Biscuit Blog: Hill Fruit Shortcake biscuits

Hill Fruit Shortcake biscuits

I bought these Hill biscuits from Aldi.  The first thing is that you get a very long packet, though the biscuits themselves are small.  Perhaps they have too much of a snap for a shortcake.  This is the start of the problem for the biscuit.  It takes more like a Digestive without the oaty pieces in it; the creaminess of a good shortcake biscuit is missing.  The fruit is lacking in sweetness, so effectively you end up with a kind of small - and they are small - Digestive biscuit with bits in it, not a pleasant experience.  If you were looking for a better value biscuit like this, then simply buy a Digestive, they are available from Aldi too.

P.P.  Just a warning: I found that these biscuits have a laxative effect which I put down to the hard currants and the wheaty texture of the biscuit.

Rating:
*****

Biscuit Blog: Tower Gate Fruit Shortcake

Tower Gate Fruit Shortcake

Back in March, I discussed before the difference between 'shortbread' and 'shortcake' biscuits:

http://rooksmoor.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/biscuit-blog-crawfords-shortcake.html

However, it was only recently that I found out that the 'short' is a lump of fat used in the cooking process.  Fruit shortcake biscuits are different from the standard shortcake biscuits you will find in our supermarkets, what I used to term 'tractor biscuits' due to the distinctive diagonal patterning around the edges.  Fruit shortcake biscuits are circular rather than rectangular and are usually around a third of the thickness of a standard shortcake biscuit.  They lack the diagonal pattern but instead have small holes on the upper side, a crimped edge and a kind of 'weave' pattern on the underside; the one pictured is of a classic design in this respect.  They can often have white sugar sprinkled across the upper side.

As mentioned before Tower Gate are a Lidl provided brand notably for biscuits.  Thus, they are aiming at the cheaper end of the market.  These fit the standard pattern, but were a little thin. The biscuit did not have a distinct flavour and the fruit which was present in about the right quantity did not really bring the sweetness I expected.  They had a sightly limp snap on being bitten.  Thus, they were alright but not fruity enough really to mark them out from a standard shortcake biscuit and lacked the creaminess of some fruit shortcakes to allow them to compete against rich tea biscuits.  They get slightly marked up for value.

Rating:
*****