C’mon…I’m English…It was only a matter of time before I came up with a recipe for vegan digestive biscuits! With their distinctive crunchy, crumbly texture & not too sweet almost nutty flavour, they make the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea……I’m totally conforming to the typical English stereotype here aren’t I?
I thought long and hard about what to call this recipe. Should I stick to my roots and call them ‘Digestive Biscuits’ or, as I now live in Canada and most of you are from the USA and Canada, should I call them ‘Digestive Cookies’?
COOKIES OR BISCUITS?
Generally in England cookies are known as biscuits, whereas in Canada and the USA, biscuits are what we in England would call savoury scones. There are so many other foods and general cooking terms that are totally different too. I get so confused! A few I can think of off the top of my head are pancakes/flapjacks, chips/fries, aubergine/eggplant, cornflour/cornstarch, grilling/broiling and double boiler. What’s that all about? I had to google it when I first moved here as I didn’t have a clue what it was. In England we call it a bain-marie!
It’s no wonder I’m confused!
CONFUSED.COM
I really struggle when writing my recipes as I never know what to call these things. I often spend ages deliberating but usually end up choosing the Canadian/American versions as I know that is where the majority of you, my lovely readers are. This time though the English name seems like the right choice. After all, they are English biscuits and ‘digestive cookie’ just doesn’t sound right to me!
WHAT ARE DIGESTIVE BISCUITS?
Digestive Biscuits were originally created by two doctors in 1839 as a digestive aid. The bicarbonate of soda (or baking soda as my Canadian and American friends know it as) was added to them to act as an antacid. This doesn’t make them sound too appealing, but honestly, they are extremely delicious so please stick with me!
Digestive biscuits are one of the most popular biscuits sold in the UK. According to Wikipedia more than 80 million packs are sold annually. That’s a whole lot of biscuits and just goes to show how great they are. They aren’t however vegan and they contain refined sugar and palm oil which are ingredients I try to avoid.
If you find yourself wanting to bake a cheesecake, crushed Digestive Biscuits make the eprfect base. You can see them in action in my Vegan New York Cheesecake.
DIGESTIVES MADE HEALTHIER
My Vegan Digestive Biscuits are much healthier by comparison. There is no dairy, no refined sugar and no refined flour and they contain a relatively low quantity of oil and sugar. The wholegrain spelt flour gives them a delicious nuttiness and the oatmeal adds to the slightly nubbly texture. My recipe does not include the traditional bicarbonate of soda/baking soda so I am afraid they won’t act as an antacid! I tried them with and without and to be honest it didn’t make any difference to their appearance or taste so why bother?
Digestives are not a really sweet biscuit and so my biscuits do have sugar in them but not a lot. Just enough to give them a slightly sweet edge. Because they aren’t too sweet they can also be eaten like crackers with savoury foods. Try them with some good quality vegan cheese, or spread with my Easy Vegan Butter.
Personally though, I love them just as they are with a cup of tea. That is where the inspiration for this recipe came from.
I recently made a visit to my local Teafarm to stock up on my favourite brews. Yes, there is a tea-farm in Canada. It is in a beautiful location in North Cowichan on Vancouver Island just an hour away from where I live. The ‘Teafarm’ experience is just wonderful and combines tea, art & nature.
While relaxing in the back yard with my mug of Yerba Mate Chai, I had the urge to bake a tasty accompaniment. As someone who likes to dip biscuits in my tea, digestives were the perfect answer!
GRAHAM CRACKERS
I am told that digestive biscuits are similar to graham crackers. Having never eaten a graham cracker I can’t comment on this myself but I do know that they can be used as you would graham crackers. They are great for making crusts and combined with a little coconut oil they also make an awesome cheesecake base. They would be great for making s’mores too!
For more cookie recipes, check out these great options:
- Perfect Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies with Cranberries and Rosemary
- Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Mug
- Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies
And if you love this recipe, please do check out my cookbook, and subscribe to my email list for a fabulous FREE eCookbook featuring my top 10 recipes. Being on the list means you will be first to see my new recipes and you’ll be kept in the loop on all things new and exciting too!
Now go bake some digestives, put the kettle on, make some tea and relax!
Vegan Digestive Biscuits
Ingredients
- 220 g | 1½ cups spelt flour
- 60 g | ½ cup rolled oats or quick oats
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 60 g | heaping ¼ cup sugar I used turbinado sugar but any light brown sugar will work. Demerara in the UK, as would coconut sugar
- 80 g | packed 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons coconut oil measured solid - (use refined coconut for no coconut flavour)
- 5 - 8 tablespoons non-dairy milk
- Extra flour for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 380°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Add the oats to a food processor and process until they have a course flour like consistency.
- Add the spelt flour, salt, baking powder and sugar and pulse a few times to combine.
- Add the coconut oil and process until well combined.
- Gradually add the milk one tablespoon at a time until a smooth dough forms. It will start balling up and if you touch it, it will feel slightly tacky. I used 7 tablespoons but this will vary.
- Dust your work surface with some flour. You can use more spelt flour or all purpose is fine.
- Transfer the dough to floured surface and lightly sprinkle it with a bit more flour.
- Roll out the dough until it is about 3mm thick.
- Use cookie cutters to cut into rounds. If you don't have cookie cutters then the top of a mason jar does a great job.
- Place on the cookie sheet . They don't spread so you don't need to leave a lot of room around each one.
- Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown on the edges and bottom. They will still feel very slightly soft in the middle if you push with a finger but that is fine. As they cool they will firm up and go crisp.
- Place on a cooling rack and leave to cool completely before eating. They aren't at their best when warm.
- Store in an airtight container once completely cool.
Long time vegan, creator of A Virtual Vegan & author of the book 
Jessie Frankz says
How can i makw these sugar free?
Melanie McDonald says
The sugar isn’t just there for flavour. It’s for structure and texture too. If it’s removed, the cookies won’t be as crunchy and might not turn out as well. I’ve never tried it so can’t say for sure what the results would be like. It might be ok but you’d probably be better off looking for a savoury cracker recipe instead. Maybe a vegan Scottish oat cake recipe maybe?
Jessie Franklin says
Thanks for responding. My partner loves the sugar free digestives but they arnt vegan and were transition slowly. Trying to figure recipees is hard😂
lillian says
There’s a no-bake chocolate cake recipe that uses digestive biscuits that I can finally make, so thanks ? I’ve also never had a digestive biscuit before, so I am intrigued to try it.
A Virtual Vegan says
Oh that’s great. I hope you enjoy them!
Ena says
Hi Mel,
Was just wondering how to store these cookies ? Any ideas ?
How long do they last?
Br
Ena
A Virtual Vegan says
Store them in an airtight container. They will last for a good few weeks.
Annalisa Steinnes says
Hi! I’ve yet to try making these, but am wondering what you would suggest about omitting the baking powder and using baking soda instead? Thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
I think you could, but I wouldn’t use 1 teaspoon as I think you might taste it. Maybe 1/2 a teaspoon instead?
David Secretain says
No offense, but I wish every single recipe website’s writer would shut up and give the recipe already. Every time, three pages of talking about utter rubbish. You know no one reads it through right? We all just skip to the bottom. Save yourself some time, and ours too.
Digestives are great, well done.
A Virtual Vegan says
I’m really pleased that you enjoyed the Digestive Biscuits. And while I’m here I’d like to point out that the recipe writer (me) spends days and days, sometimes months creating each recipe, pays for all of the ingredients, pays to keep the website up and running smoothly and provides the recipe to you completely FREE of charge. Having to scroll for a few seconds to reach it isn’t much to have to do in exchange for a quality, well-tested recipe. And for those people who prefer not to scroll there is a “jump to recipe” button at the top of every post.
Some people are here just for the recipe and don’t care to read what’s before and that’s fine, (most are polite enough to not complain about it though), but my loyal and dedicated readers come to read each post even if they aren’t actually making the recipe. That’s the nature of a blog. If you don’t like their format, you could buy my cookbook instead. It’s called Vegan Comfort Cooking and it is available from all good book stores ;O)
Yvette says
I read the whole thing….. All thumbs are capable of scrolling and its quicker to do that than to complain and criticise! Great biscuits, thank you for the recipe… They’re amazing with a thin layer of dark chocolate too… Now off to make them again with my youngest… Who also enjoyed reading the entire blog post with me ?
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you Yvette. I’m so pleased you enjoyed them. I keep meaning to make a chocolate version for the blog. I’ll get around to it one day!
Sam says
I usually skip the blog portion but this writer captured my attention right away (maybe because I grew up in the U.K. and enjoyed the bit about biscuits vs cookies. :)). So kudos to the writer for an engaging post! I can’t wait to try out the recipe. I don’t have a food processor, I hope my hand held mixer works for the oats. :)
Melanie McDonald says
I’m glad you enjoyed the post Sam. If your hand held mixer struggles with the oats, you could buy ready made oat flour instead. Just be sure to weigh it rather than using cups to measure it so that you get the correct amount. Hope you like the biscuits!
lottyb says
Press command and F and type in ‘ingredients’ and the’ll take you quickly to the recipe.
That said I thought this was a nice blog and if I had time I would have read in more depth.
And to Virtual Vegan, thanks for this recipe and for your attention to palm oil too.
A Virtual Vegan says
You’re welcome Lotty. Thank you!
Aniqa says
Hey! What can i use instead of spelt flour and coconut oil?
Looking forward to making this very soon.
Thank you in advance!
Melanie McDonald says
Spelt flour is the best choice for these cookies. It gives a much better result than any other flour. At a push whole-wheat flour will do but they aren’t quite as nice. The recipe has only been tested with coconut oil. The only other thing that will work is hard vegan butter, but the quantity would need to be increased very slightly to account for it not being 100% pure fat. Maybe another 2 tablespoons but hard to say exactly how much without testing it. Hope that helps!
Teresa Spelman says
Fantastic recipe for Digestive biscuits & they taste so much better than the bought ones. Thank you. Wonderful recipes. Keep up the good work!
Warm wishes,
The Willow Retreat
Alyssa says
Hello, the biscuits look great! Was wondering if I could use whole wheat flour in place of the spelt flour?
Thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you! They do technically work with wholewheat flour but the flavour and texture is better with spelt.
razieh says
Thanks a lot.
Can I use other vegetable oils, such as sunflower seed oil, instead of coconut oil?
A Virtual Vegan says
I recommend using coconut oil. A solid fat makes for crunchier cookies than a liquid one and these should be crunchy.