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Your e-Mails

Andy Jenkinson	I read, with interest, your opinions on fig rolls - and the bake-then-cut / cut-then-bake debate. I am currently favouring Sainsbury's-own (bake then cut) complete with ridges. This delightful temptress or a biscuit has a fine dunking consistancy and is ideal as the base for my own 'chocolate coated fig rolls'. [If there was every a biscuit waiting to be made, this is it.] Along with the chocolate garibaldi this is my only attempt at 'home cooking'. (Although I am not exactly sure if melting-chocolate-and-coating-stuff-with-it can count as cooking). The ridges on the figrolls act as a splendid trough for the chocolate, biasing the coating to the top, and allowing for a relatively thin coating all over, yet both the fig roll and the chocolate get a look in when vying for your tastebud's attentions. [Compare the chocolate covered garibaldis - when coating only one side is all that is possible before the chocolate taste dominates]. Perhaps one day my chocolate fig rolls [fig-o-lates?] will be commercially avaialble, and cast before your expert eye/mouth. Do you know any 'Dragon's Den' style venture capitalists looking to break the biscuit market?
	Nicey replies: Aren't fig rolls terrific! Given my current diet status all fig rolls sound brilliant whatever is going on with them, so I'm in. I don't know what Theo, Duncan, Deborah, Peter and the new chap think. Duncan Bannatyne could flog them in his health clubs to people as they leave the gym.
Keith O'Kane	Dear Nicey and the Wife, Once again we are well into lent and the annual argument over what is a cake and what is a biscuit is dividing the office. Vicki has given up cake this year but not biscuits and was seen tucking into a packet of Fig Rolls over lunch. Some of us in the office think that the moisture content of a Fig Roll places it firmly in the cake camp, while others (particularly Vicki) are adamant that it is a biscuit and can therefore stay on the menu. Can we please have an official ruling on the subject.
	Nicey replies: Good to hear from you, but I'm genuinely surprised on your stand point on the Fig Roll. Put it this way when I want to debunk the moisture content argument as the 'is it a cake biscuit?' yardstick, I trot out the Fig Roll as an example of a classic biscuit with a high moisture content. So I guess Vicki can continue with her guilty pleasures. Mind you maybe she could justify a giant 'pimped' fig roll on these grounds! Although it might have dire consequences for her social life and render her housebound for a few days.
Adrian Hennessy Encore Review	Whilst perusing the biscuit shelves of my local Tesco Metro this week, I decided to try a few varieties that hadn't graced my basket before. For the first, I should have consulted your Fig Roll head-to-head review, as the Jacobs Fig Rolls that I selected were definitely a bit of a let-down. A rather tastless pastry (which managed to be both dry and limp within each biscuit) combined with a very thin filling left me very underwhelmed. I'll be going to Sainsbury's for their own brand should I feel the need for more. Better luck with my next choice: HobNob Chocolate Creams. These have all the expected crunchiness of a regular HobNob (possibly more so, as the biscuit has a smaller diameter) combined with a thinnish dark chocolate cream filling. Lots of nutty aroma and crunch, but it's just too small - three polite bites and it's gone. Another centimetre across and it would be perfect. My third purchase was a bit of exotica: LU Encore Raspberry. Good dark chocolate over a soft base with a sweet filling that definitely tasted of rasperries. The soft base was not really to my liking (I prefer a bit of crunch) and, again, this biscuit is far too small - two man-size bites and that's it. However, one of Belgium's better exports.
	Nicey replies: Hi Adrian, We've just added those LU raspberry jobs to our Biscuit of The Week. As for the Jacobs Fig Roll they can often seem a bit heavy on the crust to fig ratio but when the mood takes me they can be just the ticket.
Keith O'Kane Abernethy Review	Dear Nicey and the Wife, I was a bit surprised to read that Umami was frightened of the humble fig roll. Surely there are much scarier biscuits to be afraid of, the happy face for example whose expressions always range from slightly sinister to downright evil. Still, overcoming the fear must have been something of a personal triumph, so happy endings al round.
	Nicey replies: Well personally as I have mentioned in the past I had issues with Simmers Abernethy biscuits, that prevented me from buying them for years before I finally confronted them. I found their red and yellow packs a bit intimidating, so I have nothing but sympathy. Mind you just the other day in Sainsburys I was filled with the urge to thrust a pack of them in the hands of the mother and daughter who were almost coming to blows over a biscuit that would be both plain yet tasty. I assume as some form of self governing biscuit intake regime. I toyed breifly with the idea of offering on the spot biscuit consultancy to all who appeared to need it but was distracted by box selection of Sainsbury's own organic biscuits, then the rest of team NCOTAASD turned up and ushered me to tills.
Umami	Fig rolls used to frighten me but last week at Carrefour Paris I decided on impulse to add a packet of Boland's of Ireland Fig Rolls to my cart, along with one of Crawford's Garibaldi and McVities Digestive. Yes, English biscuits in France but one do tire of all-butter 'grandmère biscuits eventually. The fig rolls, once we opened and took our first sceptical bite, was enjoyed with great enthusiasm; we had to restrain ourselves from finishing the entire pack at a go but this morning I scoffed the rest. It looks very much like the Jacobs version, maybe it's the same thing. The filling to biscuit ratio is good for me, we're getting some Fugola to compare later.
	Nicey replies: Bolands are a brand of Jacobs, being like Crawfords to McVities. We had a pack of those several years ago now and were rather stunned / appalled to see whale oil listed as an ingredient.
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