These Chocolate Covered Digestive Cookies are a take on a popular English biscuit brand, McVities. 

These chocolate covered digestive cookies are a semi-sweet whole wheat and oatmeal cookie, dipped in chocolate.

Evidently, digestive cookies, or "biscuits" in England, were invented to aid in digestion, mostly because of the inclusion of "whole meal" flour and bicarbonate of soda. The story of these cookies reminds me of the movie The Road to Wellville, the story of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of the cornflake (P.S. the movie is totally a Rotten Tomato). The nutritional theories are flawed, but, like cornflakes, these cookies are tasty.

Then again, these cookies, or "biscuits," are made with whole grains..... and there are some theories about the health benefits of cocoa. That's enough for me!

Digestive biscuits are typically dunked in tea or coffee in Great Britain, which is why I chose to make this cookie for this month's Creative Cookie Exchange theme, Cookies for Tea.

I broke out my cute scalloped cookie cutter for these cookies. I totally love the look. I've used scalloped cookie cutters for these homemade graham crackers, ginger snaps, and chocolate wafers. I actually think the scallops make the cookies taste better. Amirite?

I dunked the bottom of the finished cookies in melted semi-sweet chocolate, and let the chocolate harden on parchment lined baking sheets. The hardest part was waiting for the chocolate to harden.

These cookies definitely have a grown up taste, as they are not overly sweet. They are really easy to pull together, and they stay crispy when kept in an airtight container. I absolutely loved these.

For more cookies created for the Cookies for Tea theme, be sure to check out the links at the end of this post.

Chocolate Covered Digestive Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces/170 grams) whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces) all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 8 tablespoons (4 ounces/113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
• 3/4 cups (3 ounces/85 grams) powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup (2 ounces/57 grams) milk, plus more if needed.
• 4 ounces milk or semi-sweet chocolate

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Add the oats to the bowl of a food processor, and pulse 5 to 10 times, until coarsely ground. Add the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt, and baking powder, and process for a few seconds to combine.
3. Add the butter to the food processor and pulse several times, until the butter is the size of small beads. Add the sugar and milk and pulse until the dough comes together into a ball. If the dough doesn't come together, or seems too dry, add milk, one tablespoon at a time, and pulse to see if the dough will come together, I needed just one extra tablespoon.
4. Gather the dough together onto a clean work surface, and roll it out to about a little less than 1/4 inch thick with a rolling pin.
5. Cut the dough into 2 1/2 circles with a cookie cutter, and prick the dough with a fork several times. Gather up the scraps, re-roll, and cut more cookies. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 20 minutes. Let them cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Melt the chocolate at 50 percent power in 30 second intervals in a microwave. Dip the bottom of the cookies in the melted chocolate, and place them back onto the parchment lined baking sheets. Let sit until the chocolate hardens completely. Store in an airtight container, separated by wax or parchment paper.

Yield: About 24 cookies

Recipe inpired by both King Arthur Flour and Serious Eats 

Cookies in the afternoon at “teatime” are a long held tradition, whether served with tea, coffee or even milk for an after school snack. No matter what you serve with your cookies, we’ve got a great list for you to choose from! You can also use us as a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them here at The Spiced Life). You will be able to find them the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month! Also, if you are looking for inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:

• Lilikoi-Lime Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Rich Tea Biscuits from Food Lust People Love
• Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread Cookies from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Chai-Scotti from What Smells So Good?
• Buttermilk Cookies with Nutmeg and Thyme from The Spiced Life
• Chocolate Covered Digestive Biscuits from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Lemon Basil Marmalade Cookies from 2 Cookin Mamas
• Honey and Vanilla Madeleines from A Baker's House