Homemade Digestive Biscuits

Last weekend I found myself craving something sweet to dip in my tea, but, as regularly happens in this house, there wasn't a biscuit to be found!

I raided the cupboards to no avail, and then I turned to my baking books for a solution. One of the few things that my baking supplies could cater for was digestive biscuits - and even then, I'd have to use oil instead of butter!

Well, the result was fabulous, and we were soon five digestives down and counting. They didn't match up to the shop-bought digestives that we're so fond of (not salty enough, Daniel commented - there was no salt in the recipe, for some reason), so I looked up the ingredients and compared them with my recipe.

The following Sunday I made another batch - the first batch was long gone! - and this time I altered the recipe to make them more 'digestive-like'. Well, it worked a treat - the sweet/salty combination was just right, they had the comforting maltiness of the shop-bought biscuits, and their dunkability was spot on (as tested by us!)! Again I used oil instead of butter, as I thought that olive oil would add to their savoury side, but I think that butter would give them a more crumbly crumb, as these ones are quite crisp.

Still, we are obsessed with these biscuits, and now that I have my own special recipe I can delight in daydreams of handing them to my grandchildren with a glass of milk one day. Until then, Daniel and I will continue to fight over the last biscuit so that I simply have to make more to avoid any fisticuffs!

Homemade Digestive Biscuits (adapted from 'Baking Magic')

100g wholemeal flour
40g plain white flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp rolled oats
1 tsp salt
100g soft brown sugar
8 tbsp olive/groundnut oil, or butter
1 large tbsp malt extract (or if you don't have this, add another tablespoon of oil)
4 tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 190C and line 2 large baking sheets.
2. Mix the flours, baking powder, salt and oats in a bowl. In another large bowl, mix the oil with the sugar and malt extract.
3. Add the flour mix to the wet ingredients. Add the milk a little at a time until it forms a dough (you might need a little more milk here).
4. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth, then roll out until about 3mm thick.
5. Cut into rounds and pop onto the baking sheet, then prick them with a fork for authenticity!
6. Bake for 15 minutes until golden.
 7. Serve with a cup of tea.