Wholemeal Spelt Reduced Sugar Digestive Biscuits
One of our favourite activities with my four-year-old is supermarket tour. Besides learning about fresh food ingredients, I get to spend quality one-to-one time with her too. It usually starts with many ‘wants’ from her. However, as we walk through the supermarket aisle discussing to understand the ‘desired items’, we would always end up going home empty handed or with a purchase of some fresh food items such as a tray of quail eggs, a tub of plain greek yogurt, a pack of nuts or dried fruits, or a pack of seasonal fruits. I take every visit as training for both of us – me to train to be firm on my stand, and her to tame her desires and evaluate what is valuable that warrants a purchase. After many of of these visits, she begins to understand that many of these snacks can be easily made in our home kitchen.
The idea for our own digestive biscuits comes from one of these visits. It seemed a sensible choice initially, since digestive biscuit is considered by many to be a healthier choice. However, after reading the ingredient list, I realised that it only contains 16% wholemeal flour, and each biscuit contains only 0.5g fibre, which doesn’t seem significant. There is also vegetable oil, which is probably either palm or soybean oil; something that I don’t really like to be used for baking. Hence we concluded that we could easily bake some with better ingredients at home.
This recipe is inspired by Jamie Oliver’s digestive biscuits. However, I use wholemeal spelt flour for its nutty taste and better-digestibility (since we are baking digestive biscuits here) and oats for the added soluble fiber that are shown to reduce LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) in the blood. Of course, it can be replaced with wholemeal flour if you like. As usual, I use the least amount of sugar I can, to provide just a tinge of sweetness. This is very easy and quick to bake, so easy that most of the tasks involved are done by my daughter, with some supervision. Now that’s a real deal, so do give it a try!
Wholemeal Spelt Reduced Sugar Digestive Biscuits (makes about 15 biscuits)
Ingredient:
70g cold butter – diced into small cubes
100g wholemeal spelt flour
65g oatmeal
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
25g brown sugar
25g milk
Method:
Sift together spelt flour and bicarbonate of soda and stir in the brown sugar and oatmeal.
Using your fingertips, work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add in milk, tablespoon by tablespoon to make a soft dough that doesn’t stick to your hands.
Wrap the dough and rest it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
When the dough is cold, roll it out onto a floured surface until about 1cm thick. Using a round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass, cut as many biscuits as you can from the dough. You can re-roll the leftover dough together and cut again but do not do it too many times or the biscuit will toughen.
Place all the rounds onto a baking tray. You may emboss them with patterns using a fork or a butter knife or whatever your (or your child’s) imaginations brings you.
Rest the tray in the fridge to chill for another 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 170 degree Celcius.
Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes or until the edge of biscuits are browned.
Once the biscuits are cooled, keep them in airtight container for up to a week, or in the fridge for 2 weeks. You may also dip or decorate the biscuits with melted chocolate and chopped nuts or dessicated coconuts for variety.
