Marmite Breakfast Biscuits/Cookies

Marmite, which is a sort of spread made from yeast extract.  It is very savoury and very strong in flavour.  So a little goes a long way.  In the UK is it one of those things that people either love or hate.  I often use it in soups and stews but others love to spread it thinly on toast.   

I recently saw that Marmite now have a breakfast biscuit/cookie product.   So I bought some and tried them.  They were actually very good indeed, savoury in flavour but with the texture similar to a digestive biscuit.  As well as Marmite the biscuits also included some seeds. 

I thought that I could probably make my own and get them very similar in texture and taste to the shop bought ones.  So this recipe is for my home made version.   Any version of yeast extract, such as Vegemite will work just as well as Marmite.

They are actually very easy to make and are very tasty indeed, with a nice crunch to the biscuit and a lovely flavour.   I made mine roughly 2 inches by 3 inches which is the size of the ones I bought, but they can be any size and shape you wish.

• 250g (2 cups) flour( I used 150g plain and 100g wholemeal)
• 125g(1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 50g (about4 tbsp) Marmite
• 30ml(2 tbsp) milk(you may not eat it all)
• 20g sunflower seeds
• 10g poppy seeds
• 10g flaxseed, whole or ground
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:

1. Mix the flours and the baking powder together, and the flaxseed if using ground.
2. Add the butter and cut in(or blitz in food processor) to breadcrumb texture.
3. Mix the seeds in.
4. Add the marmite and half the milk and stir in, and use hands to knead into a dough that holds together, a little crumbly is ok, or do this in the food processor until it starts to clump. Add more milk if required to make the dough clump.
5. Turn onto the work surface and pull the mixture into a dough.
6. Preheat the oven to 180C/160c Fan/350.
7. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
8. Flatten the dough out and roll on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle 12×8 inches.
9. Cut one long side to make straight and use cut offs to complete the rectangle, patching gaps.
10. When you have created a rectangle divide the rectangle, long side, into 4 3inch strips.
11. Divide each 8×3 inch strip into 4 making 2×3 inch strips.  That is the form of the biscuits.
12. Use the dull end of a wooden skewer, or other such implement, to poke a series of holes in the biscuits.  (I made about 4 rows of 3 holes on each).
13. Transfer the biscuits to the baking sheets and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until baked through.  They may feel soft when you take them out of the oven but should firm up and go crunchy as they cool.
14. The longer you bake them the harder they will become.