quote:
Originally posted by Western Bluebird:
"what the heck is a digestive biscuit??"
Well, Bluebird, here's everything you wanted to know (and probably more) about digestive biscuits. If you REALLY want more information, just Google "digestive biscuit" or "digestive cookies" and surf to your heart's content. [Big Grin]

And you can probably use graham cracker crumbs in place of the digestive cookies...Chatty and Dotsie were going to try that, but I haven't heard back on if or how they did.

1.From: http://www.soci.org/SCI/general/2004/html/ge370.jsp

A bite-sized history of the digestive biscuit: The digestive biscuit had long been a staple of the Scottish bakery business. It was invented [in Scotland by McVities]…in 1839 and contained an antacid, bicarbonate of soda, to aid digestion.

The famous biscuit rapidly caught on, partly due to its attractiveness as an early convenience food. Scotland’s population was becoming increasingly urbanized at the time, and apart from stuffing biscuits in pockets and lunchboxes, many more would have had tea at home or in such famous tearooms as Lyon’s Tea Shop.

The biscuits, while seemingly old-fashioned, have never gone out of fashion. Today over 71 million packets of chocolate digestives are eaten in the UK each year, apparently 52 biscuits per second.


2. From: http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/biscuits/previous.php3?item=9

The undisputed king of the large diameter biscuits, this is truly an iconic biscuit.

Found in two main varieties, SweetMeal and WholeMeal, the digestive biscuit sets a standard for the whole biscuit world. Its satisfying nature makes the biscuit eater consider how many to have at a time 1, 2 or maybe 3. It's versatile, providing the base for many more elaborate biscuits, (see Chocolate Caramels), and even chocolate covered biscuit bars such as the Breakaway, or the base for Cheesecakes.

Once again the biscuit shown here is from McVities, and it’s a WholeMeal. Other people attempt to make digestives but they taste like cardboard compared to the mighty McVities.
I have seen girls slip a sheet of kitchen roll in the bottom of their biscuit tins, when opening a new packet of digestives, and although this is completely unnecessary, it is strangely alluring.


2. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestive_biscuit

Digestive biscuit: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A digestive biscuit is a semi-sweet biscuit known for its qualities that enable it to be easily digested. The typical digestive biscuit contains wheat flour, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, sugar, wholemeal, cultured skimmed milk, partially inverted sugar syrup, raising agents, and salt.
An average of around 70 calories are present in a digestive biscuit, although this varies according to the factors involved in its production.

Chocolate digestive biscuits also are available, coated (one side only) in either milk chocolate or plain chocolate. Other recent varieties (introduced by the main manufacturer of digestives in the UK and Ireland – McVitie's) include the basic biscuit with chocolate shavings throughout, or a topping of caramel as well as chocolate.

Digestive biscuits are frequently eaten in the UK with tea; the biscuit is partially dunked to soak up a small amount of tea, quickly removed, and the sodden part eaten. Coffee may also be used. The duration of dunking required is a matter of personal taste; however, it is limited by the biscuit's tendency to disintegrate when saturated, with the sodden part sinking into the bottom of the mug. The consumer is usually unaware of this until they raise the biscuit and find it is cut off at the water line.