Zesty Oat Biscuits

Zesty Oat Biscuits are crispy, crunchy, and perfect with a cuppa. With a nutritious base of wholemeal flour and oats, they’re a cousin of digestive biscuits, but with the zesty flavours of orange, lemon and lime.

Buttery and sweet, I like to add plumped dried fruit in the form of juicy sultanas and mixed dried peel too.

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One of my most popular blog recipes continues to be Homemade Digestive Biscuits.

Semi-sweet and with a satisfying wholemeal, oaty flavour, they’re equally good whether dunked in a cup of tea or eaten with cheese.

On this crunchy yet solid foundation, I decided to create a new biscuit. I still wanted them to have that homely, rustic feel. But I was also aiming for something a little lighter, a bit sweeter and with additional flavours.

The result was my current favourite: Zesty Oat Biscuits.

ZESTY OAT BISCUITS

I wonder if any else remembers McVities’ Fruit Jaspers? From memory, I believe they were around in the 1990s but discontinued in the early 2000s.

They were flavoured with orange, lemon and lime and, I think, had dried fruits and oats too.

Anyway, it was those half-remembered biscuits I had in mind when creating my Zesty Oat Biscuits.

OATS

To get a good oaty flavour (and what’s the point of an oat biscuit otherwise?) my recipe is split 50:50 with half flour and half oats.

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

Feel free to alter the ratios, including replacing the white flour with all wholemeal. 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.

FRUITY

You’ll need a big orange, a lemon and two limes to get a good zingy citrus flavour. I take the zest off the fruits then, because long bits of zest sticking out of the dough are a pain when cutting out the biscuits, I chop it finely.

If you have no plans for the rest of the fresh fruit, then I recommended squeezing their juice and using it to plump up the dried fruit. This step not only adds more citrus flavour, but makes the dried fruit juicier.

I include sultanas and mixed dried peel in my biscuits.

You can replace the peel with more sultanas if you like but, either way, put them in a small saucepan with the citrus juice. Bring to the boil, take off the heat, then leave to soak while you get started on making the dough.

MAKING THE BISCUIT DOUGH

Making the dough is very easy.

After mixing together your flour, oats and oatmeal with a little salt and bicarbonate of soda, butter is rubbed in. Due to the oats, you won’t get the classic ‘breadcrumb’ look after rubbing in, but it doesn’t matter. Just make sure there are no large bits of butter un-rubbed in.

Next, you stir in sugar, the citrus zest and the dried fruit, making sure you thoroughly drain the sultanas and peel if you soaked them.

Finally, add enough (an oeuf? 😄 ) egg to bring everything together into a soft dough.

To make rolling out easier, I recommend you chill the dough in the fridge for 3o minutes.

ROLLING OUT & BAKING THE BISCUITS

I find it easiest to work with half the dough at a time, leaving the remainder in the fridge.

Rolling out the dough to a thickness of 3-4mm is about right for these biscuits. Using a 6-7cm cutter should give you around 25 biscuits in total.

Zesty Oat Biscuits will take between 13-18 minutes to get dark golden and cooked all the way through. During this time, your kitchen will smell wonderfully citrusy and oaty!

When the biscuits are done, don’t worry if they still feel a little springy underneath. They’ll get crispier as they cool on a wire rack.

A LIGHTER, ZINGIER DIGESTIVE BISCUIT

It took a few tries to get these fantastic biscuits absolutely perfect. But I’m so glad I persisted and got them even better each time.

A few more oats, less white flour, plus more and more fruity flavour!

I love the combination of wholemeal, oaty goodness that feels homely and rustic with the refreshing tartness of citrus. And the little nuggets of plumped up dried fruit just add to the pleasure.

If you make my Zesty Oat Biscuits, I’d love to know what you thought.

Leave a comment below and don’t forget to rate the recipe.

5 from 2 votes

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Zesty Oat Biscuits

With a nutritious base of wholemeal flour and oats, these crunchy biscuits are a cousin of digestive biscuits, but with the zesty flavours of orange, lemon and lime.

Course Snack, Biscuit

Cuisine British

Keyword digestive biscuits, homemade digestive biscuits, oats

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Chill time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 25 biscuits with a 6-7cm cutter (approx)

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 2 limes
• 1 large orange
• 1 large lemon
• 30 g sultanas
• 20 g mixed dried peel can be replaced with more sultanas
• 70 g plain wholemeal flour plus extra for rolling
• 60 g medium oatmeal see Recipe Notes
• 60 g rolled oats or porridge oats
• 50 g plain white flour can be replaced with wholemeal or oatmeal
• 1 pinch salt
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 120 g butter
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1 egg, beaten you will probably not need all of it

Instructions

1. Remove the zest from the limes, orange and lemon, chop it finely then set aside.

2. Optional step

   Squeeze the juice from the limes, orange and lemon and put it in a small saucepan along with the sultanas and dried peel if using.

   Bring to the boil, then take off the heat and leave to cool while you prepare the rest of the dough.

3. Put the flours, oatmeal, oats, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl.

   Rub in the butter.

   If you soaked the sultanas and peel at Step 2, drain them well and blot on kitchen paper.

4. Stir the sugar, zest, sultanas and dried peel into the rubbed-in mixture.

5. Add enough of the beaten egg to make a stiff dough.

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

   Wrap the dough in cling film or foil and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

   Meanwhile:

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

   - grease two baking trays or line them with baking parchment.

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

8. Flour your worksurface and rolling pin, then roll out the first half ball of dough approximately 3-4 mm thick.

   Stamp out biscuits using a 6-7 cm cutter and put them on a baking tray.

   Gather together the scraps, re-roll and stamp out more biscuits.

   Repeat with the second half of dough.

9. Put the trays towards the middle of the oven & bake until dark golden and cooked all the way through (approx 13-18 min).

10. Leave the biscuits to cool on the trays for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack where they'll crisp up more as they cool.

    When completely cold, store the biscuits in an airtight container.

Recipe Notes

If preferred, use fine or coarse 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.

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