Homemade Digestive Biscuits
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.
Homemade Digestive Biscuits
Ingredients
- 100 g medium oatmeal (plus extra for rolling out) see Recipe Notes for alternative
- 50 g wholemeal flour
- 50 g plain white flour use all wholemeal flour if you prefer
- 50 g sugar
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 75 g butter plus extra for greasing
- 1 small egg beaten
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/Gas 5.
Lightly grease two baking trays or line them with baking parchment.
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Take a large mixing bowl and add all the dry ingredients. Mix together.
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Dice or grate the butter then rub it into the dry ingredients until you have a mixture that looks like breadcrumbs.
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Stir in enough of the beaten egg to make a soft dough, using your hands to bring the mixture together.
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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.
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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.
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Prick holes into each biscuit in a pleasing pattern using a skewer or cocktail stick.
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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.
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Recently started baking and found your website. Absolutely love this recipe. I have a new batch cooking in the oven as we speak.
Really enjoy your website and recipes, thank you for sharing these! 🙂
Thanks so much for your lovely comments about my recipes and I’m so pleased you’re enjoying the digestive biscuits!
Ever so pleased to have found your recipe and you website ! I had already weighed about a cup of flour, aiming to follow a recipe I had picked up of arrowroot biscuits… only to find out I had none ! I had plenty of cream of tartar, but that’s no arrowroot ! Well I was puzzled…
So I thought “let’s try some other simple biscuits -as arrowroot ones were meant to be- and why not Digestive ??
After some running through Internet, well, my choice fell on your recipe. No idea why BUT wow, what a treasure Island !
I followed your recipe as you wrote it, only adding – I tried to find the English word for this : walnut expeller shell flour ? (tourteaux de noix) – I was a bit dubious I admit, with the one and only beaten egg to bind the ingredients as a mixture… But it did the job !!
It’s delicious ! I shall wander through you other recipe and enjoy new trials !!
Thank you from Belgium ♥
Thank you Patricia for your very kind and interesting comment! I hadn’t heard of tourteaux de noix but have looked it up now and can imagine it’s a delicious addition to my digestive biscuits. Sounds wonderful!
Following my comment : the first time I bought this “tourteau” at an oil producer in Dordogne (the Moulin de la Veyssière) ; we were granted a very interesting visit !! That’s where I learned that almost everything is used in the walnut ! The residue of pressed walnuts is called “tourteau”. After the cold pressing (or extraction) of the walnut, oil is obtained on one side and ‘tourteau’ on the other ; it used to be given to the cattle, but if finely grinded, one gets a “flour”; apparently one shouldn’t add no more than 10% ‘tourteau’ of the total amount of flour in a recipe. the second time I had the chance to buy some, it was in another oil mill, in a village just below Vezelay ! This last one was much much harder, so break the ‘tourteau’ pellets was quite a challenge !
Thanks again Lynne.
Very interesting, Patricia!
I can’t wait to try this, the comments speak for themselves! Has anyone tried freezing these? I’m wondering if I can make a big batch and keep them in the freezer baked? If not, maybe I’ll just keep some dough in the freezer!
Although I haven’t frozen these biscuits before, I don’t see why you couldn’t (baked or unbaked). Do let me know how it went if you give it a go!
I made these using sprouted wheat flour and blended rolled oats. I suggest scraping the blended oats through a coarse strainer or sieve before measuring, because I found myself picking out more large bits than I had realized were in there. By weighing and measuring, I found the US equivalents were 1 cup for both flours, 1/2 cup granulated white sugar, and the 75g butter was 6 Tablespoons as marked on my (US) stick of butter. I was out of baking soda so I used the same amount of baking powder, it worked fine. My butter was salted, they taste fine with no changes. And my large egg was just enough to make the dough hold together, maybe because the wholemeal sprouted flour craves liquid. I rolled them out using waxed paper instead of flour, which worked well. I forgot to poke holes, but it didn’t matter, they stayed flat and baked beautifully. They’re perfect with my morning coffee, or with cheese and an apple later on. And they dunk better than McVitie’s! I’m keeping my extra cup of oat flour on hand because I’ll definitely be repeating this recipe!
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback – so glad you enjoyed my recipe and how interesting you used sprouted wheat flour! I like that my digestives dunk better than a certain brand too 😁.
I made them again, adding 100g (a cup) of ground pecans. No other changes were needed because pecans are naturally sweet and fat, and they’re so good! You have to try it!
That sounds lovely!
I made these with my 6yr old daughter. She declared I am the best chef in the world after eating one. I don’t think I can take all the credit – it’s a great recipe.
How lovely! And thanks so much for letting me know.
This is a perfect recipe, thank you so much for sharing it! I’ve baked for years, but never thought of making chocolate digestives until we and the ‘local’ (miles away) shop ran out. Usually I try out a recipe, then keep adapting it until it turns out the way I hoped it would. Followed this one to the letter – including whizzing porridge oats to make oatmeal – and the result was biscuits which look exactly like your photo. They’re the best chocolate digestives we’ve had in years. Just the right amount of crunch, not too sweet, a hint of salty tang, and that wonderful butteriness rather than eugh-what’s-that oily-undertaste which has crept into commercially made biscuits. They were an all round winner with the family, and I expect I’ll know the recipe by heart in a week or so. Can’t wait to try more of the recipes you’ve shared!
Thank you for the lovely detailed feedback, Suzy!
Every time I make these I’m still surprised at how good they taste from just a handful of simple ingredients. Can never go back to the commercially made version now! Thanks again 😊
I’ve tried other recipes for digestive biscuits and this one is by far the best and the easiest to follow. It might sound mad but they really taste like digestives, only better! These will definitely be a regular bake from now on. Thanks for a great recipe!
Thank you, Sarah! You just can’t go back to shop bought digestives once you’ve tried the real thing, can you? 😋
This is a great recipe! I was looking for a digestive biscuits recipe for a long time and I finally found yours. I was so impressed with the result that I tried your ginger oat cookies the next day. They all have become our favorites. Thank you!
Thank you for your great comments, Katarina! So glad you enjoyed the ginger oat biscuits as well as my digestives 🙂.
These are fabulous!! followed the recipe EXACTLY. and made them in my food processor. Added half the egg, pulsed a bit more then dumped the dough into the rest of the egg and worked it by hand to a moderately stiff dough, Loved rolling them out on oatmeal……so healthy and so easy to work with. Made 15 cookies and I cooked then at 375F for about 20 – 25 min ….lovely golden brow, crunchy and so very tasty. Thinking without the chocolate maybe 80 cal per cookie?? didn’t calculate….lol…….I will definitely try more of your recipes!! Thanks so much!! mxo
Thank you so much for taking the time to give your lovely feedback 😊!
These were really good. We covered them with chocolate and they were even better the next day. Will definitely be making them again. Thank you.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed them.
Digestives are one of my favourite biscuits and these ones top all that I’ve already tried.
They taste so much better than any you can buy, have a great texture and are also crisp.
I followed the recipe using only wholemeal flour, everything worked fine and the biscuits turned out perfect!
Thanks very much for your time and a great recipe 👍👍
I’ll definitely be making more digestives and trying out some of your other recipes as well.
Thank you for your lovely comments, Alan! Always such a pleasure to read that people are enjoying my recipes 😊.
Thank you for a great recipe! They turned out great the first try, and no mystery ingredients. I’m looking forward to trying your other biscuit recipes!
Thank you for your lovely comments!
Hi, I’m Lucia and I live in Italy.
Thanks for this very special recipe.
We like digestive cookies a lot and it wasn’t easy to find a good recipe for these cookies, but finally, after a lot of research, I found your site and your fabulous recipe.
I have to admit that chocolate is really wonderful.
I congratulate you. (Sorry if you find any spelling mistakes but I used google translate)
Thank you for your lovely comments! (And your spelling is perfect by the way 😀)
A simple and relatively healthy recipe for a lovely biscuit. I so agree with your reasoning about making homemade . I will be baking these again. Thank you so much.
You’re welcome, Steph! And thank you for taking the time to give your feedback.
Love this recipe..Thank you..
Thank you Leela!
Thank you for a most excellent recipe!
Thank you, Ingrid. Glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing, fantastic, thank you. Just made first batch. Easy and quick and delicious. Sold!
Thank you for your lovely comments Pala! So pleased you enjoyed my digestive biscuits recipe!
Just made my first batch. They are really good. Definitely going to try the chocolate version next.
That’s great to hear, Graham!
Many thanks for taking the time to give your feedback and I hope you enjoy the chocolate version (I know you will!).
I tried your recipe, they turned out to be great. All devoured in less than an hour. I felt they were a bit hard, any tips for making them little soft next time? Will surely me making them all the time now:)
Hi Ayesha! Glad you enjoyed the recipe.
The digestives should be crunchy as they’re a British biscuit rather than a soft cookie, but definitely shouldn’t be hard.
Over-worked dough can sometimes result in a hard biscuit so try to handle the dough as little as possible. Also over-baked biscuits will be harder.
Hope this helps!
First attempt at the digestive biscuits recipe was a success – they turned out just like in the picture. Will be making them regularly instead of buying the supermarket version (which I have done for years thinking they were good for me!)
Thanks for your feedback, Diana. So pleased to know that your first attempt at my digestive biscuits was a success!
I have a question before starting, what is oatmeal 🙈 can I make it by grinding/blending oats down to a powder or does it have to be bought specifically, really want to make these as I am in a country that doesn’t sell digestives, thanks in advance!
Yes! you can make your own oatmeal by grinding or blending the oats which are usually sold for making porridge 🙂
So please to have found this excellent recipe and the oatcake/ biscuits are better than any you can buy. Thank you so much.
Thank you for your lovely feedback Jacqui!
Made these with 100% wholemeal and golden caster sugar, I was thinking as they were baking I wonder if these will turn out like my other attempts with other recipes ‘like cardboard’ but I was amazed at the taste and texture of these biscuits, much better that shop bought. Many thanks for a wonderful recipe will never buy McV’s again.
Thank you, Tony!
So pleased that you had great success with my digestive biscuit recipe. I’m still always amazed at how good they are, especially considering the simple ingredients.
Many thanks for taking the time to give your feedback and rate the recipe!
Very good recipe. I’ve also used 100% wholemeal and coarse oatmeal instead of medium oatmeal and the biscuits turned out great. These have become a firm favourite in my household. I can’t seem to keep any for storage for a day let alone store in an airtight container!
Thanks for your 5-star comments, Steve!
I think part of the popularity of this recipe is that, as you’ve found, you can adapt it to your own tastes: more or less wholemeal, different grades of oatmeal etc.
Many thanks for taking the time to give your feedback and rate the recipe.
Looks lovely, will try this recipe! How long can you store the biscuits?
Thank you Neeraja!
Although the biscuits get eaten within a week in our house, there is a comment further down saying that they last up to a month in an airtight container.
Do come back and let me know how it went if you try the recipe!
Delicious biscuits, I used rice flour instead of regular (to cut the gluten right down ) and soft light brown sugar with the fine oatmeal, chocolate will be applied to half ..many thanks !
Good to know that these biscuits are delicious with rice flour too, Helen!
Many thanks for taking the time to give your feedback and rate the recipe.
Looking forward to making a batch of these for my dad. Trying to make him some healthy alternatives. Looks like a lovely recipe and really nice history of digestives in your blog as well! Thank you for posting. 🙂
Thank you! I hope your dad enjoys them 🙂.
Glad you enjoyed reading the post including the history of digestives too.
I took delivery of some wonderful flours today, including a medium biscuit oatmeal and an organic fig, spelt and pumpkin seed flour. I used both of these plus some plain flour. One of your reviewers, Lisa, suggested golden syrup instead of egg which was a brilliant call. I veganised them using vegan butter and the syrup to bind it. The result was 16 absolultely deliciously crunchy digestive biscuits. I used just over half the sugar and totally forgot about the bicarb but I dont think it made much of a difference. Fabulous recipe that will now be a very firm favourite in this household. It is a shame you cannot add photos to posts 🙂
Thank you for your lovely feedback, Adrienne! Great that you’ve adapted it to suit you and the wonderful sounding flours you have.
I saw your biscuits on Instagram and they look fab!
I will look into the possibility of allowing photos on comments here. However, like all blogs, I do receive spam comments that have to be filtered out and, as some of them are rather ‘graphic’ shall we say, I’m not sure I want them sending me photos too! 😱
Thanks again for taking the time to give your feedback. 🙂
That’s a great recipe, thank you.
Excellent recipe, thank you. Just made a batch, still warm, very tasty.
Thank you Lara. So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I followed the recipe and used 100% wholemeal flour and some dusty old oat bran found in the back of the pantry and the biscuits turned out just like those in the pictures. Very easy to make and delicious.
Thanks for the great feedback Kevin! Glad you found the biscuits delicious despite the dusty old oat bran 😄
im not sure if i did something wrong, I would get a food scale, i tried to convert the recipe to cups but it did not come out as expected. i would try it again and give feedback
Hi,
Judging by other commments, most people who follow the recipe to the letter get good results so, as you suggest, it may be that an error crept in when you converted it to cups?
I would definitely get some scales for baking as it’s the best way to get the accurate measurements usually needed.
If so, I hope you have another try and let me know how you get on!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I will be making a VEGAN version for my mum!
Can I substitute the egg with a vegan EGG REPLACER ( Bob mills) or ground up flaxseed ?
And as for the BUTTER, can I use CASHEWS BUTTER instead? I choose cashew because it has a neutral flavour Without affecting the all over original taste .
Any wise suggestions from your good self ?
I look forward to your prompt and favourable reply!
Thanks much!!!!
Elison from Singapore !
Hi Elison,
I’m sorry but I don’t use vegan egg replacers so really don’t know whether using them in this recipe would work.
I’ve also never used nut butters instead of dairy butter so can’t vouch for that.
Thanks for your interest in my recipe though!
Hi Elison. Give it a go and make sure you keep everything really cold during the rubbing in phase. And let us all know how you got on!
Hi Elison,
I have stopped buying products with palm oil after reading about the distressing human rights abuses against women plantation workers in the New Zealand Herald. So no more McVities Digestives for me. I made this recipe with 75gm of NZ extra virgin olive oil. For the egg, which I reckon is there to provide a sticky binder, I substituted a tablespoon of golden syrup, warmed in the microwave to make it runny. I reduced the sugar a bit as a result. The mix was wet enough to roll and flatten well. The result was quite crisp and held together better than I would have thought. The taste was dangerously delicious! Substitute a different oil or dairy-free marg if you don’t like olive oil. Hope that helps!
Many thanks for your input Lisa. I’m sure others will find this helpful.
My pleasure. It was your lovely photos that inspired me to try making digestives for the first time ever. 🙂
I have just made these, and tried one- delicious.
I have been looking for the perfect digestive biscuit recipe for ages..
Thank you.
Thank you for your kind comments Lynn! So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
This dough was very easy to make, but difficult to roll out and cut. It was quite dry and crumbly. I used whole oats that I pulsed in the food processor to make them smaller bits. Should I have ground then further for more of a “cornmeal” texture?
Hi Deborah,
Did you use all of the egg to bind the dough? I find I don’t need all of even a small egg to get the dough to come together, so it’s a bit odd that yours was dry and crumbly.
Perhaps then it was that the oats were in too large pieces. So yes, maybe try processing them until they’re a little finer if you try again?
Could i use fine oatmeal instead of medium oatmeal?
Hi Celina,
Yes, you can use fine, medium or coarse oatmeal. Each will give a slightly different texture to the finished biscuits.
Hope you like them: do come back and let me know!
Do you know how long these last for (assuming in an air-tight container)? Have you ever tried freezing them or freezing them pre-baked? I would like to make a batch, but we just don’t get though biscuits very quickly and would hate for them to go to waste.
Thanks!
Hi Lara,
They usually get eaten in around 4 days in our house, so I’ve never really had to worry about storing them. However, if you scroll down the comments, you’ll see one from Sue Godfrey who let me know that the biscuits keep for about a month in an airtight container.
If you want to store them longer than this then I’d freeze them pre-baked. I’ve never frozen baked biscuits, but I expect you’d run the risk of them going soft.
Hope this helps.
I never make a biscuit before, am very happy to try this recipe which turn out very tasty my family really liked it. I can’t wait to make them again
Thank you Waziri! So pleased that you used my recipe to make your first biscuits and enjoyed them.
Many thanks for taking the time to get in touch. 🙂
Having attempted a number of digestive biscuit recipes (even from posh chefs!), which either resulted in a pile of mealy glue or something that was like rolling sand, at last I have found your recipe that works well without tinkering and is totally delicious. The little bit of sweetness is fab with our local Stilton cheese and what’s more I can use the lovely oatmeal from the mill where my husband volunteers. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
Thank you, Gerry! I agree that you get good results from what’s really quite a simple recipe.
That’s lovely that you can use local oatmeal and Stilton. Funnily enough, I made a batch of these digestives yesterday and today have been to a deli to get one of OUR local blue cheeses to go with them: Dovedale Blue from the Staffordshire Cheese Company.
They are delicious especially with cheese. The only problem is having a sweet tooth I would prefer them a little sweeter.
Is it possible to add another 25g without upsetting the mix?
Hi Jeff,
Yes, as I say in the post, I wanted these biscuits to go with cheese which is why they are relatively low in sugar.
I haven’t tried making them with more sugar, but doubt another 25g would do any harm.
Please do let me know if you try it, as I’m sure other sweet-toothed folks would be interested!
I’ve made these a few times, recently changed the recipe to gluten free flour, coconut flour & added some addition mixed seeds to the recipe. Wow amazing!. As a diabetic I put very little sugar in them.
Thanks for the basis of the recipe
Many thanks for the lovely feedback Clive! So pleased that you enjoyed the recipe and I love the sound of your additions.
I’m sure it will be useful to others to know that the recipe works with gluten free flour too.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment and rate the recipe.
I started making your digestive biscuits at the start of lockdown and haven’t looked back and the recipe is now in use in several of my friends kitchens. No more shop bought ones for me. Well done another batch is being mad3 as we speakxx
That’s great, Sue!
Thanks for taking the time to write such lovely feedback.
Tried this recipe a while ago and loved it. Now I’ve done two variations: the first with chopped walnuts, excellent with cheese; and the second with ground caraway seeds – delicious with or without cheese! Thanks for the inspiration.
Love the sound of your variations, Zena!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and share them.
Great taste and as the previous comment suggested – no more shop bought Digestive biscuits have always been my favourite. May I suggest some some variations.
If you prepare a finer texture then pop the porridge oats in a blender for a second. Additional tastes then put in 3 tablespoons of Ovaltine. I fancied the malt taste but malt powder is about £11 a kilo. So I tried Ovaltine.
And we always use rapidura sugar when ever sugar is required. When rolling out I have two strip of plywood 3mm thick. You get more biscuits and so it lasts longer. Lol Altogether a great taste.
Glad you liked the recipe Peter and many thanks for your tips!
Just made these today in order to make a cheesecake base, after tasting one, I will be making a lot more they are wonderful. I used all wholewheat SR flour, turned out great. Thank you.
Thank you, Sue! So glad you enjoyed the homemade digestive biscuits as much as I do. 🙂
Being a bloke, I can’t work out what ‘oatmeal’ is. Holland and Barrett don’t list it, some websites say it is porridge, others say it’s various kinds of oats themselves. I know this is ‘doh!’ But imagine you don’t know and try googling it! Should I mill some regular porridge oats into a kind of coarse flour? Help!!!!
Hi Tim,
The quick answer is YES you can just grind up your ordinary porridge oats to make oatmeal which, in the UK is just a type of oat flour! 🙂
The longer answer is: in the US, oatmeal is the term for porridge which can be made from different types of oats: in addition to what the UK calls ‘porridge oats’ (fine textured, slightly powdery oats), ‘jumbo’ or ‘rolled oats’ (bigger, flat oats), they also have steel cut oats which take longer to cook.
But here in the UK oatmeal means a flour that’s made from oats, sold as fine, medium or coarse.
I’ve occasionally seen the Mornflake brand of oatmeal in supermarkets and I see that the Grape Tree chain sells it, but I buy unbranded packs of oatmeal from a local whole food shop.
Hope this helps!
It does – thank you greatly. Now I understand. Time to get man-baking (just like baking but with a lot more mess…)
Good luck!
Hi I decided to make these biscuits instead of the normal shop bought ones. I am now making a double batch while I have got the oven on when cooking a roast. The biscuits always come out lovely and keep in an airtight container for about a month. No more supermarket ones for me.
Thank you for the lovely feedback, Sue! I agree it’s certainly hard to go back to shop bought digestives after you’ve found homemade are so much nicer.
It’s great to know that they keep for about a month too. Not that they are likely to last that long in our house 😋
Many thanks for taking the time to comment & rate the recipe, Sue.
Recipe works really well. Even for a novice baker like myself. I may even try to bake something else now!
So pleased to hear that, Mark! Thank you for taking the time to rate the recipe and give feedback: hope you enjoy your baking journey!
These biscuits are my new favorites! With the chocolate coating, they are heavenly.
Thank you so much for the recipe. I even managed to make them almost look good by rolling the dough with an old bottle of rhum!
Thank you for the lovely feedback, Marguerite!
So glad you found my recipe as you seem to enjoy the homemade chocolate digetives as much as I do!
Followed the recipe whilst on lockdown,so straightforward and easy. Excellent result,it’s goodbye to McVities these are in a different league 😊
Thank you for the lovely comments, John!
I have to agree: shop bought digestives taste of nothing but sugar to me after I’d tried homemade.
Think this recipe is brilliant, it is SO easy & SO good, proper digestive biscuits & you know exactly what is in them. Discovered this about a month ago and have made them repeatedly since, they are equally delicious just as a biscuit or with cheese. Am looking forward to trying other recipes from this site, they all look so good! Thank you!
Thank you for your lovely feedback, Kim. Really pleased you like the digestive biscuit recipe ☺️. Do let me know if you try any other recipes!
I love these digestive biscuits. Easy to make and taste so yummy! Yes I am fed up with bought biscuits and cookies being full of cheap ghastly ingredients so homemade is best!
Thanks for the feedback Alison, so glad you enjoyed the digestive biscuits! Shop bought biscuits & cookies just aren’t the same once you start making your own, are they?
my digestive biscuit turns so hard,please solve for me
Sorry to hear that! It’s not a problem I’ve ever had with this recipe. Hard biscuits are usually a result of over-baking (under-baking makes them too soft). If you’ve followed the recipe and suggested timings, then the only thing I can think of is that your oven perhaps runs a little hot? Maybe reduce the temperature next time and keep a close eye on how they’re doing?
It’s usually because of over working the dough.
That’s a very good point, Alison. Thanks for your input!