Biscuit Bowl 2026 - Meet the Contenders

Mornings are SO difficult. Between being a night owl, and an ADHD goblin, I struggle in the morning. I've come up with some strategies that help me a ton:

• Cute, squeezy nightlight on my bedside table to slowly bring light into my room as I wake up

• My meds on my bedside table so I can take them while still in bed, and slowly become ready for the outside world

• Nature Valley Sandwich Biscuits

Damn, these biscuits are so handy to grab in the morning and eat at my desk at work so I am not burning a hole in my stomach by only having coffee and stress in my stomach for hours each morning.

But, this is not an ad. Because my whole goal here is to stop buying them. I want to find a biscuit recipe that will be comparable or even BETTER to batch bake and end my crippling addiction to these single wrapped, not super cheap, palm oil using biscuits.

So I set my sights on Pinterest. And was buried under an avalanche of options. I tried to narrow it down with the following:

Oats - I can definitely see the oats in the biscuit, so I started there.

Biscuits - This seems to be the British (European?) style of biscuit. So a crispy, not super sweet cookie that is absolute heaven dipped in a coffee.

This resulted in a slightly smaller, specified avalanche.

That was... a couple of months ago. So I'm finally figuring out what I want to do with these. I didn't want to just randomly grab one recipe and be disappointed. Conversely, the idea of doing 12 half (or even quarter) batches for the scientific testing was INCREDIBLY daunting.

Then I got second place in my fantasy football league (yay statistics!). A bracket system as I go through these recipes seemed a great way to find the best biscuit without having 100+ biscuits just sitting around in our household of 2 (kitty isn't allowed human food, so she doesn't count here).

I went through my Pinterest and collected the ingredient lists (removing pins that didn't actually have a website and didn't list the ingredients in the description). This left me with 10 options, 2 that had variations on the fat used, for a total of 12 contenders.

And they are...

Copycat Nature Valley's Biscuit - Copycat seemed like the ultimate of what I wanted, however, after reviewing the commonalities, this recipe doesn't contain any oats. A bad start for what should've been the main contender this season.

Spiced Oat Biscuit (Vegan) - Spiced Vegan adds spices of ginger and nutmeg, which is quite exciting, but it's vegan element could set it back for this butter-loving goblin.

Spiced Oat Biscuit (Butter) - Spiced Butter keeps the spice element, but I will substitute regular butter 1:1. It's biggest hinderance is that I made a choice not given by the recipe.

Milo Oat Biscuit - Milo is unique. I've never had Milo before. Apparently it's a malty chocolately powder drink mix. The picture definitely looked thicker and more American cookie with added coconut and golden syrup. But we always love a wild card.

Scottish Oat & Walnut Biscuit - Scot is our only contender that includes oat flour in the recipe, as well as walnuts. I think the oat flour might give it the edge it needs to make an impression on this goblin.

Oatmeal Shortbread - Short Meal includes powdered sugar, as well as using quick oats when most other recipes call for rolled (old fashioned) oats. Will its sweetness make it too much for breakfast prime-time? We will find out.

Havrekiks - Havi's optional chocolate coating definitely leans into a more biscotti realm, but it may not be a hinderance. It also is our only contender to use baking powder as opposed to baking soda. The internet tells me this means the acid is already in it for leavening, which is probably why this recipe also doesn't call for buttermilk.

Nova Scotia Oatcakes with Butter - Scotia B seems to be the everyman of the competition. This no frills oatcake might be just what this biscuit needs with the filling taking center stage.

Nova Scotia Oatcakes with Vegetable Oil - Scotia V is an option in the Scotia recipe calling for Vegetable Oil rather than Butter. The only one with Vegetable Oil, will this be runnier/ moister than the rest?

Honey Oat Biscuits - Honey's main attraction? You guessed it. Honey. As I currently have way too much honey, this could be a great biscuit for avoiding extra shopping. Or, do I have too much honey because it's frustrating to work with, making this aggravating?

Oat Shortbread - Short Oat includes Caster Sugar, which the internet tells me granulated sugar, but finer than regular sugar, but not powdered sugar. I'll probably just throw some sugar in my magic bullet for a few seconds. Will the extra step make the taste better? We'll have to put it to the test!

Easy Oatmeal Cookie - Our biggest wildcard of the season: Cookie. Adding an egg and shortening to the mix, this will surely be the most controversial contender of the season, but for good, or ill?

I'll be making all of these biscuits over the coming weeks and grading them on:

1. Flavor

2. Coffee Dunkability (a show of both strength but also porousness)

3. Similarity to the store bought

4. Ease of baking (because I won't make a habit that sucks to perform)

Come back for round 1 of BISCUIT BOWL 2026!