Now I cannot promise that these biscuits will do anything for your digestion. They are not a health food, but they are full of wholemeal fibre and are better for you than most shop bought biscuits in terms of lack of processed ingredients, and there's no high fructose corn syrup in sight! Hooray!
And oh my word do they taste GOOOOOD.
The humble Digestive is my favourite biscuit ever. It's a hard choice as I'm pretty biscuit-mad, but I love everything about a Digestive: its sweet/salty combo, its dunk-ability and when you slather it in chocolate, well, all the better.
I've had this idea floating around in the back of my mind for a while, and took advantage of a quiet Sunday to get my bake on and give these a try, and I'm oh so glad I did. They are really very good.
Thicker and slightly softer in texture than their shop-bought brothers, but still crisp, these biscuits are hearty and filling - it's really the only time when you'll hear me say that one is probably enough. (At around 180 calories each, one really is a treat)
If you want to leave out the chocolate and just opt for a plain Digestive, then by all means do - I plan to make them plain next time as I think they're super-tasty as is, although will add chocolate when I want an extra treat (without chocolate they come in at around 140 calories each).
The biscuit dough is really simple and quick to make up - chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes before you roll and cut and it will be super-easy to work with. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 170℃ and you'll be left with deliciously crisp golden wonders.
I used Felicity Cloake's "Perfect" recipe from The Guardian website, here as my starting point. However, I made a few alternations to her original recipe: I found the dough to go a lot further than just 10 biscuits, I made 18 really good sized biscuits from this recipe. I also cooked mine for an extra 5 minutes than she suggested (20 mins in total) to get the right texture and I added Caramac chocolate to mine, instead of Felicity's milk chocolate.
Caramac Digestives
(Makes 18)
Ingredients
170g Wholemeal Flour
170g Oatmeal (I use Mornflake)
½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp Salt
150g Butter, cold and grated
55g Dark muscavado sugar
2 tbsp whole milk
150g chocolate, melted (optional) I used Caramac
Method
Mix all your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl with a whisk to get out any large lumps.
Add the grated butter and work into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until it resembles bread crumbs.
Add the sugar and mix well.
Add the milk and bring the mixture together to form a dough.
Wrap in clingfilm and store in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
Preheat oven to 170℃ (fan) and line two baking trays with parchment, select a round cutter from your collection (I used a 2.5" diameter round cutter).
Roll out your dough to around 4mm thick and cut out rounds, placing them on your baking tray. Use a skewer to pierce holes into your biscuits to give that authentic Digestive-look.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. The biscuits will still be a little soft when you get them from the oven, but as they cool they will crisp up. Leave to cool on the baking tray.
Once cooled melt your chocolate over a bain-marie (a bowl over a pan of simmering hot water). Take each biscuit and dip the flat side into the melted chocolate and then place back on to the cooling rack to harden/set. You can keep dipping your biscuits in chocolate to build up a thick layer, or just dip once for a little even coating. I dragged a fork through the almost set chocolate to create a little texture to my chocolate, but you can just leave it to set flat.
Caramac Digestives in the making!
We dived straight into the biscuits once the chocolate had set, and they were so good I had to have two (okay, okay, I know I said one was enough, but I'm greedy, alright?)
They have that sweet-salty balance just right, and with the added chocolate they are just about perfect in my eyes. They are really filling, which can only be a good thing, if they weren't you'd want to eat about six.
So far they've kept well (made on Sunday, it's now Tuesday) in an airtight container, I imagine they'll be okay for another day or so - I'm trying hard to save at least one for my sister who is coming up to stay from tomorrow! It's taking a LOT of self-control.
Biscuit-perfection
They are great stand-alone, or ahhh-mazing dipped in a cuppa (tea or coffee, anything goes!). I've been enjoying one with a cup of tea each day since I made them, and they seem to taste better every time I eat one.
I'm so fond of this recipe that I know it will become my go-to 'quick bake'. I find the biscuits so comforting to eat, and I love that I have all the ingredients in my baking pantry, so no special shopping trip is required. Even better is that I've found something truly delicious to make with the big bags of oatmeal I managed to get for 48p each in Tesco a little while ago, score!
So, lovely blog readers - will you be baking some Digestives of your own, and if you do what will you coat them in?
...Caramac, Galaxy, Cadburys, white chocolate, dark chocolate, or is a plain Digestive how you roll? I'd love to know.
Happy Baking Everyone!
Mrs B
xxx