Gluten Free Digestive Biscuits
Gluten free digestive biscuits are the lightly sweet, wheaty tasting British tea biscuits that are perfect with your afternoon cup.
Servings: 50 biscuits
Ingredients
For the biscuits
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose gluten free flour blend (see Recipe Notes) plus more for sprinkling
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
- ¼ cup cornstarch (see Recipe Notes)
- ⅞ cup sweet white sorghum flour (see Recipe Notes)
- 5 tablespoons teff flour
- 3 ⅓ tablespoons milk powder (see Recipe Notes)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons Lyle’s golden syrup (see Recipe Notes)
- ½ cup milk at room temperature
For the chocolate glaze
- 12 ounces milk chocolate chopped
- 3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
Instructions
Make the biscuits.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line rimmed baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set them aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour blend, xanthan gum, cornstarch, sorghum flour, teff flour, milk powder, and salt, and whisk to combine well. Add the brown sugar and mix, breaking up any lumps in the sugar.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the butter, syrup, and milk, mixing to combine after each addition.
- The dough will be thick and somewhat sticky. If necessary, flour your hands lightly and knead the dough together at the end to form a cohesive disk.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured flat surface covered with a piece of parchment paper.
- Sprinkling lightly with flour as necessary to prevent sticking, roll out the dough about 3/8-inch thick (just slightly thicker than 1/4-inch).
- Cut out rounds with a floured 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter.
- Transfer the rounds to the prepared baking sheet by removing the dough surrounding the shapes, then peeling the paper away from the shapes and lifting them carefully onto the baking sheet.
- Place the rounds about 1-inch apart from one another. Using a toothpick, prick small holes randomly over the surface of each round.
- Gather and reroll scraps to cut out more rounds until you’ve used up all the dough.
- Place the baking sheets, one at a time, in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the biscuits are lightly golden brown on the edges and dry to the touch (about 10 minutes).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the glaze.
- Place the chopped chocolate and coconut oil in a small, heat-safe bowl and melt either in the microwave at 60% power in 45-second bursts, stirring in between, or in a double boiler until melted and smooth.
- Allow the glaze mixture to cool slightly until it has begun to thicken a bit.
- Dip the bottoms of each cookie in the glaze, and then place chocolate side up on a piece of parchment or waxed paper.
- Alternatively, spoon the chocolate glaze on the top of the cooled cookies.
- Allow the chocolate to set briefly, then drag the tines of a fork in a wiggly pattern through the chocolate coating.
- Allow the cookies to sit at room temperature until the chocolate is set.
Video
Notes
GF Flour Blend
I originally developed this recipe for use with our gum-free gluten free flour blend along with the addition of some xanthan gum, and I believe that creates the perfect texture.
But it still works using a xanthan gum-containing blend like Better Batter, which contains more xanthan gum than our addition.
Cornstarch
If you use a higher starch all purpose gluten free flour blend, like Cup4Cup, add another 1/4 cup (36 g) of the flour blend in place of the addition of cornstarch.
Sorghum flour
In place of sorghum flour, you can use gluten free oat flour in an equal amount by weight. It makes a slightly less crunchy biscuit.
Milk powder
You can use nonfat dry milk, whole milk powder, or even coconut milk powder for a dairy-free version.
Lyle’s golden syrup
This is a mild tasting invert syrup. In its place, you can use light corn syrup, which has no taste, just sweetness. I don’t recommend using maple syrup (less sweet, different texture), or honey (right texture, stronger taste), but honey will work. It will just add some unwanted flavor.
Recipe adapted from the book Gluten-Free Classic Snacks: 100 Recipes for the Brand Name Treats You Love, by Nicole Hunn. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2015.
