Sunday 19 October 2014

English Digestive Biscuits


A freak rainfall last week left us cold and clammy. It seems that we are already into winters. Morning Sun is so soothing and beautiful. As the Sun peeps from behind the hills, and the rays infiltrate the thicket of our garden, every form of life begins to throb.  
 

Soaked in the warmth of the Sun, our spirits soared, a lot of pending work in the garden saw the light of the day and a lot was accomplished in the early hours of the day. We transplanted Calendula, Pansy and Phlox around Magnolia. Some tiny branches were removed to get light and Sun under the thicket. Kids helped us in ferrying stones to mark the flowerbeds.

While we were working, a Myna peered at us curiously for some time and then flew away.

 Another bird sitting in the higher branches of Magnolia seemed enjoying the enchanting morning. Refilled by the rain, our fish pond looked emerald green and tranquil.

Having worked hard, we had our second tea with homemade digestive biscuits.
English Digestive Biscuits
Recipe adapted from kingarthur's flour.com
 Ingredients
1½ cups whole wheat flour
½ cup all purpose flour
100 Gms (1 stick) butter
1/2 to ¾ cup powdered sugar (depending on taste)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
¼ cup cold milk
Method
Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C.
Whisk together flours, baking powder and salt.
Beat butter and sugar till creamy. Add flours and sugar and mix with hands till the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Add milk slowly till the mixture comes together as stiff dough. Knead further for 3 to 4 minutes to get smooth dough.
Roll out the dough into a large circle about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out round biscuits with a cookie cutter of with a cap of a bottle. The biscuits should be 2 to 2 ½ inches in diameter. Prick evenly with a fork or a toothpick.
Place biscuits in a greased baking tray and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until pale gold.
Cool and store in an airtight container.

My notes – These biscuits taste like our atta biscuits. I made two batches. First batch was according to the recipe above. In the second batch, I added 1 ¾ cup whole wheat flour. With this I needed a little more milk than ¼ cup to get smooth dough. You may adjust sugar according to your preference. I added less sugar


4 comments:

  1. Steve is a great fan of English digestive biscuits, so much, that we often buy the expensive imported kind for him to eat. I am really glad that you have shared this recipe with me and will try them on Steve to see if he likes them and we can stop buying those imported biscuits. Your garden is very beautiful and your birds are exotic and interesting (to us). Thank you for sharing photos of your lovely part of the world so that we can all have a little glimpse of how beautiful it is :)

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  2. Lovely garden you have :) No wonder the birds love it. The secret of digestive biscuits is indeed wholemeal flour, to get that unique texture. They are so commonplace round here it seemed hardly worth making my own, and then I realised our usual brand is now being made with palm oil, which is obtained with such disregard for people, animals and the environment that we don't buy products containing it. So now your recipe is very timely, as it looks as of we'll be making our own from now on; thanks!

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  3. my husband will love it .. bookmarked :)

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  4. These were so easy to make and my 3 children loved them!

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