These chocolate-covered tea biscuits are just like homemade McVitie’s digestive biscuits, only better! The cookies are lightly sweetened, delicate, and flaky. They soak up tea or coffee perfectly, and they’re one of my absolute favorite cookies.
Digestive biscuits are an addicting sweet treat I discovered years ago thanks to my friend Emma. I’ll never forget the day she handed me a mug of hot black tea topped with a bit of milk and a plate full of McVitie’s chocolate digestives. I had never seen these British cookies before and the moment I dipped one into my tea I was hooked.
Digestives are an odd name for a biscuit, I know. Sounds more like medicine, right? We’ll just call them medicine for the soul.
The biscuits themselves aren’t overly sweet. They’re flaky and a bit dry. I enjoy them plain but the best way to enjoy them (IMO) is to dip them in tea as you might dip Oreo cookies into milk. They become soft and you need to eat them quickly before they get too soggy and dissolve.
Some biscuits come plain without any chocolate, but I think the chocolate makes them better.
How to Make Digestive Biscuits
I found a recipe for digestive biscuits in Nigella Lawson’s How To Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food. It’s a great recipe on it’s own but after a few experiments, I’ve made some changes. She uses two ingredients that most people probably don’t already have in their pantry: spelt flour and Demerara sugar.
I tried swapping the spelt flour for whole wheat and didn’t love the results. The spelt flour stayed. Then I tried swapping the Demerara sugar for light brown sugar. The results? Just as good. But if you have Demerara sugar in your pantry already, that can be used as well!
I also tested an all-butter version of this recipe that omitted the shortening completely. I don’t care for shortening and would always prefer to use real butter. Butter tastes better! The problem is that these cookies just don’t taste like digestive biscuits if you use all butter.
I recently found an organic shortening that uses coconut oil in place of the nasty hydrogenated fats. It worked great and there was no coconut aftertaste, which I had been worried about. You can use regular shortening; the recipe will work either way.
I also swapped the whole milk for cream and added milk chocolate on top. These cookies are total comfort food to me. They make tea time just a little bit more special.
What Are Digestive Biscuits?
Digestive biscuits, sometimes known as sweet-meal biscuits, are semi-sweet biscuits that were originally created in Scotland in 1839. They were originally intended to aid in digestion, hence the name. The term “digestive” was due to the belief that they had antacid properties from the use of sodium bicarbonate. Some producers also used diastatic malt extract to “digest” some of the starch that existed in flour prior to baking.
How Long Will These Keep?
These will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Where to buy
McVitie’s Digestive is the most popular biscuit in the UK. If you’d like to try them before experimenting with homemade digestive biscuits, I’ve seem them sold in the international grocery aisle of some national grocery stores, including Giant. They can also be found in gourmet and specialty food shops. You can also purchase them online.
More Cookie Recipes
Love homemade cookies? Be sure to also check out my recipes for Corn Cookies, Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies, and Snickerdoodles!
Digestive Biscuits
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 7 1/4 ounces spelt flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar (Demerara sugar may be substituted)
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cold and cut into cubes (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- all-purpose flour for rolling out the dough
- 1 cup milk chocolate or bittersweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place an oven rack on the center shelf and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add the rolled oats, spelt flour, salt, baking powder and light brown sugar to a food processor and pulse several times until the rolled oats are chopped into smaller bits. Leave a little bit of texture in the oats to add flakiness to the cookies.
- Move the oat mixture to a large bowl and add the shortening. Using clean hands, rub the shortening into the oat mixture until it’s crumbly. When the shortening is almost completely incorporated, add the butter and do the same thing until everything is incorporated with a few bigger pieces here and there.
- Add the cream slowly, stirring the mixture with a spatula or wood spoon, until the biscuit dough comes together. Kneed it in the bowl a few times.
- Lightly flour a clean surface, then roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Use a small cookie cutter (I used a 2 1/2-inch cutter) and cut out the biscuits, placing them on the prepared baking sheet. Re-roll the dough until all of the biscuits are cut.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden with faintly browning edges. Allow to cool completely.
- When the cookies are cool, place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave the chocolate in 15-30 second increments, stirring well each time, until the chocolate is shiny and melted (this can also be done over a double boiler).
- Use a pastry brush to generously brush the melted chocolate onto the cookies (you can also carefully dip them into the chocolate). Place the cookies in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to set the chocolate.
- Serve the biscuits with black tea for dipping. Store leftovers at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Notes
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
Nutrition
Recipe Troubleshooting
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Yep, I love my my digestives! They are one of my favorite cookies for dunking.
These look so tasty – I bet they’re just as good without the chocolate, too (although chocolate is hard to resist)!
I love that you have made digestives! When I tell American friends about them, they think they are some weird stomach settling food. I admit the term digestive is not appealing, however historically they were thought to aid digestion.
Beautiful photos and one question, what’s shortening? Is that what we call lard in the UK? Usually made from animal (pig) fat.
Thanks
Angela
I LOVE Digestive Biscuits. Whenever I would travel to the UK or transit through Heathrow I’d stock up as they really were not easily available in the US. I need to tackle a gluten free version!
Interesting to see someone trying to beat the McVities version. Lovely to hear they are so easy to make!
Yum, those look absolutely fantastic!
These are amazing!!! Thank you so much for this recipe.
Ooooh homemade McVities Digestives! They look amazing and I can’t wait to try them at the weekend.
Chocolate makes everything better in my book and I wasn’t aware that there is an organic shortening that isn’t hydrogenated yea! I grew up thinking cookies were supposed to be dipped in coffee so I’m totally in with a short dip in tea as well. I can’t wait to make a batch of these beauties!