Chocolate-Covered Digestive Biscuits (McVities)

The crunchy texture and grainy flavor of McVities-style digestive biscuits are perfectly offset by a thick layer of dark or milk chocolate.

A round plate holding two McVities-style digestive biscuits. A bit is taken out of one of the biscuits, and there is a pile of cookies in the background of the image.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Why It Works

  • A mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour creates the perfect blend of flavor, crunch, and tenderness.
  • Buttermilk moistens the eggless dough, while providing a tangy flavor and lactose for browning, along with enough acidity to activate the baking soda.
  • Baking powder helps the biscuits rise without the excess browning and alkaline flavor of baking soda alone.

I may have grown up in Kentucky, but that doesn't mean my childhood lacked for British biscuits—from Jaffa Cakes to Jammie Dodgers, these tasty imports always caught my eye whenever Mom or Dad veered down the international aisle of our supermarket. My absolute favorite was, and still is, McVities.

For the uninitiated, McVities are a type of digestive biscuit, a pseudo-healthy cookie/cracker hybrid made with a portion of whole grains, which makes them a close cousin to the American graham cracker. Though they're sold plain, the arguably more delicious type comes coated in chocolate. While I've long thought the milk chocolate variety tastes like Kit Kats in cookie form, dark chocolate McVities will always be my OTP.

An overhead shot of two digestive biscuits sitting on a white plate.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Taking a look at the back of the box, I knew I'd need a mix of white and wheat flour, along with oil, sugar, salt, and some sort of milk, if not the actual skim milk powder that's in the original. In addition, I'd need some leavening agents to mimic the commercial blend of sodium bicarbonate, malic acid, and ammonium bicarbonate used in real McVities. Overall, that simple list makes a relatively straightforward recipe, since the proportions are implied by their order,* but I wanted to make some adjustments for the home kitchen, as well as a vegan version.

*Turning a seemingly random list of ingredients into a successful dessert is what culinary students are tested on prior to graduating the CIA; if you can't manage that, you're not ready for the big leagues.

Now, making the dough with a solid, flavorless fat like coconut oil would be accurate to the back-of-the-box recipe, and that's what I've reached for in making comparatively lean/low-sugar cracker doughs, like what I use for homemade Wheat Thins. But coconut oil becomes a bit more troublesome in relatively high-fat/high-sugar doughs, where its sharp melting point, at 76°F (24°C), makes for sticky business. It's a challenge familiar to most vegan bakers, but, since real McVities are made with skim milk powder anyway, there's no shame in choosing butter instead.

An alternative shot of two biscuits resting on a white plate, with more cookies in the background.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Butter is actually fairly low in lactose, and coconut oil is free from it entirely, so I knew that in both recipes, I'd need to add a little something in the flavor department. I knew I could go straight to the source, via fresh or powdered milk.

Since few home cooks have access to malic acid, which reacts with baking soda to produce the carbon dioxide that leavens the original biscuits, my vegan recipe uses cream of tartar instead, with a splash of water to moisten the eggless dough. (This is what real McVities use as well, but it isn't listed on the box because it bakes out in the end.) For this, the non-vegan recipe, buttermilk provides both acidity and lactose in one fell swoop.

With the ingredients and proportions all hammered out, the dough for either recipe comes together without any fuss. Just put all the dry ingredients in a food processor, add cubed butter or cool coconut oil, and process into a mealy powder. Compared to the classic creaming method, this approach coats the flour in fat, putting a real damper on gluten development to give the biscuits a uniquely sandy texture.

Once the buttermilk or water is added, the dough is processed until it's wet and crumbly, at which point I knead it together by hand. Hypothetically, the whole process can be done by hand, but it will take much longer to work the fat into the flour, which will warm and soften it to a significant degree, resulting in a mess that'll necessitate at least 30 minutes of refrigeration before you mix in any liquids. All told, this recipe comes together much more smoothly in a food processor.

Using as much flour as needed, both above and below, roll the dough until it's just shy of a quarter inch—around 3/16ths of an inch, or 4.75 millimeters, to be precise. In baking, this type of precision is pretty important, so I recommend grabbing a ruler. If they're rolled thinner by mistake, the cookies will bake too fast. Even if you keep a close eye on them in the oven to prevent burning, that thinness will make them too crisp, more like a chip than a cookie. Conversely, rolling the dough thicker makes it difficult for the middles of the cookies to dry and crisp at the same rate as their edges, meaning that the middles will feel damp and smushy, or that the edges will be slightly burnt.

Since a few strategic pokes can help prevent air bubbles and excessive puffiness in many pizza, pastry, and cracker recipes, it's nice to have a docking tool (like this one) that can accomplish this faster and more evenly than a fork But in homemade McVities, it's a strictly cosmetic step. While those freakishly perfect polka dots look super professional, there's no need to hand-poke all the holes if you don't happen to have a docking tool.

After rolling, brush away the excess flour, and cut the dough in 2 3/4–inch rounds; upon shrinking slightly in the oven, the biscuits will reach the exact diameter of the real deal. If you don't have a set of nested cookie cutters, that's probably not a size you happen to have on hand, but you can come pretty close with a large wine glass.

A hand using an upturned wine glass to cut a cooking out of the docked dough.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Of course, any size cutter will do, but the greater the deviation, the more you'll have to rely on your own intuition when you're baking. Changing the size will also change the yield, requiring some adjustments to the amount of chocolate you'll need as well. Not a huge deal, but something to keep in mind.

Arrange the cutouts on a parchment-lined half sheet pan, and bake at 350°F (177°C) until they're firm and dry. The vegan version won't brown very much at all, while the buttery one will take on a golden hue. Thanks to the already brownish color of the dough, that subtle change may be difficult to gauge through an oven window, so be sure to open the door to get a better look. It may also help to rotate the pan about halfway through to ensure the biscuits bake evenly.

Let the cookies cool directly on the half sheet pan while you temper the chocolate, using whichever method you prefer from Kenji's helpful guide. Without tempering, the melted chocolate won't quite harden as it should, so the biscuits will have to be kept in the refrigerator. Tempering ensures the chocolate will set into a glossy, crisp layer, giving the biscuits a taste and texture that's just like the real deal.

An angled shot showing baked biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Dollop a bit of chocolate over a few cookies, about a half tablespoon or quarter ounce each (or maybe a touch more, because chocolate), and spread it into an even layer. As the chocolate begins to harden, bounce the tines of a fork over it to create a wavy pattern.

Alternatively, you can create some simple zigzags with the back of a spoon. Either way, the pattern is less about looks than about roughing up the chocolate to re-create the intriguing surface texture of a real McVitie's biscuit, with lots of nooks and crannies for your tongue to explore.

Since tempering always requires a bit of extra chocolate for wiggle room—some of what you need will always be lost to the bag/bowl/spatula, not to mention in the form of drips and splashes—you'll have a bit left over in the end. Sure, it could be used to shamelessly smother the biscuits, but if you'd like to preserve the cookie-to-chocolate ratio of this classic treat, it's better to save that chocolate for reuse according to this guide.

Even if you have access to the real thing, the ability to coat freshly baked digestive biscuits in your own favorite brand of chocolate (whether traditional or vegan) is reason enough to try making these at home. With or without a cup of tea...

March 2017

Recipe Details

Chocolate-Covered Digestive Biscuits (McVities)

Active 60 mins
Total 90 mins
Serves 16 cookies

Ingredients

  • 4 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup, spooned; 125g)

  • 2 ounces whole wheat flour (about 1/3 cup; 55g), plus more for dusting

  • 2 1/4 ounces sugar (about 1/3 cup; 60g)

  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/8 teaspoon (0.5g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use about half as much by volume or use the same weight

  • 4 ounces cold unsalted butter (about 8 tablespoons; 113g), cut into 1/4-inch cubes

  • 2 ounces cultured lowfat buttermilk (about 1/4 cup; 55g)

  • 9 ounces roughly chopped dark or milk chocolate (about 1 1/2 cups; 285g) (see notes)

Directions

  1. Make the Dough: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 350°F (177°C). Combine all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cubed butter in the bowl of a food processor. Process until butter virtually disappears into a fine, floury meal. Add buttermilk and pulse to form a damp and crumbly dough. Turn onto an unfloured surface and knead into a ball.

    A four-image collage showing the dough being made in a food processor. The top left image shows the dry ingredients in the food processor bowl. The top right image shows the buttermilk being poured into the food processor. The bottom left image shows the dry ingredients and buttermilk now incorporated in the food processor. The bottom right image shows a ball of grainy, loosely formed dough.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

  2. Roll and Bake the Biscuits: On a generously floured surface, roll dough until just shy of 1/4 inch (4.7mm), using as much flour as needed along the way to prevent sticking. Dust away excess flour with a pastry brush and decorate with a docking tool if you like. Cut into 2 3/4–inch rounds and transfer to a parchment-lined half sheet pan. Gather up scraps, knead, roll, and cut as before.

    A three-image collage showing the dough being rolled out, formed into a circle, and then rolled into a sheet and docked with a docking tool.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

  3. Bake until firm to the touch and light brown all over, about 18 minutes. Cool directly on sheet pan and continue with next step, or store in an airtight container up to 3 days at room temperature.

    An image photoshopped to show a sheet pan with baked cookies on it. The left side of the pans shows the cookies as very lightly golden, while the right side shows them as more deeply golden.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

  4. Temper the Chocolate: Temper chocolate according to one of the methods described here.

  5. Coat the Biscuits: Working with just 2 or 3 biscuits at a time, dollop a generous 1/2 tablespoon, or just over 1/4 ounce, chocolate over each. Spread into an even layer over biscuit and, as chocolate starts to thicken, bounce the tines of a fork across the surface to create a wavy pattern. Repeat with remaining biscuits and chocolate. (Before it hardens, store excess chocolate according to the directions here.) Serve biscuits immediately, preferably with hot tea, and transfer to an airtight container for up to 3 weeks at room temperature.

    A three-image collage showing the tempered chocolate being poured onto a cookie and then being pressed with a fork, which causes the distinctive lines on top of McVities cookies.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

Food processor fitted with a metal blade, half sheet pan, rolling pin, pastry brush, docking tool (optional), 2 3/4–inch round cutter or wine glass

Notes

If you want the most authentic dark chocolate flavor, I've found that Chocolove 70% has a bittersweet intensity almost exactly like the chocolate in the original McVities. For milk chocolate, the caramel notes in Valrhona's Caramelia make it a perfect match.

Read More

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
202 Calories
11g Fat
23g Carbs
3g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 16
Amount per serving
Calories 202
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11g 14%
Saturated Fat 7g 35%
Cholesterol 19mg 6%
Sodium 62mg 3%
Total Carbohydrate 23g 8%
Dietary Fiber 1g 4%
Total Sugars 13g
Protein 3g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 46mg 4%
Iron 1mg 5%
Potassium 95mg 2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)