Ginger Oat Biscuits

Ginger Oat Biscuits are crispy, crunchy, sweet, and buttery, with the warmly spicy flavour of both ground ginger and stem ginger. A cousin of digestive biscuits, the combination of oats and wholemeal flour gives a lovely rustic texture.

Neither hard like traditional ginger nuts, nor soft like a cookie, these are a British style biscuit: perfect for dunking in a cuppa.

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I do love a homemade oaty biscuit.

There’s something so wholesome and rustic about them.

And I think that’s true whether it’s my ever popular Homemade Digestive Biscuits, savoury Scottish Oatcakes in various flavours, or relative newcomer Zesty Oat Biscuits.

Today I want to share with you my latest favourite. Simple but delicious Ginger Oat Biscuits.

GINGER OAT BISCUITS

OATS

To get a good oaty flavour in the biscuits, I use half flour and half oats.

I use more wholemeal than white flour, plus rolled oats and medium oatmeal. For me, these give the right balance of texture and flavour.

If you can’t find oatmeal, then it’s simple enough to make your own. Just whizz rolled oats or porridge oats in a blender or coffee grinder until your desired fineness is reached.

By the way, in case you’re confused about what oatmeal is: here in Britain, it’s basically flour made from oats. What Americans refer to as oatmeal we call porridge.

When making the Ginger & Oat Biscuits, feel free to alter the ratios of oats, oatmeal and flour or replace the white flour with more wholemeal.

GINGER

For lots of warmly spicy ginger flavour I’ve included both ground ginger and stem ginger.

If you’re not already familiar with it, you buy stem ginger in jars.

In consists of several ‘balls’ of ginger suspended in a gingery syrup.

Note that this is not the same as crystallised ginger. Crystallised ginger is much sweeter with a sugary coating and isn’t suitable for this recipe.

For my Ginger Oat Biscuits, I use four balls of stem ginger, finely chopped, plus two heaped teaspoons of ground ginger.

I find that, like many ground spices, ginger can lose its flavour quite quickly once opened. So do check yours is nice and pungent before making these biscuits.

Learn more about ginger here

OTHER INGREDIENTS

Besides the oats, flour, and ginger, the only other ingredients you’ll need are:

• Butter: I include a generous amount of butter because I love a buttery biscuit!
• Sugar: these are unashamedly sweet biscuits, but I suspect you could reduce the sugar by a quarter if you wanted to. Note that the recipe hasn’t been tested with less sugar though.
• Egg: to bind the dough.
• Bicarbonate of soda: not baking powder.
• Salt: just a pinch to balance the sweetness.

EASY GINGER OAT BISCUITS

Making the biscuit dough is dead simple.

Start by taking a mixing bowl and stirring together the flours, oats, oatmeal, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda.

Then rub in the butter and stir in the sugar and chopped stem ginger.

Finally, add just enough egg to bring the ingredients into a dough. Try not to add too much or the dough will be sticky. I usually find that half an egg is plenty (my lucky dog gets to enjoy the rest!).

As it’s a softish dough, you’ll need to chill it in the fridge for at least thirty minutes. Otherwise, it will be impossible to roll out.

While that’s happening, you can preheat your oven and line a couple of trays with baking parchment.

When I’m ready to roll, I find it easiest to work with half the dough at a time. Leave the other half in the fridge.

Sprinkle plenty of wholemeal flour over your worksurface and rolling pin, then roll out no more than 3-4 millimetres thick.

Using a 6-7 centimetre cutter, you should get around 24 biscuits after using both halves of dough and re-rolling the scraps.

When you place the cut-out biscuits on the baking trays, make sure to well space them as they do spread.

The biscuits should take 15 – 18 minutes to get golden brown and cooked all the way through.

Don’t be alarmed if they still feel a little springy to the touch. This is normal, so don’t be tempted to overbake them.

As the biscuits cool, they’ll firm up nicely. When completely cold, they’ll be crispy and crunchy. A proper British biccie in fact.

A VERY BRITISH BISCUIT

Sweet and buttery, with the warmly spicy flavour of ginger plus a rustic texture from oats and wholemeal flour, I love these Ginger Oat Biscuits.

Neither tooth-crackingly hard like traditional ginger nuts, nor soft like an American style cookie, these are a British biscuit.

Which means they’re perfect with a cuppa and for dunking.

Simple to make, the biscuits should keep in an airtight tin for at least a week.

But, so good, I haven’t managed to resist them that long!

If you’ve made my Ginger Oat Biscuits, I’d love to know how it went.

Do leave a comment below and rate the recipe.

5 from 5 votes

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Ginger Oat Biscuits

Crispy, crunchy, sweet and buttery, oat biscuits with the warmly spicy flavour of ground and stem ginger.

Course Snack, Biscuit

Cuisine British

Keyword homemade biscuits, oats, baking

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes

Chilling the dough 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 8 minutes

Servings 24 biscuits

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 70 g plain wholemeal flour plus extra for rolling out
• 60 g medium oatmeal see Recipe Note #1
• 60 g rolled oats or porridge oats
• 50 g plain white flour can be replaced with wholemeal flour
• 2 rounded tsp ground ginger
• 1 pinch salt
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 120 g butter diced
• 100 g sugar see Recipe Note #2
• 4 balls stem ginger (approx 75g) finely chopped
• 1 small egg beaten

Instructions

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flours, oatmeal, oats, ground ginger, salt and bicarbonate of soda.

   Rub in the butter.

   Stir in the sugar and chopped stem ginger.

   Add just enough of the beaten egg to bring together into a firm dough: don't add too much or the dough will be sticky.

   Sprinkle your work surface with wholemeal flour and lightly knead the dough into a smooth ball.

   Lightly flatten the dough, wrap in foil or cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

2. While the dough is chilling:

   - preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4.

   - line two baking trays with baking paper.

3. Divide the dough in half, rewrap one half and put it back in the fridge.

4. Dust your worksurface and rolling pin with wholemeal flour, then roll out the first half of dough approximately 3-4 mm thick.

   Stamp out biscuits using a 6-7 cm cutter and put them on a baking tray: leave space between them as they will spread.

   Gather the scraps, re-roll and stamp out more biscuits, keeping the work surface and rolling pin well-floured.

   Repeat with the second half of dough.

5. Put the trays towards the middle of the oven and bake until golden brown and cooked all the way through (approx 15-18 min): don't worry if the biscuits are still a little soft at this point: they will firm up as they cool.

6. Leave the biscuits to cool on the trays for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack until completely cold. They should be crisp when cold.

   Stored in an airtight container the biscuits should keep for at least a week.

Recipe Notes

Note #1 If preferred, use fine or coarse rather than medium oatmeal.

You can also make your own oatmeal by whizzing rolled oats or porridge oats in a blender or coffee grinder until the desired fineness is reached.

 

Note #2 These are a sweet biscuit. Although the recipe hasn't been tested using less sugar, I see no reason why you couldn't reduce it by 25 grams for a less sweet taste.

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