Saturday, May 3, 2014

Crunchy Bran Biscuits


There’s nothing like a biscuit with a dual purpose. You can eat these just as they are - crunchy, nutty (in a no-nuts kind of way) and wholesome – but because they’re not too sweet they make a fine match with cheese.  This was how I preferred them.  A thick smear of good butter (shall I mention Lewis Road again?) and a wedge of Double Cream Brie and it was all good.  So good I had another, and then another.  It reminded me of eating McVitie’s digestive biscuits with butter and cheddar, which I sometimes still do.  Thankfully I don’t have my mother’s fondness for blue cheese and jam toppings but you're welcome to go ahead and try that too! 

I thought it especially nice to have home baked biscuits with cheese instead of the ubiquitous rice crackers, which I used like but now find I’m getting heartily sick of. 

On top of their versatility the bran biscuits are easy to bake and quick to rustle up.  Some time I should try making my own oat biscuits too.

Crunchy bran biscuits 

100g butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup milk
1 cup standard flour
1 cup wheat bran
3 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180°C

Lightly grease two baking trays or line with baking paper.

Beat the butter, sugar and milk together until well mixed.

Stir in the flour, bran and baking powder and bring together to form a dough.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface.  At this stage, because I wanted oblong shaped biscuits, I shaped the dough into a log which I then “squared off” on four sides and cut into thin slices (I have to admit this was a bit fiddly).  If you prefer, roll out the dough with a rolling pin to about 2mm thick and use a biscuit cutter to cut into round shapes.

Place the biscuits on the trays and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until crispy and brown.

Transfer to a cake rack to cool. 





3 comments:

  1. YUM! This is my favourite sort of biscuit - you used to be able to buy these from the supermarket once upon a time, but I haven't seen them for ages. I absolutely love biscuits and cheese (and jam, sorry!), am pinning this right now and writing 'wheatbran' on the shopping list. Thanks for the recipe!

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  2. Thanks Lucy, I hope you enjoy. This weekend on a holiday weekend break in the Coromandel my friend had some similar (but smaller ones) that she purchased from Nosh in Auckland but don't know what make they were.

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  3. Thank you for this recipe! Ever since Marks and Spencer left Canada, I've been mourning the lack of crunchy bran biscuits in my life. This is exactly the crunchiness, sweetness and texture I've been looking for. And they're so easy. I'm crap at driving a rolling pin, so I rolled the dough into 30 little balls, and flattened them almost perfectly with my heavy little coffee tamper. I'm a happy baker today!

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