Spelt Digestive Biscuits

Two of my absolute favorites - McVitie's Digestive Biscuits and Walkers Shortbread Fingers!! I guess its because both of them have a melt-in-the-mouth kinda texture. Recently, I started buying digestive biscuits (although not McVitie's) and was curious about the ingredients. When I checked the packaging, all it had was whole wheat flour, vegetable shortening, glucose/fructose syrup, baking soda and salt. Now, with an ingredient list as short as this, how difficult could it be to make them??

Before making the digestive biscuits, I wanted to make sure that McVitie's biscuits didn't have any special ingredients that I might miss out. Most of the ingredients were similar with the addition of skimmed milk to the list. Did you know that McVitie's was the first ever digestive biscuit made and also one of the most popular biscuits in Britain?? The traditional digestive biscuits uses a blend of wholemeal and wheat flour but I opted to use spelt flour instead. It tasted close to the original although a bit crispy. Of course, I enjoyed the regular digestive biscuits but adding chocolate to anything makes it more indulgent. I made 6 chocolate covered digestive and I must say that they tasted every bit like the chocolate covered digestives. The crunch from the biscuit with a layer of chocolate is irresistable....mhhh mhhhh good!!!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup spelt flour
1/2 tsp baking soda 
4-5 tbsp brown sugar (I used 5 tbsp, adjust to taste)
4 tbsp vegan butter (or vegetable shortening)
1 tbsp rolled oats (or quick cooking oats)
2 tbsp milk (I used almond milk)
1/4 tsp salt

For chocolate coating:

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 tsp oil

Method:

In a bowl, combine the spelt flour, baking soda (baking powder might work better), salt, quick cooking oats and brown sugar. Mix well.

To the dry ingredients, add the cold butter and mix well with a pastry blender or your fingers. Add milk and knead into a smooth and soft dough. Cover the dough in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20-25 mins (or you can skip this step and bake them right away).

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Dust a work surface and roll the refrigerated dough into 1/4" thickness (although I rolled them out a bit thinner). Cut into circles using a cookie cutter. Re-roll the remaining dough until you use up the entire dough.

Place the biscuits on the cookie sheet (use a spatula if the biscuits are sticky, I had to use them for mine) about 1 inch apart (so that they don't stick together like mine) and prick the top with a fork.

Bake for 14-16 mins or until golden brown. Cool the biscuits on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

For chocolate covered digestives:

In a small bowl, add 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 tsp oil and microwave at 20 sec intervals for 1 min. Mix well to form a smooth paste.

Spoon the melted chocolate on one side of the biscuit (I used the base) and repeat for the remaining biscuits (covers 6 biscuits). Set on wire rack and refrigerate for 15-20 mins until the chocolate layer hardens. Enjoy!!

Makes 16 digestive biscuits.