The humble digestive…. Whether you like yours plain, covered in milk chocolate, dark chocolate, caramel or even butter with a wedge of cheese (yes that is a thing) or butter and fruit-laden jam. The digestive biscuit is a firm family tea-time treat. Here is a super easy recipe to recreate your own homemade milk chocolate digestive biscuit.
There’s no other biscuit like it in my eyes, I love how when pounded into crumbs and mixed with hot melted butter the mixture is the perfect base for any a cheesecake. Or crumbled up and folded in with lashings of melted chocolate for the easiest no-bake ‘cake’. But more than anything I love how I can happily sit down and enjoy them just as they are.
Chocolate biscuits… a trip down memory lane
Not only do they taste just fab but it’s also the nostalgia they conjure up when you bite into one. Every crumbly mouthful reminding me of my childhood when I’d come in from playing outside for hours and hours.
Exhausted yet begrudgingly I’d follow my orders to ‘come on inside’…. Do my parents not understand that I’m about to win the most epic game of ‘1, 2, 3 Dunya’ (again)?! But once in, I’d forget all about the game as there on the side in the comfort of my own home, as always, there would always be a much-needed ice-cold glass of orange squash and a plate stacked full of sweet, buttery biscuits. And of course, guaranteed a milk chocolate digestive would always be present and of course the first to be devoured…. by yours truly 😄.
Can you believe these darling biscuits have been going strong for 126 years?! Never changing, and nor should they … There is only one thing that makes a milk chocolate digestive biscuit better and that’s when they are homemade!
The perfect digestive recipe…
So I scoured the internet and cook books for a recipe (there are so many!) and I finally settled on one from Felicity Cloake. If you would like to make these yummy comforting biscuits then please check out the recipe below.
As I have said before, I’m no baker however it’s very difficult to go wrong with this recipe it’s SUPER EASY! Apart from the chocolate topping, this mixture comes together all in one bowl, so not much washing up – even better! 🙂
These ingredients tend to be store cupboard staples in most homes, however on this occasion I didn’t have any oatmeal in. Not a problem. Simply whizz up some rolled oats in a food processor or Nutri-bullet and there you have it, your very own oatmeal. Once you have all of your dry ingredients it’s time to start.
The process
Sift together the flour and oatmeal, rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs and there are no more big lumps of butter. Add in bicarbonate of soda, salt and the sugar (mine was a bit clumpy so ensure you break it down and stir it all through evenly).
Then add just enough milk to bring the mixture together in a dough, if it becomes too sticky simply add more flour. Flatten the dough into a disc and wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes, in the meantime, preheat oven to 170C (fan).
Once chilled roll the dough out on a floured surface to a thickness of about 4mm and cut the dough into rounds using a cookie cutter. If there is any spare dough left, just re-roll the mixture as above to get as many biscuits as possible out of the dough.
Arrange discs on trays lined with baking paper and decorate with a fork or cocktail stick.
Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until golden (15 minutes if you prefer your biscuits with a crispier finish). Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to crisp up.
While the biscuits are cooling melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Once the biscuits are cool smother one side of each of the biscuits in the chocolate and allow to set. It really is that simple!
We really enjoyed these, I hope you do too.
Milk Chocolate Digestive Biscuits
Home-cooked crumbly digestive biscuits smothered in thick milk chocolate
Ingredients
- 170g wholemeal flour
- 170g medium oatmeal
- 150g cold butter, diced or grated
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 55g dark muscovado sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2-3 tbsp milk
- 150g chocolate (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 Sift together the flour and oatmeal in a food processor or large mixing bowl, then rub in the butter until it looks a bit like breadcrumbs.
- Step 2 If you can’t get hold of oatmeal, simply whizz up some rolled oats in a food processor or Nutri-bullet until fine.
- Step 3 Stir in the bicarb, sugar and salt, then add just enough milk to bring it together into a coherent dough that will hold together well. If the mixture becomes too sticky simply dust mixture with more flour.
- Step 4 Flatten into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Step 5 Preheat the oven to 170C (fan) and line two baking trays with baking parchment. Roll the dough out between two sheets of clingfilm, or on a very lightly floured work surface, until about 4mm thick, then cut out your biscuits. Arrange, spaced out on the trays, and decorate with a fork, skewer or cocktail stick.
- Step 6 Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden (12 if you prefer them soft, 15 for a crisper finish), then cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to crisp up.
- Step 7 Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Once the biscuits are cool, carefully dunk one side of each into the chocolate to coat, and set back on the rack to dry – you can repeat this process several times to build up the layers.
- Step 8 Allow chocolate to set (or not in my case!) and enjoy. 😊
