Honey Digestive Biscuits - no refined sugar

I'd been thinking about making a simple, no nonsense, "no bad stuff" biscuit for a while and I'd had some attempts at making some sugar free.  If I'm honest though, I was never happy with them.  Unlike a cake, a sweet biscuit is very difficult to make without sugar.

After a few attempts though I settled on this recipe.  Not strictly sugar free because it contains honey but no refined sugars and pretty low in sugar overall.  Yet it's still sweet but in that sweet / slightly savoury way that digestive biscuits are which make them as at home with a cup of tea or with strong cheddar.

I was impressed and will make them again.  Just keep an eye on them, the temperatures and times are for my oven and after I overcooked a previous batch, I lowered the temperature to what you see below.  You want to take them out of the oven when they're just starting to colour and firming up.

Obviously due to the honey, these won't be suitable for kids under the age of 12 months.

Honey Digestive Biscuits - Made 15-30 depending on size

Ingredients

2.5oz, 70g Self Raising Wholemeal Flour (or Wholemeal biscuit flour with 1tsp baking powder added)
0.5oz, 15g Porridge oats
1.5oz, 45g Butter - make with solid vegetable margarine or vegetable shortening if avoiding dairy
1 tbsp Runny honey
1oz, 30g Wheatgerm

Method

Preheat the oven to 170oC, 340F, Gas mark 3-4.

Rub the dry ingredients into the butter using a food processor.  Add the honey and process for a few more seconds.  Tip out onto a board and bring together with your hands.

Once in a ball roll out with some more flour until 2-3 mm thick.  Cut out the shapes of your choosing (hearts for me, no ninjas today) and put onto baking paper.  Bake for 6-8 minutes (7 in my oven) until browning and firming up.  Leave to cool on the baking paper for a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

Serve as a snack or pudding for your child or with a cup of tea or cheeses.  Very popular with the little man.

Update: These are also great baked from frozen, just add on a minute and keep an eye on them.  A great way to have freshly baked biscuits!

What do I mean by "no bad stuff"?  I guess over the years, despite my science background I've settled on liking to eat foods which haven't been messed with too much.  It's not a hard and fast rule but certainly with my son I don't give him sweeteners, I don't give him a huge amount of sugar either.  I'm happy to give him animal fats but he also has plenty of olive oil in his diet.  Frankly I try and make our diets as "unfussed with" as I can.