Crunchy and grainy in texture, homemade easy Digestive Biscuits have a sweet yet slightly salty flavour. Delicious with a cuppa or topped with a chunk of your favourite cheese🧀.
If you are keen to make your own biscuits for cheese 🧀 then may I introduce you to these wonderful homemade easy Digestive Biscuits. Make these alongside my mom's recipe for Little Cheese and Ham Biscuits and you will have the perfect accompaniment for your cheese board!
The Digestives are crunchy, and sweet but salty and pair well with a strong cheese. Cheese and Ham biscuits are peppery and spicy and therefore perfect on their own or with a chunk of cheddar.
For my lovely American readers, digestive biscuits are very similar to Graham crackers.
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Why make these Digestive Biscuits?
The great thing about homemade easy Digestive Biscuits is that they work as either sweet biscuits (preferably dunked in a cup of steaming hot tea) or as a cheese biscuit. Win-Win!
Crunchy and grainy texture✔️
Great as sweet biscuit✔️
Perfect on a cheeseboard✔️
Quick and super easy✔️
Handful of store cupboard ingredients✔️
Ingredients
See Recipe Card below for quantities
- Porridge oats (or oatmeal)
- Wholemeal flour
- Plain flour (all-purpose)
- Caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- Fine salt
- Unsalted butter (cold)
- Baking powder
- Milk (cold)
Instructions
See Recipe Card below for exact instructions.
Note: you do not have to make these homemade digestive biscuits in a food processor for this recipe, you make make these homemade digestive biscuits by hand.
If you don't have oatmeal (it is not readily available in the UK so neither did I), simply take your porridge oats and whizz them in a Nutribullet or food processor to blitz them into a grainy powder. Set aside.
Add your wholemeal and plain (all-purpose) flour, baking powder and fine salt in your food processor and whizz a few times in order to combine them all together. Or mix by hand in a large mixing bowl if not using a food processor.
Chop your cold butter up into small cubes so that it mixes in easily and dot over your flour mixture. Pulse your food processor until the butter has been fully mixed in and the consistency is sand-like. Or rub with your fingertips if you are not using a food processor.
Tip: give the food processor bowl a shake halfway through to bring the dry mixture from the base up to the top and thus ensure it fully combines with the butter.
Add your ground porridge oats (or oatmeal) and sugar and pulse again briefly until equally mixed in. Or stir in if making by hand.
Add your cold milk in one go and again pulse until the mixture just begins to clump together, then tip out onto a clean work surface and bring it together into a ball. If making by hand use a fork to mix in the milk.
Lightly flour your work surface and then knead your digestive biscuit mixture for a minute, until the dough is combined and smooth.
Cover a heavy-based baking sheet with a sheet of greaseproof (parchment) paper, lightly flour your work surface and then roll out your digestive biscuit dough to a depth of about 4 millimetres. Take a 5 ½ centimetre biscuit cutter and cut out 24 biscuits. Refrigerate your biscuits whilst your oven comes up to temperature.
Bake your digestive biscuits for about 12 minutes until lightly golden. Using a spatula because the biscuits will be hot and soft, remove them onto your cooling rack and leave them to cool completely.
Substitutions
There are only a few ingredients in this homemade easy digestive biscuit recipe, so not too much scope for change other than the following:
- Caster (superfine) sugar - you can use golden caster sugar or pulse granulated sugar in a food process or Nutribullet until it becomes fine, be careful to stop in time though otherwise, it will simply turn to powder.
Variations
This recipe makes beautiful plain digestive biscuits, however, they can easily be changed up ...
- Chocolate digestive biscuit recipe - melt 200 grams (one Cup) of milk or dark chocolate drops by adding them to a microwavable dish and heating in blasts of 10 seconds in your microwave, stirring in between. Place your cooled digestive biscuits on a cooling rack and, using a teaspoon, drizzle your melted hot chocolate over the base of your biscuit, spreading it out right to the edge. Use a fork to pull through the chocolate to create that typical chocolate digestive appearance.
Equipment
The key equipment you will need to make your perfect Digestive Biscuits are:
Straight sided cookie-cutter - 5 ½ centimetre in diameter
Food processor (optional) or large mixing bowl
Heavy-based large baking tray
Greaseproof (parchment) paper
Cooling rack
Measuring spoons
Spatula
Rolling pin
Storage
These easy digestive biscuits should be stored, once cooled, in an airtight container at room temperature.
They are best consumed within a few days of baking but will keep well for about 10 days.
Top tips for Perfect Homemade Digestive Biscuits
Use cold butter - as with pastry it is better to use cold butter when making biscuits and cookies because it melts whilst baking and creates steam within the biscuit, this then gives a crunchy texture.
Refrigerate biscuits before baking - this is so vital! Refrigerating sets the butter inside the biscuit dough and prevents them from spreading whilst baking, you don't want super-flat cookies!
Cool on a cooling wrack - using a spatula, carefully remove your Digestive Biscuits to a cooling rack so that the base of your biscuits crisp up.
Digestive biscuits are predominantly made with wholemeal flour, so there is a higher fibre content to them than in normal biscuits however, despite the implication in their name, digestive biscuits do not particularly aid digestion.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Little Cheese and Ham Biscuits made with parma ham, cheddar cheese and a hit of cayenne pepper these little cheesy biscuits are absolutely delicious on their own (we have them to nibble out throughout Christmas Day!) or with cheese.
Orange, Pistachio and Cranberry Shortbread dipped in dark or white chocolate and sprinkled with chopped cranberries and pistachios make a really special Christmas treat.
Biscoff Butter Cookies These are soft, melt-in-the-mouth butter cookies sandwiched together with a delicious Lotus Biscoff spread.
📖 Recipe
Homemade Easy Digestive Biscuits
Here's what you'll need...
- Food processor or large mixing bowl
- Greaseproof paper parchment paper
Ingredients you'll need...
- 30 g Porridge oats or oatmeal (⅓ Cup)
- 145 g Wholemeal flour (1 Cup)
- 35 g Plain flour all-purpose flour (¼ Cup)
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder level
- ½ teaspoon Fine salt level
- 80 g Unsalted butter cold (6 tablespoons)
- 80 g Caster sugar superfine sugar (6 tablespoons)
- 6 tablespoon Milk cold
Here's what we do...
- If using porridge oats and not oatmeal, blitz the oats in a food processor or Nutribullet until slightly grainy but not powdery.
- Add your wholemeal flour, plain flour, baking powder and salt to your food processor and whizz briefly to mix together. Or mix together in a mixing bowl.
- Cut your cold butter up into small cubes and dot over your flour mixture.
- Pulse your food processor in blasts until the butter has all been evenly mixed in. Give the mixture a shake or a mix in-between to be sure the butter mixes in evenly.
- Add your now flour-like oats (or oatmeal) and caster sugar and pulse again briefly until evenly mixed in.
- Next, add your cold milk in one go and again pulse your mixer until it just begins to clump together.
- Tip the mixture out onto your work surface and bring together into a ball.
- Lightly flour your work surface and then knead your digestive biscuit dough for a minute, until it feels smoother.
- Sprinkle a little extra flour over your rolling pin and then roll the dough out to a depth of about 4 millimetres and then cut out 24 biscuits. You will need to flour your work surface and re-roll your dough in between.
- Cover your heavy-based baking sheet with a piece of greaseproof paper and then place your cut-out digestive biscuits onto the tray with a space of about 2 centimetres between each one.
- Place the baking tray into your fridge for at least 10 minutes to set the dough and thus ensure the digestives don't spread when baking. Whilst they are in the fridge heat your oven to 170°C Fan/190°C/Gas mark 5/375°F.
- Bake your digestive biscuits for about 12 minutes, until they are lightly golden all over.
- Using a spatula or similar implement remove the digestive biscuits to a cooling rack and allow to completely cool.
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