How to Make Digestive Biscuits Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (2024)

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From a tea time snack to entire pie crust, my Digestive Biscuits recipe is as versatile as it is delicious and can be made in no time.

By Gemma Stafford | | 264

Last updated on January 29, 2024

How to Make Digestive Biscuits Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (1)

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I’ve wanted to make Homemade Digestive Biscuits for you for a long time now because they are a very popular biscuit in Ireland and are used in many recipes. We utilize them for the base of Cheesecakes like my No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake or in biscuit cake like my Chocolate Salami. They are also can also be appreciated simply with a cup of tea.

With the ubiquitous popularity of McVitie’s digestive biscuits, a lot of people understandably wonder where to buy digestive biscuits. Well, I’m here to tell you how to assemble them yourself.

What Are Digestive Biscuits?

Digestive biscuits are used in an interchangeable way as graham crackers in the U.S. They are best described as whole wheat shortbread, and are crisp like shortbread and equally as buttery. Biscuits in Ireland are not equivalent to soft American biscuits, they are a type of cookie. However, cookies can be soft and chewy whereas biscuits are mostly semi-sweet, crisp, and crunchy, with no softness.

Why Are They Called Digestive Biscuits?

The term “digestive” comes from the 19th century and means that it aided digestion. In 1839, a pair of Scottish doctors invented the digestive. Digestive biscuits were thought to have the same fundamental properties and health benefits you might find in an antacid due to the usage of sodium bicarbonate in the digestive biscuit recipe.

Sodium bicarbonate is the sole ingredient for baking soda. We’ll be using baking powder, which in addition to sodium bicarbonate, also contains monocalcium phosphate and either sodium acid pyrophosphate or sodium aluminum sulfate.

In 1892, Alexander Grant developed and patented the original, prototypical recipe for McVitie’s digestive biscuits.

How to Make Digestive Biscuits Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (2)

What You’ll Need To Make Digestive Biscuits

  • Cookie sheet and parchment paper
  • Mixing bowl
  • Floured surface
  • Rolling pin
  • Measuring cups

How To Make Digestive Biscuits

It’s so easy to make these that you’ll never wonder why you ever bought them in the first place! Here’s how you make them (and get the full, printable recipe with measurements below):

  1. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Combine and mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
  3. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips.
  4. Add milk and work through to form a dough.
  5. On a floured surface, turn out the dough.
  6. Roll out the dough using a floured rolling pin and cut into rounds.
  7. Transfer to the cookie sheet and bake until pale gold.

When To Eat Digestive Biscuits

Biscuits are made to be enjoyed with a cup of tea. Dunking them in your tea is what softens them. The Irish are a nation of tea drinkers. Tea is customarily consumed morning, noon, and night in my house.

Even living in the States now I still carry on the tradition and have tea time every day around 3 o’clock. I sit down, watch my stories, and have a cup of Irish tea.

What Can I Make With Digestive Biscuits?

These can be ground up into crumbs and used in place of Graham cracker crumbs to make no-bake pie crusts for a whole variety of pies and cheesecakes.

They can also be crushed into larger chunks and added into ice cream or trifles for unbelievable texture and flavor.

Are Digestive Biscuits Good For Weight Loss?

As far as cookies and biscuits go, these are a dessert with benefits. The whole wheat flour that is the base of these cookies makes for a nutty rich flavor but also contributes fiber and nutrients.

Fundamentally a dessert, digestive biscuits won’t magically help accelerate weight loss but are a more nutritious alternative to a standard cookie.

How to Store Them

These biscuits will last for 3-4 days. To keep them fresh, just cover and store them in an airtight container at room temperature.

Try These Other Recipes!

    • Homemade Biscoff Cookies
    • Homemade Graham Crackers
    • 3 Ingredient Shortbread Cookies

And don’t forget to buy my Bigger Bolder Baking Cookbook!

Full (and printable) recipe below!

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Almond Flour Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe
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Banana Bread Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
How to Make Almond Crisps

Digestive Biscuits Recipe

4.57 from 435 votes

Print Recipe

From a tea-time snack to an entire pie crust, my Digestive Biscuits recipe is as versatile as it is delicious and can be made in no time.

Author: Gemma Stafford

  • Dessert
  • Oven
  • Baking Pans

Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

From a tea-time snack to an entire pie crust, my Digestive Biscuits recipe is as versatile as it is delicious and can be made in no time.

Author: Gemma Stafford

Ingredients

  • 1 2/3 cups ( 8 1/3oz/236g) whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup (3oz/85g) powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup (4oz/115g) butter (cubed)
  • 1/4 cup (2floz/57ml) milk

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

  • Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix to combine the ingredients.

  • Quickly, working with your fingertips or a blender, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the milk and work through to form a dough.

  • Turn out on a floured surface and roll to form a smooth dough. (IF your dough seems dry add a little more milk.)

  • Using a well-floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to a bit more than 1/8 inch thick and cut into rounds, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. You can keep rolling the scraps together to make additional biscuits.

  • Transfer the biscuits to your baking pan and, if desired, prick the biscuits with a fork to create holes. Bake for 20 minutes until biscuits are pale gold.

  • Cover and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Freeze the raw dough for up to 1 month.

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How to Make Digestive Biscuits Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (9)

3 years ago

Omg, this recipe is the best. I could not stop eating them. I made them for my grandfather’s birthday, he died a few months ago.👍🏻

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Antony

4 years ago

Recipe works great, quick to make and tastes just as expected.
My only complaint is the reference to butter on the biscuits!
Everyone knows digestives are custom designed as a delivery vehicle for Nutella 😉
Thanks for posting this!

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Tanya

3 years ago

Great recipe – super easy and delicious, and I’ll definitely make these again! I loved that the dough was so easy to work with and barely needed refrigeration. I did make some substitutions: I didn’t want to use powdered sugar, so I used 109g of honey instead and reduced the milk by half. In the future, I think I’ll reduce the milk by 75%. I also reduced the baking time by a few minutes. The honey flavor goes really well with black tea, and honey has a lower glycemic index than sugar for those who might be concerned about that.Read more »

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Sally

3 years ago

Thank you, fantastic recipe. I have a real sweet tooth so add 120g icing sugar. These are a real winner. My family love them 🙂

12

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How to Make Digestive Biscuits Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (13)

Stella

3 years ago

Hi Gemma, Like everyone else we’re currently on lockdown. Love to try this recipient but only have plain flour and self raising flour in the house. I have fine porridge oats available- can I substitute any of the above or do you have any alternative suggestions?

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Nicole

3 years ago

Delicious biscuits! Next time I’m going to add lemon zest. What do you think?

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Tamika W

3 years ago

Great recipe this tasted just like the digestive I buy at the store 👍🏼

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sony

4 years ago

Hi Gemma, is it possible to cut the sugar in half and still have good results?

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Elizabeth

4 years ago

Best digestive biscuit recipe I have tried. I felt no need to make any changes. Just the right amount of sweetness, not too much at all. I will use this recipe all the time now instead of searching around for a better one. Thank you!

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Ursh

3 years ago

Great recipe! I melted some semi-sweet chocolate and coated these in that. Rather ashamed to say my family ate the entire batch in one day!

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About Us

Meet Gemma

How to Make Digestive Biscuits Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (25)

About Us

Meet Gemma

Hi Bold Bakers! I’m Gemma Stafford, a professional chef originally from Ireland, a cookbook author, and the creator of Bigger Bolder Baking. I want to help you bake with confidence anytime, anywhere with my trusted and tested recipes and baking tips. You may have seen one of my 500+ videos on YouTube & TikTok or as a guest judge on Nailed It! on Netflix or the Best Baker in America on Food Network. No matter your skills, my Bold Baking Team & I want to be your #1 go-to baking authority.

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How to Make Digestive Biscuits Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (2024)

FAQs

What is the American equivalent of digestive biscuits? ›

Graham crackers, BelVitas, or Marie biscuits are all useful substitutes for digestive biscuits. Keep reading to get more alternatives for your dessert making.

What are the ingredients in digestive biscuits? ›

Ingredients
  • Flour (55%) (Wheat Flour, Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin),
  • Vegetable Oil (Palm),
  • Wholemeal Wheat Flour (16%),
  • Sugar,
  • Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup,
  • Raising Agents (Sodium Bicarbonate, Malic Acid, Ammonium Bicarbonate),
  • Salt.

What happens when you add more butter to biscuits? ›

Increasing the amount of butter definitely makes the biscuit "taste" softer, more crumbly, and more flaky.

What is the secret to biscuits? ›

Use Cold Butter for Biscuits

For flaky layers, use cold butter. When you cut in the butter, you have coarse crumbs of butter coated with flour. When the biscuit bakes, the butter will melt, releasing steam and creating pockets of air. This makes the biscuits airy and flaky on the inside.

Are digestive biscuits healthier than normal biscuits? ›

These biscuits are made with saturated fats and may contain around 3-5 grams of fat per biscuit, which may not be a healthy choice. Lastly, the addition of sodium as well as other preservatives to enhance the taste and shelf life are synthetic in nature. Thus, digestive biscuits are not as healthy as they sound!

Are digestive biscuits healthier? ›

Calories: Digestive biscuits tend to have fewer calories than other cookies, which makes them a smarter choice if you're watching your calorie intake. Health benefits: As noted earlier, digestive biscuits do offer some nutrition – such as fiber from whole grains – which many regular cookies lack.

Are digestive biscuits good for your bowels? ›

These biscuits are prepared with whole wheat flour which is known to be a good source of dietary fibre. This nutrient is considered essential for digestive health and promotes regular bowel movements while preventing constipation.

What is special about digestive biscuits? ›

Digestive biscuits are made with ingredients that help to break down food and promote a healthy digestive system. In fact, digestive biscuits are often made with whole wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oil, and baking soda. So next time you're reaching for a biscuit, know that you're doing your stomach a favor!

Is digestive biscuit junk food? ›

UNHEALTHY CALORIES: A digestive biscuit typically consists of a minimum of 50 calories. These are not healthy calories which will accelerate your weight loss. Rather these are calories which will hamper your weight loss and you wouldn't even know why!

Is it better to use butter or Crisco for biscuits? ›

The butter version rises the highest — look at those flaky layers! The shortening biscuit is slightly shorter and a bit drier, too. Butter contains a bit of water, which helps create steam and gives baked goods a boost.

What kind of liquid is best for making biscuits? ›

Milk or Buttermilk: I love how this recipe works with milk or buttermilk. If you love the tangy flavor of buttermilk, use it.

What does cutting your butter do to a biscuit recipe? ›

Cutting butter into flour or other dry ingredients is an essential part of preparing pastry dough, biscuits and crumbly pie toppings because it gives a light and flaky texture that can't be replicated with any other technique.

What not to do when making biscuits? ›

5 Mistakes You're Making With Your Biscuits
  1. Mistake #1: Your butter is too warm.
  2. Mistake #2: You're using an inferior flour.
  3. Mistake #3: You use an appliance to mix your batter.
  4. Mistake #4: You don't fold the dough enough.
  5. Mistake #5: You twist your biscuit cutter.
Feb 1, 2019

What does adding an egg to biscuits do? ›

Eggs act as a binder for biscuits, without them the mixture will be far too crumbly. They also add flavour and texture, as well as extending shelf life.

How can I get my biscuits to rise higher? ›

Bake them close to each other.

Biscuits are an exception to this rule: Placing them close to one another on your baking sheet actually helps them push each other up, as they impede each other from spreading outward and instead puff up skywards.

What do the English call digestive biscuits? ›

Digestives are a particular cookie (called biscuits in the UK). They are sort of like a thick graham cracker, or, even more, like a ginger snap. They are quite dry, actually, and delicous, we think, although they are simple, not glamorous (perhaps the basis for the name "digestive".

What is an English digestive biscuit? ›

These biscuits were developed during the latter part of the 19th century to increase fiber in Victorian diets — something that still might be appealing to us today. Digestive Biscuits are really just sophisticated graham crackers and are very simple to make. They're delicious with tea and fruit. 15 mins.

Is a graham cracker the same as a digestive biscuit? ›

Graham crackers are uniquely American. However, a very popular biscuit is the Digestive biscuit (decidedly NOT a cookie) which is wholemeal and somewhat sweet. It's sometimes is eaten with cheese but is much more often eaten with a cup of tea as its the very best biscuit for dunking.

What is the American version of English biscuits? ›

In the US, what us Brits call a biscuit, Americans would call a cookie - whilst an American biscuit is something resembling a British scone… making a name like Biscuiteers seem rather confusing!

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