Saturday, November 15, 2008

TEA and BICCIES!




A cup of tea and a biscuit, the great British cure all. My American friends think it sounds "cute" when I say it, and initially were somewhat surprised when I offered a biscuit with the tea. Why? Well a biscuit here is something they eat for breakfast accompanied by gravy, akin to a scone, a cookie is our biscuit, their scone, to my mind a heavy version of our scone. I believe the difference being is that we do not use eggs in the making of our scones. Keeping up?
So I now invite people to have a biccie with their tea, although most often coffee is the way to go here, biccie being a mix of biscuit & cookie. My friend Joey is slowly picking up the British lingo, and loves to use it when she can, however, I am having a lot more trouble getting her to appreciate a good "cuppa" than I am having her pick up the language nuances. We've tried Earl Grey, Green Tea, White Tea and good old PG tips all to no avail. Through gritted teeth and closed eyes she gingerly sips from the cup, tries to smile and say she is enjoying it, but there is no pleasure in the experience for her, no love for my British cuppa, so I now serve her her a cup of joe and she is so much happier, and more importantly hopefully means we will remain friends.
Yesterday for the first time I made these oat biccies, recipe thanks to my daughter. She has been telling me how good they are so in the end I had to try for myself and I have to agree, they were delicious, the perfect biccie for a cup of tea. You can even "dunk" with them, carefully! They come with the name Hobnob, but as that is an actual biscuit name, and I do not think McVities would appreciate me using it, I will call them OAT BICCIES. Do not want a legal problem!

Makes approx 24 pieces

8oz SR Flour
8oz Sugar
8OZ Porridge Oats
8oz Butter
1 tbsp golden syrup or Corn Syrup
1tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Melt butter, syrup, and water in a pan.
Stir together flour, sugar oats and bicarb and add melted mixture to the dry mix.
Mix well.
Make into small balls, and flatten top slightly with a fork. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet leaving room for them to spread.
Bake at 180C/350f for 15 mins. Cool on tray then move to wire rack.
When cool they are ready to eat as is, and are delicious, although I decided to drizzle some with melted chocolate, when did chocolate not make something taste even better?

I plan to make them again soon, but this time I will add some dried cranberries to the mix and drizzle with white chocolate, giving them a Festive Feel.
Maybe McVities would like to try this out! Who knows maybe it will catch on.

Thanks to Carrie for the heads up on this one. Off now for my afternoon tea and biccie.

5 comments:

Bro. Jason Parker said...

Too cool, This is just the kind of blog I've been looking for. "Praise the Lord!!!"

Nazarina A said...

Jacqui,
I grew up in South Africa and as you know half of England lives there!!!! I love Mcvites and I use golden syrup here too and when I first moved to the U.S.A, I had the same problem with the biscuit thing etc....LOL!
Anyway, I would love to have a cuppa and Biccies with you. It will be just like back home and I do point up the pinkie when I drink my tea!
Your cookies look so delicious!!!

Coby said...

Aussies use the term 'biccie' and biscuit too, but my mum is Dutch, and those from the Netherlands seem to have created their own 'cookies'. I am happy with whatever they are called - as long as I can have one or two;) Jacqui, I'm a metric girl, but I wonder for your biscuits here are you using Imperial or American measures please?

thecelticcookinshanghai said...

Coby, Don't know why I didn't use both measurements. Just replace the 8 oz with 225g and you have the right measure. Tried them today with craisins and orange. Worked well

creativemommy said...

Oh how I wish I enjoyed tea. Thank you, Jacqui, for being patient and understanding through my shivers and gags. It tastes like fish to me...and you know how I feel about seafood. I do have to say that the biccies were wonderful! I feel fortunate to live so close to such a generous and caring person...who also happens to be an expert cook/baker! THANK YOU!
Joey