Gluten Free Brandy Snaps with Ultimate Whipped Cream

These gluten-free brandy snaps are everything we love about a classic crunchy brandy snap, but in gluten-free form! Lacy, crunchy and spicy biscuit tubes filled with even-better-than-whipped-cream Ultimate Whipped Cream.

Brandy snaps are a classic dessert in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and if you haven’t had them before, they are thin, crunchy, delicious little tubes made with golden syrup and lightly spiced with cinnamon and ginger. While the snaps are still warm, they’re shaped into a tube, and once they cool, you fill them with whipped cream.

Absolute top notch dessert if ever I’ve had one 👌

Regular brandy snaps are not gluten free, but the good news is, you can make gluten free brandy snaps at home, and I think they’re infinitely better than any supermarket brandy snap.

The Best Brandy Snap Filling – Ultimate Whipped Cream

While brandy snaps are the drawcard, they also serve as the vessel for the filling, and I’ve never understood why we’re all settling for just plain whipped cream.

This whipped cream recipe was created when we had leftover Tiramisu filling after making our usual Gluten Free Tiramisu for Christmas one year, and I decided to add the filling to some whipped cream to fill the brandy snaps I’d made. I’ve done some occasional smart things in my lifetime, but this is up there with some of the best.

The filling contains whipped egg yolks, which, when added to the cream, create a richer yet somehow lighter whipped cream. It has a more velvety feel to it and a slightly custardy flavour. Think of it a bit like a crème patisserie, but you don’t have to make a custard.

You can absolutely fill these gluten free brandy snaps with regular whipped cream if you want to skip a few extra steps. But I beg you to try this at least once.

Scroll down to the recipe card for the full ingredients list and printable recipe, or keep reading for ingredient tips and process photos.

Ingredient Notes

• Butter – You can use salted or unsalted butter in this recipe, I just use salted.
• Brown sugar
• Golden syrup
• Brown rice flour and Tapioca starch – These are both flours I use in my homemade gluten free flour blend, but I like to use them on their own here because I think they give the best texture to the brandy snaps. You should be able to make these with a store-bought gluten free flour blend, but keep in mind that they’re all slightly different, so if your snaps spread too much, you might need to add a bit more flour.
• Ground cinnamon & ground ginger – The classic spice combination.

For the whipped cream:

• Egg yolks – Using fresh, large eggs is best. (You can also use pasteurised egg yolks if you are concerned about eating undercooked eggs.) You’ll have egg whites left over, which you could use to make some delicious nougat.
• Caster sugar – I use caster sugar because it dissolves more quickly, but if you don’t have it, use regular granulated sugar.
• Vanilla paste, or vanilla extract – You can use either or both. I like to see the little seeds from the vanilla paste.
• Mascarpone – Choose a nice cream mascarpone for this recipe; some of them can be a bit grainy.
• Whipping cream – The cream you need for this recipe is known by different names in different countries. Here in NZ, it’s usually called standard cream or whipping cream; in other countries, it may also be known as full cream, heavy cream or heavy whipping cream. Long story short: for best results, choose a pourable cream that is around 35% fat. Make sure that it says on the bottle/carton that it is suitable for whipping.

Making Gluten Free Brandy Snaps

The snaps can be a little fiddly to roll, but once you’ve worked out how long they take to cook in your oven and after you’ve rolled a few, then you can churn through a batch pretty quickly.

Because they need to be shaped while they’re still warm, you can only bake one tray (four snaps) at a time, but they don’t take long to bake and if you place a new tray in as you take the previous one out then you get a little production line going and it doesn’t take too long.

At Christmas, my Mum and I make them together, so we each roll two on each tray, and never have any problems with the snaps cooling too quickly. So if you can, grab a friend! Nothing like a bit of team effort in the kitchen.

I use non-stick cannoli tubes to shape my brandy snaps, but if you don’t have tubes, then you can use the thick handle of a wooden spoon. Ideally, you need four of whatever you’re going to shape them around; if not, you may need to warm the snaps back up if they cool down and harden before you’ve rolled them.

And of course, if you don’t want tubes, you can shape the snaps into baskets over an upturned muffin tray or some small heatproof bowls to make gluten-free brandy baskets. Or leave them flat and layer them up with cream and fruit. They’re super versatile!

Once the snaps are cooled, you can pipe in your whipped cream…

The gluten free brandy snaps are best eaten soon after they’re filled, so they don’t get too soft and chewy.

But trust me, eating them quickly is no trouble whatsoever…

More Gluten Free Dessert Recipes You May Like:

• Gluten Free Tiramisu – Our family favourite dessert, made with an easy sponge cake instead of ladyfinger biscuits.
• Gluten Free Trifle – Design your own ultimate trifle dessert.
• Easy Nutella Mousse – The easiest Nutella mousse made with just three ingredients.
• Gluten Free Mince Pies – A must-have for a gluten-free Christmas. An easy pastry recipe, filled with my quick fruit mince recipe.
• Gluten Free Fruit Cake – The best gf Christmas cake.

Gluten Free Brandy Snaps with Ultimate Whipped Cream

Lacy, crunchy and spicy brandy snaps filled with even-better-than-whipped-cream Ultimate Whipped Cream.

4.3 from 10 votes

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Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Cuisine: New Zealand

Category: Desserts

Author: Natalie | Sweetness & Bite

Makes: 28 brandy snaps

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Ingredients

For the Brandy Snaps

• 110 g butter
• 110 g brown sugar
• 110 g golden syrup
• 50 g brown rice flour
• 50 g tapioca flour
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger

For the Ultimate Whipped Cream

• 3 egg yolks
• 100 g caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla paste or vanilla extract
• 200 g mascarpone
• 400 ml whipping cream

Instructions

• Heat oven to 180°C. Line baking trays with non stick baking paper (use as many trays as you have).
• Heat the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a small saucepan over a low heat, stirring often, until the sugar is mostly dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Don’t let it boil, and don’t rush it, it will take about 10 minutes for the sugar to dissolve. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
• While it’s cooling, sift together the brown rice flour, tapioca flour, cinnamon and ginger into a small bowl and whisk to combine.
• Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
• Drop teaspoons full of the mixture onto the baking trays – four on each tray, spacing them well apart as they will spread, a lot!
• Place one tray at a time into the oven and bake for approximately 6 minutes, you want them to be bubbling all over and very slightly darkened at the edges.
• While the snaps bake, prepare your moulds. If you’re not using cannoli tubes then lightly grease the handle of a wooden spoon or similar. Ideally you will need four of whatever you are using. If it isn’t non-stick, then lightly grease it. Place the moulds and an offset spatula within easy reach of where you will be rolling the snaps. Take the tray of baked brandy snaps out of the oven, put the next tray in and re-set the timer.
• Slide the baked snaps, paper and all, off onto a heatproof surface and leave for 30 seconds. Use a spatula to gently lift the edge of one brandy snap, you need them to be just cool enough to lift off the paper but still be warm enough to be pliable. Flip the snaps over (so the bubbly side will be facing out) and quickly roll each one around your cannoli tube or spoon handle. Place them join side down onto a wire rack to cool.
• When they are cool enough to hold their shape, gently pull the former out. Try to slide the tubes out before the snaps have cooled completely, this lessens the risk of breaking. You may need to wipe some excess butter off the moulds before you re-use them (but don’t wipe it all off, that way you won’t need to re-grease them).
• Continue baking the rest of the snaps. You can spoon more mixture onto the trays (re-lined with baking paper) when they are still hot from the oven – while the butter will start melting straight away, it doesn’t affect the snaps.

  If you find the snaps have cooled too quickly and they're too firm to roll, place them back on the warm tray for a minute and try again. If they're still too firm, you can place the tray back in the oven for another minute to soften them.

Ultimate Whipped Cream:

• Place the egg yolks and sugar in the top of a double boiler (or use a heatproof bowl on top of a pot with 1" of gently simmering water) and stir with a whisk for 10 minutes, or until the sugar has mostly dissolved and the mixture is warm.
• Remove from the heat and beat with an electric mixer until pale in colour and the mixture forms thick ribbons when you lift the beaters. Beat in the vanilla extract and the mascarpone.
• Whip the cream until stiff peaks are just beginning to form. Whip in the egg and mascarpone mixture until combined. The cream should hold peaks when you lift the beaters.
• When the snaps are cool, use a piping bag fitted with a round or star nozzle to fill them. Insert the nozzle into one end of the tube, squeeze gently until you feel resistance on the nozzle, then fill the same way from the other end.
• Storing the brandy snaps:

  It's best to fill the brandy snaps with cream just before you eat them, but unfilled snaps can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a week or so.
• Layer the snaps into the container between sheets of baking paper.

  I like to sprinkle a small amount of dry, uncooked onto the bottom of the container, then place a sheet of baking paper on top and begin adding the snaps – the rice will absorb any moisture in the container, keeping the snaps crisp.

  You can also add in a few silica gel packets – I keep the ones from my jar of probiotics for this use.

Notes

Baking the snaps – Since the snaps need to be shaped while warm, only bake one tray at a time. To keep things moving, as you remove one tray from the oven place the next tray in (and re-set the oven timer). This way you can crank out one tray every six or so minutes.

Flour – I used brown rice flour and tapioca flour, but you could try these using your favourite gluten free flour blend.

If you don’t need the brandy snaps to be gluten free, replace the brown rice flour and tapioca flour with 100g of plain flour.

Recipe adapted from Mary Berry’s brandy snap recipe.

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Serving: 2g | Calories: 336kcal

Nutritional Disclaimer: Any nutritional information provided is a computer generated estimate and is intended as a guide only.

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