I am not a breakfast cereal person — I hate the texture and the sameness of it every morning. These biscuits are my answer: everything that goes into my breakfast bowl, in a form I actually want to eat on those days when I can’t face cereal. One with a coffee holds me until lunch, and Max takes three to school on the days he skips breakfast. They freeze well and they survive a school bag, which is more than the bought ones manage.
This is a two-day recipe, and there is no way around it. The seeds need an overnight soak in kefir to hydrate properly, and the sourdough starter needs waking up the day before so it is genuinely alive rather than discard. Start both on day one and day two is straightforward.
SOURDOUGH BREAKFAST BISCUITS
Day One — Soak
- 110g seeded breakfast mix (hemp, chia, LSA, flaxseed, oats)
- 45g psyllium husks
- 125ml kefir (or enough to make it moist)
Day One — Starter
- Wake up the sourdough over the day to make up 200g sourdough starter at 100% hydration, fed and active
Day Two — Wet Ingredients to be put together in a food processor
- 200g pitted dates
- 170ml boiling water
- 4 eggs
- 10g blackstrap molasses
- 50g golden syrup
- 170g butter, melted (or coconut oil, or light olive oil)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp Celtic salt
- 200g active sourdough starter, from day one
Day Two — Dry Ingredients into a large bowl
- 225g rolled oats
- 170g sultanas or choc chips, cranberries, chopped dried apricots
- 140g mixed nuts and seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, chopped almonds)
- 110g almond meal
- 100g raw sugar
- 85g desiccated coconut
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
- Day one, morning – wake up the sourdough: Feed your sourdough starter and leave it somewhere warm until it has doubled. It needs to be properly awake, not straight from the fridge.
- Day one, evening, the seed soak: Stir 110g breakfast mix, 45g psyllium husks and 125ml kefir together in a bowl. It should be loose and pourable, add extra if necessary — the seeds will drink a surprising amount. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Day two: Halve the 200g dates (scissors work well) and check each one for seeds. Put them in a microwave-safe jug with 170ml boiling water and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Set aside until just warm — not hot, or they will scramble the eggs.
- Make up the dry mix: Combine 225g rolled oats, 170g sultanas, 140g mixed nuts and seeds, 110g almond meal, 100g raw sugar, 85g desiccated coconut, 2½ tsp baking powder, 2 tsp cinnamon and ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and stir well.
- The wet mix:
- Tip the cooled dates and their water into a food processor and blend until smooth.
- Add 50g golden syrup, 10g molasses, 2 tsp vanilla, ½ tsp Celtic salt, 170g melted butter and 4 eggs, and blend until combined. The salt goes in here so it dissolves rather than leaving grains through the biscuit.
- Add the 200g sourdough starter and pulse briefly, just to combine. Do not overwork it.
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until there are no dry patches.
- Fold the soaked seed mixture through by hand. Do not put it in the processor — the whole chia, hemp and flax give the biscuits their texture.
- Preheat the oven to 150°C fan. Line three trays with baking paper or a silicone sheet.
- Scoop the mixture with a lever-action ice cream scoop, about 55g each on to trays. You will get around 35. They do not spread, so they can sit close together. Flatten each one to just under 1cm with the back of a spoon dipped in water, then press further with a piece of baking paper, if desired. Tidy up the edges.
- Bake for 45–50 minutes, rotating the trays front to back and top to bottom at 15 and 30 minutes. At around 30 minutes, once they are set enough to handle, flip them over so the bases dry out properly and turn off the oven.
- Remove to trays to cool completely. They firm up dramatically as they cool and will feel underdone straight from the oven when they are not.
- Store airtight for a few days, or freeze with baking paper between the layers. They can be eaten straight from the freezer or heated in the air-fryer.
Notes
Makes about 35 biscuits at 55g. One with a coffee is a decent breakfast, or for a teenage boy there will be three going to school.
The overnight soak is the step that matters most. Psyllium, chia and flaxseed need hours, not minutes, to hydrate fully. A rushed 30-minute soak gives you gritty seeds and a mixture that needs far more liquid than it should.
Use an active, doubled starter rather than discard. Discard will work, but a live starter gives better lift and a cleaner flavour in a mixture this dense.
If the mixture seems too stiff to scoop after mixing, add kefir 25ml at a time. If it slumps when you press it, add rolled oats 25g at a time and wait 10 minutes before judging again.
These will not go crisp all the way through, and they are not meant to. Psyllium, chia and flaxseed are gel-forming and hold moisture, which is what makes these a filling breakfast rather than a tea biscuit. Pressing thin and baking long at a low temperature gets you crisp edges and a chewy centre, which is the right texture for breakfast.
Butter, coconut oil and light olive oil are interchangeable. Butter browns better.
The molasses adds depth, iron and calcium, but blackstrap is genuinely bitter and more is not better.
Swap the sultanas for cranberries, chopped dried apricots or dark chocolate chips.
