fork or spoon is fine) until the mix has a uniform consistency. 

Repeat the step above.

Add in the remaining copha & continue to stir the mix. Set it aside briefly.

Optional - attach/fit a size 11 nozzle to a piping bag.

Stir the icing again. We want to continue to stir the icing mixture until the copha is close to setting. I live in a cold climate & it was 8 degrees C outside when I was making this icing. So to cool it down I went outside for a couple of minutes while stirring the icing. Stirring the icing while it is cooling gives the icing a "creamy" texture not a fatty one. To cool down the icing you may need to put it in the fridge for ~1 min then bring it out again. It will start to thicken & turn whiter when it is cooling. Transfer the icing to the piping bag if you think that the icing would hold its shape. 

If using the icing to sandwich biscuits together, pipe some of it onto upturned biscuits. Before the icing sets put the top biscuit on. 

If the icing sets simply warm it in the microwave (~10 sec on low) & stir it again (while cooling).