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Biscuits. Did you know that in 2017/18, an average of 82 grams of sweet biscuits and cereal bars and 58 grams of chocolate biscuits were consumed per person per week in UK households?
You can find the full data here.
What’s not to like about a biscuit?
They’re small, crunchy and…full of sugar. Or maybe that’s just my dunker of choice.
According to my mum, my grandpa introduced me to the dunk when I was three.
I can’t fully remember but apparently in those early years I had a penchant for tea. I really think I was just fond of biscuits and tea was the perfect excuse for one.
Maybe it was that fondness for tea and biscuits that was the catalyst to create The Case of the Missing Tea Leaves, the first and original Three Friends and Crumbs story.
For only a crimefighting biscuit called Crumbs could solve such a mystery.
I was eight years old at this stage. My mind was clearly working in a lateral sense. Or should that be literal?
I envisaged a digestive biscuit. Sturdy enough to battle criminals and less likely to crumble under pressure…unless dunked for a total 48 seconds. For it takes 48 seconds before breaking, according to research by Wren Kitchens. Yes, someone actually studied it!
Crumbs was the only appropriate name. And it helped with the alliterations: Crumbs the Crimefighter, Blobby Bunny, Chicky the Chick and Oodle the Owl.
My favourite biscuit recipe (Oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies) is found in a book that was passed down from my gran to my mum and then to me: Cakes, Pastries and Bread by Jennie Reekie.
All you need is 100g of butter, 100g of caster sugar (though sometimes I use golden sugar), an egg, half a teaspoon vanilla essence (or cinnamon and honey), 75g plain flour, 40g oats (usually raid my box of porridge) and 100g of chocolate chips (or fudge pieces!).
Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg and essence. Sieve in the flour and fold in the oats and choc chips. Put teaspoons of the mixture on to greased backing tray. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees C.
And voila!
The perfect accompaniment to a Crumbs-related adventure.
Three Friends and Crumbs, children's stories 