Tag Archives: oats

Homemade Digestive Biscuits

If you’ve ever been to Europe, or wandered through the aisles of World Market, chances are you have stumbled upon digestive biscuits.  And for those not familiar, digestive biscuits are a delightful cookie made from wholemeal flour and oats, and are the perfect vehicle for dipping in a cup of tea.  So for Valentine’s Day this year, I decided to make the Englishman Homemade Digestive Biscuits.

Homemade Digestive Biscuits DishTruth be told, this post was supposed to go up on Valentine’s Day, but between work, wedding planning, and just life in general that didn’t happen.  So this is your post-Valentine’s Day treat.

Whenever I used to visit the Englishman in London, I’d always insist we get a pack of McVittie’s Digestives (usually the chocolate ones) and we’d dip them in a cup of tea for an afternoon snack.  Digestive biscuits are generally less sweeter than the traditional American cookie, and have a bit more of a hearty texture to them overall.  When I decided to make my own digestive biscuits, my goal was to keep the texture and flavor of the biscuit as close to the original as possible.

Homemade Digestives Close UpThe beauty of this recipe is that it requires minimal ingredients, is easy to make, and can even be made vegan if you swap the butter for a dairy-free alternative like coconut oil.

Homemade Digestive Biscuits (adapted from this recipe)

Homemade Digestive Biscuits Pin
Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup oats (I used quick oats)

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 tbsp almond milk

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Combine all of your ingredients in a large bowl and mix together either using a hand or stand mixer.  Once all the ingredients are well blended, remove your dough and wrap in saran wrap and place in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Homemade Digestive Biscuits HeartRemove your dough from the fridge and begin to roll out.  The traditional digestive biscuit is cut into circular shapes, but because I was feeling festive for Valentine’s Day, I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter instead.

Homemade Digestive Biscuits HeartsPlace your biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment and pop into the oven for 15 minutes, or until the tops are a nice golden brown.

Pull your biscuits from the oven and let them cool.  If you are feeling fancy you can spread some jam or even chocolate peanut butter on your biscuits.

Homemade Digestive Biscuits and TeaI found these biscuits to be the perfect afternoon snack (with a cup of tea of course) while I was laid up on the couch all day Sunday after being hit by a cyclist while running.  Like I said, it’s been a week.  Thank goodness for my awesome fiancée and this Lionel Richie mug.

Needless to say, you need these homemade digestive biscuits in your life.  They truly are the perfect pick me up.

Who else has tried digestive biscuits before?

The Curious Case of the Granola “Bars”

Around 3-4pm every day I find myself rummaging through my desk looking for a delicious and nutritious snack to help me get through the mid-afternoon slump and power through the rest of the workday.  Of course there are always the standard staples:  fruit, nut butter, cheese, yogurt, cereal, etc, but sometimes I just want a quick snack that doesn’t require a lot of fuss.  Enter the granola bar.

I try to steer clear of store brand granola bars for a variety of reasons.  1.  Many of them contain high-fructose corn syrup and other artificial ingredients that my body doesn’t agree with and/or is allergic to, and 2. These bars are LOADED with sugar, which none of us really need.  With the exception of LARABARS, I never purchase snack bars from the market.  But every now and again I do get the urge for a chewy, delicious granola bar.

So when I stumbled upon these delicious looking granola bars on Eat, Live, Run, I knew I had to make them and get a little granola bar action back in my life.  After reading the recipe I decided to make a few modifications based on the ingredients I had in my kitchen.  I noticed many of the comments had said make sure to use honey or brown rice syrup instead of agave nectar for a thickener, but since I only had agave on hand I decided to wing it.  I mixed the ingredients together, threw it in the fridge like the recipe called for and waited for the bars to set.  And waited some more.

Needless to say, this is one of those classic examples where making too many modifications to the recipe will not yield the greatest results.  The flavor was spot on, but it was clear to me that these were not granola “bars,” just granola.  But it is delicious granola at that!  And instead of having my afternoon snack in bar form, I enjoyed my granola “bar” over some greek yogurt.

Granola "Bars" in their delicious glory

Homemade Granola “Bars” (adapted from this recipe)

1 cup agave nectar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4th tsp salt

1/4 sunflower seed butter (any other nut butter will work too, but I’d use a creamy one as opposed to a crunchy one)

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (with no shell)

3/4 cup dried cranberries

Combine agave nectar, sunflower seed butter, salt and vanilla in a medium sized saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about four minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a large bowl, combine all other ingredients. Pour the boiling agave mixture over the oat mixture and toss well.

**Press mixture into a greased nine inch pan and pat down with wet hands. Chill in fridge for an hour, or until firm.  (this is the part where you are supposed to cut them into bars, or in my case, turn it into granola).

Store granola “bars” in a tupperware container to ensure freshness.

**The mixture came out pretty thick (but not thick enough for granola bars), so it created more of a museli-type mix.  For crunchier granola I recommend roasting in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes.