Some cookies are best slightly-undercooked, but that is not the case with this English tea biscuits recipe. This gives the biscuits their instantly recognizable look. Place the biscuits onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, then prick the top of each one all over with the tines of a fork. You can make them with smooth edges or scalloped, whatever takes your fancy. The traditional shape of tea biscuits is round. Cover with a piece of parchment paper and roll until about 1/8th of an inch thick. Stir well with a wooden spoon until the dough forms, then press dough into a mound and turn out onto a floured surface. Turn out the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and add the milk and extract of your choosing. Add the powdered sugar and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Start with the flour and baking soda, pulsing just enough to combine. If you have a food processor, this dough will be ready for shaping and baking in just a few minutes. For me, substituting butter for the vegetable oil is a much more delicious option. As mentioned above, real butter gives these biscuits a new depth of richness with beautiful layers of crispy goodness. Instead, I substitute with either vanilla or maple extract, and they are both perfectly scrumptious. Malt extract is another important ingredient, but I can't find malt extract in my part of the world. It provides the grainy texture and unique flavor that is the hallmark of a proper digestive biscuit.
Whole wheat flour is a must for these biscuits. If you want to be a purist, by all means, stick to vegetable oil. While this recipe has certainly stood the test of time, I’m a firm believer that every baked good tastes better with butter, so I substitute it for the vegetable oil. Traditionally, these digestive aid biscuits were made with whole grain flour, vegetable oil, baking soda, sugar, and malt extract. You can also serve them with an array of sweet accompaniments such as our Mixed Summer Berry Tea Jelly, raw honey, or Spiced Pear Jam. Nowadays they are lovely as a not-too-sweet treat with a cup of tea, served as part of a cheese-platter, or used in place of graham crackers to form a base for creamy cheesecakes. The combination of whole wheat flour (to keep things moving) and baking soda (to keep things calm) apparently did the trick. But after tasting this homemade English tea biscuits recipe, I can’t imagine ever going back.Įnglish tea biscuits, or digestive biscuits, were first developed in Scotland in the early 1800’s by a couple of doctors who wanted to aid the digestion of their patients. Until this week I’d only ever had the store-bought version, long rolls of perfectly round biscuits in cellophane wrappers.
They are the perfect dunking cookie and are just the thing when you want “a little something” with your afternoon tea. These days I prefer them with a large mug of black tea sweetened with honey and whitened with a bit of milk. I have loved English tea biscuits ever since I was a little girl and they were handed to me in Sunday School along with a paper cup of grape juice.
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