Finally, I erased this one from the long to-do list. I wanted to make homemade digestive cookies, as healthy as possible for a long time. The good thing is that they came out with the first try (happiness :)), and they are so delicious that do not have nothing to envy from the store-bought ones! I have used digestive cookies in many of the blog’s recipes, which you can see here. Now, all these I will make with homemade biscuits.
The method of preparation is very simple. Pour all the ingredients in the food processor, mix for a while, put the dough in the refrigerator and leave for about 1 hour. Then you roll it with a rolling pin, and bake 10 minutes. Ready!
Best of all? They can be made vegan and they are really delicious! You just have to replace cow’s milk with almond milk or other plant milk of your choice.
In the list of ingredients you will see that I use coconut oil instead of butter. The difference in caloric value is not great. Nutritionally speaking, both butter and coconut oil are loaded with saturated fat. This means:
87 percent fat – or 12 grams per tablespoon – of coconut oil is saturated fat and
51 percent fat-or 7 grams per tablespoon – butter is saturated fat.
Despite the recent review of studies that a diet low in saturated fat does not seem to reduce the risk of heart disease, we must stress that not all saturated fat are the same.
Some of the saturated fatty acids in the coconut oil and butter are medium chain fatty acids (MCTs). Coconut oil consists of medium chain fatty acids or MCTs at 50% content and butter at 15%.
The major saturated fatty acid in coconut oil is MCT lauric acid. Surveys show that while raising the “bad” cholesterol LDL, simultaneously improves the beneficial HDL cholesterol, and thus can have a neutral effect on the risk of heart disease. What is unique to MCT is how our body processes it; Simply cleaved in the body differently than other fats and may be less likely to be stored in adipose tissue, but are converted to a specific form of energy which is used directly by the bloodstream. That is, the fat is quickly metabolized by the liver by increasing the metabolic rate to 15%. The primary fatty acid in the butter is palmitic acid, which seems to cause the accumulation of plaque in your arteries.
I want to be clear, of course, that in no way I imply that the butter is not healthy. I am one of those who, almost always, add a little butter in my food. Moreover, in recent years, all those who once condemned butter as the worst food, now they have changed their mind. But the same thing happened with coconut oil, two or three years ago, which was considered “sinful” because of the saturated fat. That also changed in the process.
If you cannot find coconut oil, use cow’s butter in the same amount, but col and cubed.
For this recipe I used the really wonderful biodynamic wholemeal stonemilled flour from biodynamic triticum dicoccum (emmer) wheat by The Trinity Farm, which was kindly sent to me to try it.
- 1 1/3 cups (100 g. /3.5 oz.) rolled oats
- 1 cup (100 g. / 3.5 oz.) whole meal Emmer flour
- 1/3 cup (50 g. / 1.8 oz.) coconut sugar *
- ½ cup (110 g. / 3.8 oz.) coconut oil **
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 ½ tablespoon of crushed flaxseed (optional)
- ¼ cup (60 ml) milk 2% fat - may not need all - (for vegan version see note***)
- Put the oats in the food processor and pulse for 2-3 seconds to slightly grind.
- Add the remaining ingredients, except the milk and pulse again until the dough starts to form, about 10 seconds.
- Add the milk little by little until you the dough clumps together. You probably won’t need to use it all.
- Remove the dough from the food processor, knead it with your hands a couple of times, and form a ball with it. Wrap the dough with food wrap and place it in refrigerator for about 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C/320o F and lay a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Place the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll it out to a ¼ inch/6 mm thick sheet.
- Cut the biscuits with a cookie cutter of 6 cm in diameter and place them on the baking sheet.
- Bake for about 12-15 minutes until golden browned on edges.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- * Υou can substitute coconut sugar, with 1/3 cup raw brown or muscovado sugar.
- ** You can substitute coconut oil, with cow’s butter in the same amount, but cold and cubed.
- *** For the vegan version substitute cow's milk with almond milk or other plant milk of your choice.
⇒ The ideas and information presented in this blog are for informational purposes only and in no case can replace the advice of a specialist in nutrition and health. Before starting any diet or exercise or before adding a special food in your daily intake, you should contact a specialist doctor or dietitian; especially if you suffer from a serious illness.
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