Dark chocolate digestive biscuits (from Miranda Gore Brown’s book Biscuits (Ebury Press, 2012)
These were the least successful of the several recipes I’ve tried from Miranda Gore Brown’s Biscuit (Ebury Press, 2012) and though it’s quite likely the fault may be mine in the baking, others who ate these agreed that they could have done with more sugar. (Or, forget about the chocolate on top and eat them with cheese.) But then again, I think the commercial chocolate digestive biscuit, my favourite, takes some beating and is pretty perfect in itself. I now regard it in an even more awestruck light, marvelling at its texture and taste. I don’t think I’ll make these again and I’m not going to give the recipe for them. I’ve tried about 10 of Miranda’s biscuit recipes already and this is the only one that hasn’t been successful. And some have been amazing, including her ‘unbelievable chocolate biscuits’ (Church biscuit 43 of last week).
Instead here are our 2 churches looking very lovely last Sunday morning in crisp and cold weather.
Ipsden Church, Oxon, 9 am 8 February 2015, a cold and frosty morning
Snowdrops in North Stoke Churchyard 8 February 2015.
North Stoke Church, Oxon 11am February 2015, cold and still frosty in spite of being sunny
North Stoke: snowdrops outside lych gate
6 Comments
The simplest seeming ideas are always the hardest to get right!
Very true, especially when you just think you’ll rush something simple off quickly.
I wonder what the history of the digestive is – if the original was home made, then the commercial product should be a pale imitation of the ‘real thing,’ and a tastier ‘real thing’ eminently achievable. But what if it started as the factory biscuit? Reverse engineering might then be less likely to be successful. It strikes me, partly because of the name, as the kind of thing Huntley & Palmer or another wholesome Quaker manufacturer would have come up with – a reasonably nourishing and tasty way to feed the workers and use up a lot of bran from the flour mills! Not having been exposed to them until I moved to the UK, except occasionally as small platforms for cheese, I always wondered what the earthly use of solo digestives was until I met the chocolate caramel ones 🙂
This is a fascinating thread of thought that really does deserve pursuing. Nigel Slater did a rather wonderful and slightly cracked TV piece about his love of biscuits which I caught v.late one night when I was trying to finish a piece of sewing. I’m sure he had something illuminating to say about the digestive. For me the plain choc digestive is king but the choc caramel ones are v. good as are the double choc, both of which I would take to church before I baked my own biscuits.
Your photographs of the two churches and the snowdrops are lovely! I can feel the brisk air on a clear, sunny Sunday morning. Thank you for posting the photographs.
I’m so pleased you picked up the feeling of a lovely morning and enjoyed the photographs. Thank you for leaving a comment.