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These gluten free digestive biscuits are the lightly sweet, wheaty tasting British tea biscuits that are perfect with your afternoon cup. Just so we're clear, the chocolate's on the bottom.
Made from a sneaky combination of an all purpose gluten free flour blend plus sorghum and teff flours (or a few subs), they have all the heartiness of the original, without the gluten. If you're missing the “real thing” digestives, this one's for you!
What are digestives?
Digestives are the original tea biscuit made by McVitie's. They're super popular in the U.K., and were first made in the late 1800's.
They were created, like graham crackers were in the U.S., to aid in digestion. They're crispy and crunchy, only lightly sweet, and are great for enjoying with a cup of tea, or in place of gluten free graham crackers to make a version of our gluten free graham cracker crust.
Expert tips
Include the “wheaty” tasting flours.
A combination of sweet white sorghum flour and teff flour gives the chew and whole grain goodness of wheat. The recipe would still technically work if you replaced them with an all purpose gluten free flour, but the cookies wouldn't have the right taste or texture. Those flours are also useful for making gluten free wheat thins and gluten free brown bread, so it's worth buying them.
Don't overbake.
The cookies bake in only about 10 minutes in the oven, and they're done when the edges start to brown. The dough is sticky, but not super soft, and can become brittle and taste stale if you overbake it.
Poke holes for crispness.
Before baking, pierce the raw rounds of dough on top with a toothpick to ensure that they rise evenly, without any bubbles. That will help them crisp as they cool.
Ingredients and substitutions
Dairy free
Try coconut milk powder in place of dairy m ilk powder, and use an unsweetened non-dairy milk in place of cow's milk. Replace the milk chocolate in the glaze with a dairy-free chocolate.
In place of butter, block-style vegan butter like Melt or Miyoko's Creamery brand are my favorites. Chilling the cutouts before placing them in the oven should help reduce spread.
Cornstarch
In place of cornstarch, you can use arrowroot powder or even potato starch. You need a tasteless, pure starch.
Sweet white 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.
Teff flour
In place of teff flour, I'd try buckwheat flour. If you can't find teff flour but you can find whole teff, grind it into a powder in a blender.
Lyle's golden syrup
Lyle's 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.
Gluten Free Digestive Biscuits
Ingredients
For the biscuits
- 1 ¼ cups (175 g) 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 (36 g) cornstarch, (see Recipe Notes)
- ⅞ cup (130 g) sweet white sorghum flour, (see Recipe Notes)
- 5 tablespoons (45 g) teff flour
- 3 ⅓ tablespoons (20 g) milk powder, (see Recipe Notes)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons (42 g) Lyle’s golden syrup, (see Recipe Notes)
- ½ cup (4 fluid ounces) milk, at room temperature
For the chocolate glaze
- 12 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
- 3 tablespoons (42 g) 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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Storage instructions
FAQs
McVitie's makes digestives, and something called Hobnobs. They're like digestives, but oaty, and a bit more hearty.
Sort of yes. Schar and a few other companies do make a gluten free version of digestives cookies. I don't know how they compare to the original.
Thanks for the recipe. My wife had been ordering digestives (the non-chocolate version) from England and I couldn’t eat them because of the gluten. I grew up in England though it’s almost 50 years since I left and my wife grew up in Canada but with English parents so we both love this type of thing. We have done the recipe three times now minus the chocolate. We found we need to roll out the dough quite a bit thinner than you say in order to get the number of cookies and to bake them for a few more minutes than you say. We also found them too sweet for our taste so we halved the sugar and added a quarter cup of ground flax seed to get the crumbly texture of the true English cookies. We are still experimenting but like them a lot. Thanks again!
That’s quite a lot of tinkering, Nick. Sugar isn’t just a sweetener, but a tenderizer and a bulking agent. You’re pretty much creating a new recipe of sorts with those changes, as this recipe does not contain flax seeds, which have a very strong taste and definitely alter the chemistry. I’m afraid you’re on your own with all that!
Thanks for the storage tip!
I made these today and they were a hit! Probably my favorite thing I’ve made from the blog so far. ??
I subbed coconut nectar for the Lyle’s syrup. I think it’s less sweet than honey and to my palette it had a pretty neutral taste.
I ended up having a lot of glaze left over. But, I didn’t mind one bit! The leftovers make for DELICIOUS chocolate-covered strawberries and nuts.
That’s an interesting substitute, Amanda! I would think coconut nectar would be too thin, but maybe I’m misremembering its consistency. So glad you loved them. Sounds like a back-pocket recipe for you. :)
I’m excited to make these tomorrow! I just so happen to have ordered sorghum and teff flours last week, so this recipe was well-timed. :)
I wanted to ask in advance, because it’s something that I always struggle with: Is there a way to store these that they will stay crisp?
Thanks for all you do, Nicole!
Hi, Amanda, good question, and yes! Generally, if you want to keep baked goods like cookies crisp and crunchy, store them in sealed a glass jar at room temperature. Plastic tends to draw moisture into them, but glass doesn’t. Just be sure you don’t add anything that isn’t crispy to the jar. Hope that helps!
I made these biscuits yesterday and substituted oat flour, which I made from whole oats, for the sweet sorghum and buckwheat for the teff. They are delicious. Taste a lot like graham crackers. It was hard to limit myself to just two.
Buckwheat is an interesting replacement for teff flour, Jodie. Good idea! So glad to know that it worked and that you enjoyed them.
I can’t wait to make these, they look so good! I also just dropped off my oldest daughter for her freshman year of college. I have been racking my brain to think of a gluten free tray I can send her that won’t taste old by the time she gets it. Definitely interested in your ideas!
Aw, Karen, I feel for you! I’m thinking cookies are the way to go (cookies always seem like the way to go for me), but I’ll have to be sure to share what I come up with for sure!
Love to make these but all the coconut powder I’ve seen has dairy in it. Is there anything else that can be used Nicola. I’ve got all the ingredients except that. Thanks. ?
Native Forest brand is dairy-free, Rosemary. It’s even vegan.
Any substitution for the teff flour?
I explain in the ingredients and substitutions section that I don’t know of any, no, Anita. Sorry!