Help me develop the perfect biscuit

Hi all.

Here's a challenge for you all. The winner will get to see a picture of a cup of tea with the biscuit next to it

Here's my basic biscuit build:

Mix oats and flour, butter and sugar.
Add a shake of ground ginger, and a shake of cinnamon.
Add some fennel seeds and sometimes chopped pumpkin seeds.

Make it it small balls, squash flat, and bake til golden.

I want to reduce the butter and sugar to make it more healthy, but I don't want to compromise the delicious flavour or the texture or the lovely soft but crunchy structure. I like how they hold together well and stand up to being dunked, yet don't break your teeth or explode crumbs everywhere.

 

You can reduce the sugar without affecting the texture (I think ) but it's the butter content that determines how hard or soft they are. A bit of good butter isn't bad for you. Highly processed fats are. But I'm sure you know all that
Perhaps replace some of the sugar with honey?

 

You don't give quantities or proportions.
Might be a bit tricky as the butter and sugar help hold it altogether.
Possibly swap butter for margarine and maybe try swapping the sugar for either "Truvia" or "Splenda" and I did see a while ago an alternative to sugar that was half sugar and half bulking agent + sweetner. These come with a cost penalty though.
Xylitol I'd be inclined to avoid as it can have unfortunate effects on the gut.
Replacing sugar with honey, molasses, maple or agave syrup doesn't do much for the calories although I'd go with honey.
Pedantic note: Biscuits are traditionally baked twice.

 

That's where it gets interesting....less calories don't equal more healthy! Hasn't it been proven fairly recently that a lot of the substitutes for so-called unhealthy foods are actually worse for you than the real thing in moderation? That thinking seems to have stood a few million French in good stead for a long time. We're just starting to go down the transatlantic route of low-fat this, that and the other (often compensated for by increased sugar and salt) and processed foods, and the results are looking scary.
Just making your own food as much as possible, so you know what's in it, is a good start

 

Yes. 'low fat' often means higher sugar, and low sugar usually means more processors and lots of chemicals.

What I'm looking to achieve is a reduction in fat and sugar in my biscuits without resorting to nasty chemicals.

I'm trying to create the holy grail, of a biscuit that has as few as possible 'empty' calories.

 

You could perhaps try replacing some of the butter-sugar mix with pureed fruit. Fruit puree is often used to replace egg, but too much will impact the texture. If it's too wet, the biscuits will boil and turn rock hard (first hand experience from pumpkin biscuits years ago )

The Child made biscuits with mashed beans (tinned) and that worked quite well.

I wonder if home made nut butter would work? Replacing some of the butter with that would improve the fat quality. Then again, nuts are dead expensive.

Sweeteners are food for devil, don't go there. How about finely chopped raisins or dried fruit to add sweetness?

Now I'm hungry, thanks a lot

 

How many of these are you eating a day? If you're only having one a day, and since I know you are an active person, I don't see how these can possibly have an impact on your overall health?

 

I only make them occasionally. It's not so much about cutting my calorie intake, I'm more interested because I like to break with convention. It's just a pointless but interesting challenge I've set myself to see if I can make a healthy biscuit that's still delicious.

 

Not without it turning into a crispbread