It was National Biscuit Day in the UK yesterday which prompted an outpouring of opinions on Twitter as was. Who knew custard creams should be so controversial. It got me thinking about how different British and French biscuits are and how, when in France, I sometimes long for a humble ginger biscuit.
The French with their history of brilliant patisseries tend to go for little cakes and more generic biscuits like shortbread, wafers and cookies with or without chocolate. On the other hand, British cupboards harbour an excentric array of biscuits which are almost personalities and so divide opinion: bourbons, rich tea, party rings, hob-nobs, pink wafers, lemon puffs, custard creams, jammy dodgers and the peerless garibaldis which we all know under a different, funereal, name.
So I pulled together an unscientific focus group of 10 people who live between the two cultures to see what they had to say.
UK favourites? Chocolate digestives, shortbread and hobnobs were clear favourites in the UK with our wonderful stem-ginger biscuits getting mentioned. JJ only stocks biscuits for guests but goes for orange club, mint viscount and – yes those much-favoured chocolate hobnobs.
Worst? National polls yesterday awarded the wooden spoon to pink wafers with lemon puffs in that category as well – very much not a favourite when JJ is having guests. FK on the other hand doesn’t like bourbons, ‘ I used to buy them for the boys, so I didn’t want to eat them’. But bourbon biscuits have a hidden strength as we shall see. ..
So when in France? Both MC and JJ like ‘oblong biscuits with thick chocolate on one side’, which I think are Bahlsen or Aldi have a version. When in France MF likes rice cakes with plain chocolate and little coconut cakes/ biscuits.
FK explained, ‘I didn’t really miss biscuits in France, there were so many other delicious things to eat!’and continues, ‘I think the French don’t really have great biscuits as they don’t drink tea!’ She has support from MC who rightly says, ‘ I can’t have a biscuit without a cuppa.’
This brings us on to the important art of dunking
Which biscuits are best for dunking?
This issue seems to have attracted much debate and, indeed, many tests. Of which the results are predictably different.
Experiment 1 concluded: Oat biscuits had a relatively low absorbency rate and the highest “dunk break point”, lasting 34.3 seconds in a freshly brewed cup of tea before falling apart. In comparison, digestive biscuits lasted 28.3 seconds while shortbread biscuits lasted 31.7 seconds.
Experiment 2 revealed that Jaffa Cakes came out on top, which I prefer not to envisage.
Experiment 3 has very scientific results below this annoying empty grid which won’t disappear!
Peter Kay has some observations on the subject: google Peter Kay Dunking for a funny clip.
Scottish biscuits, by the way, are another category altogether: Tunnocks caramel wafers take me straight back to childhood in my granny’s kitchen and then they had chocolate tea cakes with marshmallow, no words….!
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FABULOUS piece, Lynne:-)
Thank you!