#Domevember #TheGreatBiscuitDebate featuring Rachael Featherstone

Huge thanks to Rachael Featherstone for sharing her thoughts on snacking-a contentious issue to be sure!

And with the boxes of Christmas biscuits adding European variations such as liebkuchen and panettones into the mix, where do we stand on what is a good beverage companion or not?

Me, I love a slice of pannettone with a cuppa, how about you?

Rachael is the author of the witty, fabulous and funny ‘Puzzle Girl’, available now from Dome Press!

To snack or not to snack is NOT the question I ask myself while writing. The question is, what should I snack on?

My ex-personal trainer (notice the “ex”) would probably have suggested walnuts and cucumber sticks, but cucumber sticks don’t taste nice when dunked in tea like hobnobs do (I’m guessing).

My husband would probably say crisps, my little girl would say raisins that come in Peppa Pig boxes (the box makes ALL the difference).

But for me, when I’m writing, I do a lot of my thinking while waiting for the kettle to boil, then quickly writing down a new scene or snippet of dialogue while the tea brews (yes, there have been times when I’ve had to throw away dirt-sludge tea and get out a new mug and no, I never learn). So my snack MUST go with tea and by that I mean it has to be “dunkable”.

The best dunking tip (or worst, depending on whether you’re calorie counting) I was ever given was by my friend Jamie: if you take a whole chocolate Penguin and bite off one corner, then dip that exposed biscuit edge into your tea and hold it there for approximately 9 seconds, the entire penguin will soak up the tea and turn into a chocolatey-biscuity-heavenly substance, best enjoyed in one huge mouthful, that will remind you of a chocolate molten pudding. Try it, you’ll understand.

However, after discovering this, I did have to ban myself from buying Penguins for a while. Instead I tend to snack on biscuits, a much healthier option, I’m sure you’ll agree…

What is my go-to biscuit? Whichever one was on the Tesco deals and happens to be in the cupboard this week! I’m a biscuit fiend and I’m not particularly fussy! The only thing I care about is dunking. In winter that means dunking in tea (not coffee) and in summer it’s milk, (any milk, I love milk).

Some biscuits are made for dunking (bourbons, custard creams, the original digestive), while some are not (Jaffa cakes, pink wafers). Some biscuits are made for munching (especially chocolate hobnobs), while some are made for celebrating (like those Fox’s biscuits that come in wrappers, yum).

Whatever your biscuit of choice might be, I do have five golden rules I’ve acquired over the years writing novels (often the hard way!) and they apply to readers too:

My five golden rules for dunking while reading or writing are:

1. Do not dunk mid-sentence – you’ll end up with soggy biscuit in your mug.

2. Never eat chocolate covered biscuits in summer when reading a paperback – beware the brown smudge.

3. Keep the packet just out of arm’s length (otherwise you may look up at the end of the chapter and find the packets empty but you didn’t eat one… or did you…).

4. Embrace the crumbs – don’t clean up as you go, enjoy the reading/writing and sort it out later (no one’s looking, hopefully).

5. Don’t run out! Life’s too short not to dunk!

A woman after my own heart!

Whatever is on offer is precisely the type of biscuit which ends up in my basket, usually several packets and the variations on them are staggering…Penguin mini rolls? Salted Caramel everything? Yes please! And also a big fat NOPE to cucumber as a snack with tea, no thanks!
Check Rachael out on Twitter @WriteRachael and here for more about her writing, events and upcoming works!

And if anyone has some time to spare, here is a recipe for making your own Penguin. My deep mistrust over a the mess which will be incurred in a kitchen with 3 kids, a dog and 2 cats underfoot is outweighed by sheer curiosity on this one-

https://www.abookishbaker.com/blog/homemade-penguin-biscuit-recipe

Let me know how you get on if you bake them!