Sweet
Savoury
Whisper it quietly, there’s a foodie revolution taking place in Dorset. Not an angry mob, placard-waving revolution but a thoughtful foodie putsch being led by Paul Rostand and his small huddle of discerning biscovites.
In these more enlightened artisanal times consumers crave meticulously handcrafted nibbles over the perfectly symmetrical, mass-produced conveyor belt biscuits that still clog up so many of the nation’s less uninspired biscuit barrels.
Above all Paul believes Dorset is now perfectly placed to replace Tuscany as the spiritual home of the world’s best biscotti because his team appreciate that as magnificent as traditional biscotti undeniably are, almonds aren’t always the answer!
The Great British Biscotti Company offers a full repertoire of enticing flavour liaisons (of both a sweet and savoury persuasion) and a couple of thoughtful foodie formats, from the traditional dunking fingers to the more avant garde biscotti crouton. Such innovation means canapes, cheese boards, salads and soups (like tea & coffee) can now enjoy and extra indulgent biscotti twist.
With the ‘frothy coffee’ movement still in full swing, top-notch biscotti will always be seen as an idyllic hot beverage accompaniment. And yet, today’s forward-thinking biscotti have always held much loftier ambitions ranging from thoughtful savoury snack support to on-the-hoof nibble.
Biscuit legend suggests that the humble biscotti began life as the Roman legionnaire’s ‘biccie of choice’, the perfect snacking treat to make marching and invasions a little less onerous.
The craggy, double-baked nature of the biscotti meant that this was a biscuit that practically impervious to crumbling, so our invading friends were rarely faced with rumbly stomachs or unsightly crumbs on their tunics.
As the Python team of old might suggest what did the Romans ever do for us? (outside roads, aqueducts, education, medicine,, sanitation, wine, public baths….) and of course dunking (because in the old days biscotti were rock hard, so dunking in mead or wine was a necessity).
It was the Italian occupation of our lands that laid the seeds for our unwavering appreciation of great biscuits, turning our small island into a global powerhouse of fine biscuity know-how.
