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My husband is Philadelphia born and raised, and he needs some copycat Butterscotch Krimpets, since Tastykake won't make them for us.
Can you see my recipe development notes underneath the bowl of dry ingredients?
You'll whisk together the dry ingredients, then mix in most of the wet (see the printable recipe for all the details) and set the batter aside. Clean out the mixing bowl so there remain not a trace of fat (or the egg whites won't form peaks), and beat the 4 egg whites with the whisk until they form stiff, but not dry, peaks form. Like this.
You'll want to bake the cake until it is golden brown all over, especially along the edges and underside. As it cools, it will deflate a bit.
To make the icing, you'll first need to make a batch of this easy butterscotch recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Trust this one. I first made a batch using the recipe from another blog and it was written by some fancy schmancy chef-type, and the proportions were way off. The sauce seized up and was tot-ally useless. I threw a few well-placed expletives in the direction of that fancypants internet source, tossed the mess and turned to this easy recipe. Sweet success within mere minutes.
Now there are a number of non-GF recipes for butterscotch krimpet clones floating around on the interwebs. They all use butterscotch chips for the icing. That won't do. Chips are waxy. That's how they stay individually chippy. No gracias.
It only takes a few minutes to blend butter and confectioner's sugar with some real butterscotch sauce (which itself takes mere minutes to create), and the result is just the right icing. The kind that feels like it might very well peel right off the pastry if you tugged on it, but instead you bite through it and leave little toothy train tracks behind.
Pour the icing on top of the cooled cake, and spread it with a small offset spatula
. If you don't have one, you can use a wide knife, but it would be so much easier if you just got one. I might even consider it a personal favor. They're not expensive and they're super duper useful.
Then chill the iced cake until the icing is set and dry to a light touch. All that's left, then, is to slice it into 9 rectangles and make half-moon cutouts in the sides if you like.
Gluten Free Butterscotch Krimpets
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend (I used Better Batter; please click thru for full info on appropriate blends)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 16 tablespoons (224 g) unsalted butter at room temperature, divided
- 1 cup (8 fluid ounces) milk at room temperature
- 4 (100 g) egg whites at room temperature
- 2 (50 g) egg yolks at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 ½ cups (173 g) confectioner's sugar
- 1 recipe gluten free butterscotch sauce
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 12 inch (or slightly smaller) rectangular pan. Even if your pan is reliably nonstick, butter it, and then set the pan aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and granulated sugar and whisk to combine well. Add 1 stick (8 tablespoons; 112g) unsalted butter, milk, egg yolks, vanilla extract and almond extract to the dry ingredients, blending well after each addition. Transfer the batter to a separate large bowl and wash out the bowl of your mixer well, making sure no fat remains in the bowl. Beat the 4 egg whites in the stand mixer with the whisk attachment on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form (see photo). Scoop half of the egg whites into the bowl of batter, and gently fold in the egg whites until just a few streaks of white remain. Add the rest of the egg whites, and fold again until no white streaks remain. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and shake it gently to create an layer of batter.
- Place the pan in the center of the preheated oven and bake, rotating the pan once during baking, for about 30 minutes or until the cake is nicely puffed and pretty uniformly golden brown (see photo) and the cake has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan. Allow the cake to cool for 5 minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the remaining 1 stick (8 tablespoons; 112g) unsalted butter and the confectioner's sugar, and mix on high speed until well combined. Lower the mixer speed to low, and drizzle in 4 tablespoons of the butterscotch sauce. Add more sauce by the tablespoon until the mixture is very light brown in color (not yellow – more like a khaki color) and smells and tastes of butterscotch. Take care not to add too much butterscotch in search of a very butterscotch-flavored icing or you will thin the icing too much. You want it to be thickly pourable icing — not fluffy frosting and not a thin liquid. This part is key to the authenticity of your krimpets. Refrigerate the rest of the butterscotch sauce in an airtight container.
- With the cooled cake still on the rack, place a piece of parchment paper underneath and pour most of the icing in the center. With a small offset spatula, slowly and carefully spread the icing thickly over the top of the cake. Refrigerate until the icing has set and is nearly dry to the touch.
- With a very sharp chef's knife, slice the cake into 9 rectangular pieces. To achieve the traditional zigzag pattern, on each long side of the rectangles, gently use a small cookie cutter to cut two half moons.
- Serve just slightly more chilly than room temperature.
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Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
Sharon Jackson Wagner on Facebook says
EEEEKKK !!!! Thanks so much for these !!!!!
Susan Denham says
Nicole,
How come in this pictures for your Krimpets, you’re using a WILTON pan, for goodness’ sake???
Just to let you know, I’ve been reading up on the USA Pans, one of your sponsors, you know? I found them at a local Bed, Bath and Beyond, for less than at their website! No s and h!! I have bought my first USA Pan and am so happy to buy something made in THIS COUNTRY!! Now we’ll see how I like baking with it!
Nicole says
I know, Susan! Wilton makes the perfect sized pan for these! It’s just shy of 9×12, and I love it for novelty things like krimpets and rainbow cookies. I’m so ashamed! I still love love love my USA Pans! Love no shipping & handling. It is nice to buy something made in the USofA, isn’t it? And they use 65% recycled steel in their products too. I’m sure you’re going to love the pan. They’re still my favorite. :)
xoxo Nicole
Mandy says
This is very much beside the point, but I almost died when you ended your post with “Do me a solid.” If you said that as a result of the Regular Show, I love this site more than I already thought I did! I’m new to your site and new to gluten free.
(This recipe looks delicious too.)
Nicole says
Hi, Mandy,
I so so want to tell you, ‘yes,’ but until you mentioned it I hadn’t ever heard of The Regular Show! If it’s any consolation, I looked it up and found this promo, so at least now I know what you mean. :)
Welcome to the blog — and to gluten-free. I promise, you’ll soon find that you don’t have to miss a thing being gluten-free. You can have everything except for gluten itself…
xoxo Nicole
Kristy B. says
Just found out I’m pregnant, so bring on the calories! Lol. I can’t wait to make these. :) I also just ate a huge spinach salad, so I deserve it. Lol.
Nicole says
Congratulations, Kristy! The baby wants Krimpets. She already had spinach. ;)
xoxo Nicole
Candace Denise Selph on Facebook says
This looks amazing!
Kerri says
Can you believe this is one of the first foods I thought of when I found out I have celiac? I was going to try to replicate them. I can’t wait to try this recipe!! Thank you!!!
Nicole says
Oh, I believe it, Kerri! Easily. I can’t believe it took me this long to replicate butterscotch krimpets. I wrapped each individually in Press ‘n’ Seal, and my husband even said that he did the Philly trick of chilling it and then rubbing the iced side on a flat surface to get it to release from the wrap — and it worked! That has to be a good omen. :) I hope you enjoy them as much as he did.
xoxo Nicole
Barbara Weber Wethman on Facebook says
OMG your killing me…..I need to lose 20 pounds so bad…I’ll have to print this out for future use :)
Lisa Martinez on Facebook says
OMG!!like i always say”there are NO ACCIDENTS”:)…i was just having a conversation with my children about tastykake krimpets:), i am also from Philly, and miss these treats something terrible:)…U TOTALLY ROCK:)…thanks 4 sharing:)