1. In a bowl combine together all the spices, gluten free plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder, mix until all the spices are distributed through the flour.

2. In a separate larger bowl place the sugar, butter (if you put it in a microwave for 10-15 seconds to soften slightly it is easier to work with) and vanilla, whisk until creamy and thick. The butter has to be solid block butter, soft tub or margarine will leave you with a soft biscuit rather than crunchy.

3. Gradually whisk the the flour mix in, you may want to do 1/3 of the bowl at a time to gradually form a soft dough, at the end bring it all together with your hands to form a dough, it will be slightly sticky, so you could slightly flour your hands first.

4. Wrap the dough in cling film and allow to chill in the fridge for at least half an hour, afterwards the dough will be more like a traditional biscuit dough.

5. Just before you're ready to take your dough out of the fridge, preheat your oven to gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment and place to one side.

6. Roll the dough out on a floured surface until about half a centimetre thick. Use a small cutter to cut the biscuits out, we used a rectangle cutter that was about 6cm long and 2cm wide, you could use any shape cutter you like though. We got about 30 biscuits from our dough, after you've got all the biscuits you can from your rolled out dough bring it all back together with your hands, roll it out again and repeat, if the dough starts getting too sticky wrap it back in clingfilm and put it back in the fridge for a little bit, the key here is having firm dough and a floured surface.

7. Place the biscuits on the baking parchment at least an inch apart as they will spread in the oven, you will probably be best cooking in batches, it took us 3 batches of 10 biscuits at a time.

8. Put the biscuits in the oven and bake for 15-17 mins until they are browned, they will be soft to the touch still until they have firmed. Leave them on the baking tray for a few mins to firm up a little, you can tell when they've firmed enough when you can touch them and they feel solid, at this point you can transfer them to a cooling rack to go fully cold. If you've only got one baking tray then you can put your next batch of biscuits onto this one with the same lining paper and put it back in the oven, repeat until all your biscuits are cooked.