My quest for palm-oil free biscuits is currently in the ‘home-made’ phase. Yesterday I trialled two recipes – one for oat biscuits and one for digestives.
Oat crunchies
Oat Crunchies. I found this recipe for very easy oat biscuits in an old Delia Smith cookery book using very simple ingredients – jumbo oats, porridge oats, demerara sugar and margarine. I don’t eat margarine, so I substituted butter. There were tasty, but there was far too much fat in them – on reflection, butter is almost 100% fat, whilst margarine contains a high proportion of water, so I should have cut down the quantity. They are very easy and I do like the flavour, so I will make them again and modify the recipe. Once I’ve got it right, I will share it with you.
Chocolate freshly applied
Chocolate digestives. Now this is my real target, and this was my first try. I found an article on The Guardian website entitled How to Cook the Perfect Digestive Biscuit by Felicity Cloake. How promising is that? There’s quite a lot of discussion about ingredients and the reasons for including them so I decided to give her recipe a try. Unfortunately I couldn’t get hold of any medium oatmeal locally, so I ended up using ‘fine’ instead, which may have altered the texture a little. The general consensus is that these have the right sort of flavour, but they are not crunchy enough and have a slightly stodgy texture. I think rolling them out a bit thinner would help and I will do this next time. It is certainly a promising start and I have high hopes for future success.
The Snail of Happiness 
coppicelearner
/ December 10, 2016I have encountered the same problem. The only palm oil free biscuits I have been able to find in the shops are own brand jaffa cakes! Well I like jaffa cakes but I also like variety. Luckily I have a number of good biscuit recipes which I will email you. Sadly no chocolate digestives amongst them!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 10, 2016please do send recipes!
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KerryCan
/ December 10, 2016I will follow this since I love chocolate digestives and they’re hard to come by in middle-of-nowhere-upstate New York!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 10, 2016there are so many different recipes – I’m planning to try a few.
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Ann
/ December 10, 2016We volunteer for testing duties!! 😀
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 10, 2016Come – Test!
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katechiconi
/ December 10, 2016Your pursuit of bickie perfection is admirable, especially your dedication to the testing process… While I was still able to eat them, I was a huge fan of the ones with dark chocolate…
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 10, 2016I do like oaty biscuits too – are you able to eat oats? I think with a bit of modification the oat crunchies would make an admirable base for dark chocolate.
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katechiconi
/ December 10, 2016The equivalent of gluten that’s found in oats is very similar and lots of coeliacs are sensitive to it too, so I avoid oats on principle, it’s just safer. Sadly, GF bickies tend to verge on the tragically dry and crumbly unless they’re heavily loaded with things I’m trying to avoid eating just now. But I shall enjoy your trialling vicariously!
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thecontentedcrafter
/ December 10, 2016I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so bikkies are not something found in my house, but I’m enjoying your dedication to finding the right recipe! When I was younger I used to spend hours in the kitchen trying to replicate the flavours found in commercially prepared foods – it’s interesting (to me anyway) to realise that even back in the 70’s I was avoiding them!
I can report I have successfully made some dog biscuits that Siddy has received now with a happy dance – reserved for his favourite treats! I used rye flour, olive oil and water and put a teaspoon of vegemite in for good luck 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ December 10, 2016so glad siddy enjoyed them – vegemite is an excellent idea
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MrsCraft
/ December 11, 2016All of them sound delicious! 😊
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