Hello again from a rain-swept South-West of England, and many congratulations to all at Romancing the Genres on your 10th Anniversary.
As always I write in British English so spellings may be unfamiliar to some.
If you say the words “number 10”
to most people in the UK, they would immediately think of Number 10 Downing St,
the home of the British Prime Minister. Don’t worry! I’m not going to talk
about politics, I’m going to talk about something much more contentious.
Biscuits!
I’m talking about what Brits call biscuits,
not the American kind which we would call a cross between a scone and a
dumpling.
Usually round, sometimes rectangular, sometimes two sandwiched
together with a cream filling (like Oreos), we Brits are obsessed with biscuits
and life without them would just be miserable.
Biscuit culture varies around the UK, but you can guarantee that any supermarket will have many linear yards of aisle devoted to them.
Here are my top 10, in no particular order.
1. The ginger nut
Small and very hard, these are my number 1 biscuit for dunking
in a cup of tea. Dunking etiquette is another hotly contested subject here.
Personally I would never dream of dunking a cream biscuit or one covered in
chocolate. It’s just plain wrong.
2 and 3. Custard creams and Bourbon Creams
A hark back to my childhood, when these were considered a great
luxury. They’re still my go-to if I need something
comforting.
4, 5 and 6. Party rings, Pink Wafers, and Chocolate Fingers
As the names suggest, these are usually associated with children’s
parties. In my view any party where children are present or mentioned at all,
qualifies as a children’s party. Some adults may sniff at “kid’s food” but you
can guarantee they’ll surreptitiously try one. Even the sniffers are secret
party biscuit fans. The important characteristic of these biscuits is the
crunch. Absolutely no dunking!
7. Chocolate Biscuits
A proper chocolate biscuit is some sort of short bake
(digestives are a favourite) coated on one side with milk or dark chocolate.
Some manufacturers produces items which are thickly coated all over. Are these
really biscuits? Not in my opinion. More like confectionery.
8. Flapjacks
Now I know I’m branching out a bit here, a flap jack isn’t, or shouldn’t be crunchy, but a flapjack has to be eaten with a cup of tea - or possible coffee. And a flap jack is usually home-baked. For a great flapjack recipe check out website EverydayCooks.co.uk (Note the UK address) here:
My son has suggested that flapjacks
are also good to take on long-distance hikes, but as he also suggested that I
only chose this topic in order to do some empirical research, I question his
judgement!
9. Cafe Noir
These coffee iced biscuits are my absolute favourite treat.
Unfortunately they're very hard to get hold of. I’ve searched
my local supermarkets recently but couldn’t find them so have had to resort to
a photo from the Internet. You can buy
them online but at an exorbitant price.
10. Rich Tea
If I was only allowed one type of biscuit this would be it. For
dunkability it is 2nd only to the ginger nut. It’s also
really good with cheese, or if you need extra sugar you can coat it with
chocolate spread. A great all-rounder!
My name is Alice Rosewell and I live in the city of Bristol in the South West of England (UK), the city where I was born.
The first story I remember writing was at primary school, about
the age of 7. This was followed by a dry spell which latest about 50 years
during which I got through University, brought up a couple of kids and had a
successful, if stressful career in IT.
I had the outline of a story which I’d dreamed up one evening in the pub, but that sat in a folder for about a decade until I got made redundant for the 2nd time in one year! This event coincided with the Kindle becoming mainstream, and Indie publishing an option. I dusted off my few pages of ideas and got to work. For the last few years, I have been writing contemporary women’s fiction, publishing three novels: Irrelevant Women, The Kite Makers, and my latest, An End to Dreaming. A good friend described my writing as intriguing, uplifting, and will not give you nightmares!
5 comments:
Thank you for the flapjack recipe, Alice. I have never heard of these (In the U.S. flapjacks are synonymous with pancakes.) I've been told British biscuits are like American cookies, only different. Not sure what to make of that. Your Flapjacks don't seem very cookie-like. They do sound and look yummy, so I will try making them.
Your books sound interesting. Think I'll try one of them, too!
Here in Nova Scotia we still retain a lot of the Commonwealth culture - we even used to have a M&S store in Halifax! We can get a few of those biscuits in our grocery stores and I routinely treat myself to some chocolate Digestives or Bourbon Creams. Thanks for the link to the flapjack recipe - I'll definitely give it a try.
What a fun post! I'm always amazed at the things that have different meanings from one English-speaking country to another. Though I do know that many Brits believe American's don't speak "proper" English. :)
I often think of British "biscuits" as crispy cookies, of similar crispness as biscotti. American cookies range from soft and chewy to crispy, with the majority being on the softer side if they are homemade.
The fact that you dip many of your top ten in tea would seem to require that crispiness. My husband is a dipper, but I never have been. Hmmm...sounds like time for a bit of cultural exchange. Now if we could only ship these things back and forth in a timely manner at a small cost, I'd engage in a type of pen pal cookie/biscuit exchange.
Maybe we could do a biscuit/cookie recipe exchange?
Alice - so nice to see you on RTG - I'm a little late in checking the posts this week. Love your post and now I wish I had cookies or biscuits in the house, I do have my cup of tea.
Luanna - as soon as you can cross the border again and head my way, I hope you remember to pack an extra package of Bourbon creams :-) HINT, HINT!
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