A Digestive Biscuit. Very British!

My guest taster was given a very special bottle of wine:  an 80 year old bottle of Sercial Madeira.  We were told it would go best with cheese, nuts, and digestive biscuits.  I accepted the challenge and found a recipe for the biscuits, all the while wondering why they are called that.

A quick trip to Wikipedia answered my question.  Two Scottish doctors created the biscuit in 1839 with the idea it would help with digestion, because of the supposed antacid properties from the sodium bicarbonate in them.  (Click here for the article.)  It was also pointed out that,

[d]igestive biscuits are frequently eaten with tea or coffee.  Sometimes, the biscuit is dunked into the tea and eaten quickly due to the biscuit's tendency to disintegrate when wet.  Digestive biscuits are one of the top 10 biscuits in the United Kingdom for dunking in tea.  The digestive biscuit is also used as a cracker with cheeses, and is often included in "cracker selection" packets.

I found a recipe in The English Biscuit and Cookie Book by Sonia Allison.  Ms. Allison describes them as "Traditional midmorning and very British biscuits".

ISBN 0-312-25347-8

Digestive Biscuits (page 8)

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon oatmeal

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons brown sugar

3 to 4 tablespoons cold milk

Cold butter, cold whole wheat flour, cold milk

1.  Sift the flours and baking powder into a bowl.   Add the oatmeal.

2.  Rub in the butter.  Add the sugar.  Run the mixture through the fingers to mix well.

3.  Using a fork, stir in the milk to form a stiff paste.

4.  Turn onto a floured surface.  Knead lightly until smooth.  Roll out thinly.

5.  Cut into 12 rounds with a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter, re-rolling and re-cutting trimmings to make the required number.

6.  Transfer to greased cookie sheets and prick all over with a fork. 

7.  Bake until pale gold, allowing 15 to 18 minutes in an oven preheated to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

8.  Cool on a wire rack.  Store in an airtight tin when cold.

My Notes

Start the oven preheating!

When I read over the recipe, it struck me that it is basically a pie crust made with whole- wheat flour and with sugar added.  So I treated it as such.

I measured out the butter first (4 tablespoons is 2 ounces) and put it in the freezer.  It wasn't frozen solid but it was very cold.  

My whole-wheat flour lives in the freezer, so it was used that cold. 

The flours and baking powder well mixed.  Oatmeal waiting for inclusion.

When it came time to rub in the butter, I first grated the butter and then mixed it with my fingers into the very cold flour.  

Grated very cold butter.

The same with the sugar -- I measured it into the flour and butter mixture, then mixed it with my fingers until it was well blended (it was still cold).  

The butter is mixed in.

The brown sugar has been added.

It took 5 tablespoons of milk to get the dough to come together like a pie crust.  Four tablespoons just wasn't damp enough.  

With four tablespoons of milk.

Then I put the dough into a covered bowl to rest in the refrigerator for 15 minutes while I cleaned up and set up for rolling and cutting.

With 5 T of milk and some mixing with my hands.

The recipe says you will end up with 12 biscuits, but I got 20.  

Instead of pricking it all over with a fork, I used my Uzbekistan chekich, a bread stamp with a pretty design made from nails.  Actually, I used both of my chekich to see how the biscuits would turn out.  (My daughter brought them back from her trip to Uzbekistan several years ago.)

The first batch came out golden brown in 15 minutes.  The second batch overcooked a little in 14 minutes.  

Second bread stamp pattern

The Verdict

Crispy!  Slightly sweet, and then nutty from the whole wheat.  Overall sort of bland but not in a bad way.  

I can see them as a backdrop for butter or cheese and to go with tea (what I drink) or coffee (what my guest taster drinks).

We had them with the Madeira along with a white cheddar studded with cranberries and also some almonds.  Delightful!  Eighty year old Madeira is smooth, flavorful, and perfect with the suggested accompaniments.  

There is still some Madeira left so making a second batch of digestive biscuits is a high priority.  

Success!