Contents
A wholemeal, semi-sweet biscuit invented in Scotland in 1839 and named for the baking soda in it, which was thought to aid digestion. The claim was never sound — the name is not permitted on packaging in the United States for exactly that reason — but the biscuit is a genuinely useful piece of engineering: coarse enough to have flavour, dry enough to keep, and structurally the base of half the cheesecakes in Britain.
What makes it work
- Coarse wholemeal, not fine. The bran flecks are the texture. A fine wholemeal flour gives a biscuit that tastes wholemeal but eats like a plain one. See flour and Wheat.
- Oatmeal in the mix, medium grind. Traditional recipes are part wheat, part oat; the oat is what gives the sandy, slightly gritty break. See oats.
- Very little liquid. Two tablespoons of milk, no more. This is a short, crumbly dough that must be pressed rather than kneaded.
- Dock every biscuit. The fork holes let steam out; without them they dome and then crack.
- Bake dry. 18 minutes at 170 °C, and then leave them on the tray. A digestive that bends is underbaked.
Ingredients
Makes about 24.
- 150 g coarse wholemeal flour
- 100 g medium oatmeal, or rolled oats blitzed coarse
- 75 g all-purpose flour
- 100 g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 75 g light brown sugar
- 5 g baking powder
- 3 g baking soda
- 4 g fine salt
- 2–3 tbsp milk
Optional chocolate coating: 200 g dark or milk chocolate — see Chocolates
Method
Rub the butter into the flours, oatmeal, sugar, leavenings and salt until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Add the milk a spoonful at a time and press the mixture together — it should just cohere, and no more.
Roll between parchment to 5 mm and cut 7 cm rounds. Prick each three or four times with a fork.
Bake 170 °C / 340 °F for 16–18 minutes, until evenly sand-coloured. Cool on the tray; they crisp entirely as they cool.
For chocolate digestives, temper or simply melt the chocolate, spread a spoonful on the flat underside of each cooled biscuit, and draw a fork across it in waves. Set chocolate-side up.
Notes
- The chocolate goes on the bottom. This is not a whim: the factory dips them upside down, and the wavy pattern is the underside of the biscuit as it sat in the mould. Everyone eats them chocolate-side down.
- Crushed digestives plus melted butter, 200 g to 100 g, is the standard cheesecake base — see new york cheesecake.
- Keeps three weeks in a tin. Humidity is the only enemy.
Elsewhere on the site
Method and theory: Cookie recipes · cookies · oats · flour
Nearby: anzac biscuits · oatmeal lace cookies · speculoos