Homemade Digestive Biscuits are the latest result of my efforts to replace palm oil-laden, store bought products with delicious, easy homemade versions.
Crunchy, crumbly and with a satisfying wholemeal, oaty flavour, I think these are miles ahead of the packet versions.
Not too sweet, they’re perfect for dunking in a cup of tea or even eating with cheese or homemade Potted Cheese.
You can even turn them into an extra special treat by adding a layer of chocolate to make Homemade Chocolate Digestives too!
Jump to Recipe
THE INVENTION OF DIGESTIVE BISCUITS (AND HOW THEY WERE RUINED)
Digestive biscuits were developed by two Scottish doctors in the early nineteenth century who claimed they helped with digestion. This was due to the bicarbonate of soda included in the ingredients.
If you ever get heartburn or indigestion, try dissolving a teaspoonful of bicarb in a glass of water and drinking it. Almost immediately, you’ll feel its antacid effects in the form of one or more rather large burps. Pretty useful if you’ve been out on the tiles and have run out of pharmacy remedies.
Although I think the digestive biscuit’s healthy aura always was a bit of a swizz, they did have a few things going for them.
Digestive biscuits traditionally contain wholemeal flour and oatmeal. Both of these are good for your fibre intake.
They also, again traditionally at least, contain less sugar than many biscuits. Semi-sweet, they used to be equally at home with a piece of cheese as being dunked in a cup of tea. [UPDATE: try my Scottish Oatcakes recipe for a completely savoury biscuit to eat with cheese].
But, oh dear. What happened to the oaty, wholemeal digestive of old with its satisfying balance of sweet and salty?
I say: ruined by too much white flour, too much sugar, an absence of oats, the inclusion of Frankenstein ingredients like ‘Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup’ and environmentally disastrous palm oil.
HOMEMADE DIGESTIVE BISCUITS
In contrast, Homemade Digestive Biscuits are a thing of beauty to the eye and tongue. Just looking at one, you know it’s going to be good.
They’ve a pleasing, grainy texture from wholemeal flour and slightly coarse, medium oatmeal. Tip: if you can’t find oatmeal in the shops, just whizz up some porridge oats in a blender!
Yes, there’s sugar in there, but not that much (about one teaspoon per large biscuit). The original bicarbonate of soda is there too, giving a little rise and a subtle bitterness.
But I’m not kidding myself I’m making a health food here (especially if you go for the chocolate version). Homemade Digestive Biscuits are an occasional treat.
The other ingredients are butter for richness and beaten egg to bind the dough. You really only need a small egg but, as I buy large, I just tip in about two thirds or three quarters. My dog is usually the lucky recipient of the remainder.
The dough is fairly easy to work with, provided you generously sprinkle your work surface with more oatmeal while rolling out. Using flour instead would do the same job of preventing the dough sticking, but oatmeal gives more goodness, flavour and texture.
I recommend rolling the dough no thicker than 3-5 mm. This shold give you 12-15 biscuits with an 8cm cutter. I wouldn’t roll the dough thicker than half a centimetre, as the digestives might not get crisp all the way through.
After fifteen to twenty minutes in the oven, the biscuits will be brown and delicious. Leave them on a cooling rack and they’ll crisp up a little more.
THE DUNK TEST
My Homemade Digestive Biscuits are undoubtedly tasty, crunchy, moreish and dead easy to make. But for many people, that’s just not enough.
What they’ll want to know is, can you dunk them?
I’m happy to report that yes, you can successfully dunk Homemade Digestive Biscuits.
After a second or two of dunking, the biscuits soaked up just enough of the tea too moisten them without going floppy. However, if you’re a prolonged dunker than I’m afraid you’re on your own. Moorlands Eater cannot guarantee non-soggy biscuits if you go over the suggested maximum of two seconds.
HOMEMADE IS BEST
I think these Homemade Digestive Biscuits knock the socks off any you can buy. Made with real, wholesome ingredients they’re so much more satisfying than the over-sweet, shop bought versions.
As with my Easy Homemade Crackers, I was initially prompted to make them by the discovery that the leading brands for both contained palm oil. This shouldn’t be surprising: they’re owned by the same massive international company.
But after making the biscuits, and the crackers, I wonder why I ever bothered with the packet ones. In both cases, the homemade version was far superior and really didn’t require that much work.
We shouldn’t be having a lot of these foods regularly anyway. So, when we do eat them, why not make them as delicious as possible? For me, that means making at home.
What are you putting in your shopping basket that might be made much better at home?
UPDATE FEBRUARY 2019: HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE DIGESTIVE BISCUITS
After discovering just how easy and delicious Homemade Digestive Biscuits were, how could I not make a batch of Chocolate digestive biscuits?
These turned out wonderfully well too.
All I did was melt 100 grams of 70% dark chocolate then dip one side of each digestive into it before placing on a rack to set. Choccie side up, obviously.
If you don’t go mad with it, then the 100g of chocolate should be enough to half-coat the whole batch. Of course, if you want them totally covered in choccie the just melt lots more.
Have you tried these Homemade Digestive Biscuits?
Leave a comment & don’t forget to rate the recipe.
4.94 from 49 votes
Homemade Digestive Biscuits
Semi-sweet & oaty, Homemade Digestive Biscuits are miles better than the packet versions. Easy to make and perfect to dunk in tea or even eat with cheese. See Recipe Notes to turn them into Homemade Chocolate Digestives.
CourseSnack, Biscuit
CuisineBritish
Keyworddigestive biscuits, biscuits, homemade biscuits, homemade digestive biscuits
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 12 - 15 biscuits, depending on how thinly you roll the dough
Author Moorlands Eater
Ingredients
- 100gmedium oatmeal (plus extra for rolling out)see Recipe Notes for alternative
- 50gwholemeal flour
- 50gplain white flouruse all wholemeal flour if you prefer
- 50gsugar
- 0.5tspsalt
- 0.5tspbicarbonate of soda
- 75gbutterplus extra for greasing
- 1smalleggbeaten
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/Gas 5.
Lightly grease two baking trays or line them with baking parchment.
Take a large mixing bowl and add all the dry ingredients. Mix together.
Dice or grate the butter then rub it into the dry ingredients until you have a mixture that looks like breadcrumbs.
Stir in enough of the beaten egg to make a soft dough, using your hands to bring the mixture together.
Generously sprinkle the work surface with oatmeal. Put the dough on the oatmeal, sprinkle more over the top then roll out 3-5 mm thick.
Using a round, 8cm cutter, cut out biscuits and transfer them to the greased baking trays.
Gather up the scraps, re-roll and cut out more biscuits until all the dough is used up, dusting with more oatmeal as needed.
Depending how thick you rolled the dough, you should get 12-15 biscuits.
Prick holes into each biscuit in a pleasing pattern using a skewer or co*cktail stick.
Put the trays of biscuits in the preheated oven until cooked through and golden brown (15-20 min). Turn the trays around half way through if the biscuits are cooking unevenly.
Transfer biscuits to a wire rack until completely cold before storing in an airtight container.
Recipe Notes
OATMEAL If you can't find oatmeal in the shops, you can make your own by whizzing up porridge oats in a blender.
HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE DIGESTIVES
To coat one side of each cooled biscuit with chocolate:
- melt 100g of 70% dark chocolate in a microwave: stirring every 10-20 seconds, it should take between 1-2 minutes.
- carefully dip the back of each digestive into the melted chocolate the put on a wire rack to set, chocolate side up.
