Wednesday 8 February 2012

Yummy Biscuits

Humans enjoy eating. Bakery products are liked by all. Biscuits are one of our favourite food stuffs. A biscuit is actually a baked food product and the term has been applied differently in North America and other Commonwealth Nations for different edible items. In United States biscuits are related to small, soft and leavened bread which resembles scone. In Common wealth English nations biscuits are actually somewhat hard, flavoured, often hard products, sweet in taste often known as cookies or cracker in case of cheese biscuits. Modern day confusion in the English Language about the word biscuit is based on its etymology.

The word biscuit is believed to have originated from Middle French word biscuit which is made up of two words, bis (twice) and coquere (to cook). This is because biscuits are first baked and then allowed to dry in ovens. The term was then adopted in the English Language in the 14th century during the middle ages. Presently the whole world uses the term biscuit for hard, sweet, flavoured, crisp bread except in United States where it denotes a soft bread product baked only once. In modern Italian usage the term biscotto is used for biscuits. Biscuits have solved the problem of man in being easily manageable and transportable so can be carried to long distances while travelling without any problem. The introduction of baking of processed cereals, making of flour has resulted in the production of a number of edible food item and biscuits are one of them. Egyptian sailors carried a soft loaf of millet, Romans also used biscuits during their travel.

Many physicians suggest that majority of medicinal problems arise due to digestion so consumption of at least one biscuit in a day can keep the individual healthy without any problem of digestion. Presently biscuits are softer and very fine flour is used in their preparation. For making then soft they are dipped in brine or coffee. They are baked hard so that they can be used even after a long time and can be easily transported from one place to other during journey. Old World biscuits were hard, dry and unsweetened. They were cheap and were allowed to cook for prolonged periods. With the combination of Muslim invasion in Spain and then the crusades developing spice trade the cooking techniques of Arabia spread into Northern Europe. By the mediaeval times biscuits were prepared from the sweetened, spiced paste of breadcrumbs and then baked. The paste was sweet in taste as it was loaded with sugar.

Biscuits that are consumed today are actually sweet, small, 2 inches in diameter and flat. Sweet biscuits are liked as snacks and are made up of wheat flour or oats, sweetened with honey or sugar. Different varieties may contain chocolate, fruits, nuts or jams as fillings. In Britain digestive biscuits and tea highly flavoured in the tea time. Crackers are plain biscuits usually consumed with cheese. Some biscuits are flavoured with poppy seed, onion seeds and olives.

Biscuits constitute a very important part of our life as they are good sources of fibers as well as nutrients but must be consumed within a limit.

Friday 3 February 2012

Healthy Biscuits

We've told you how biscuits are not healthy and can promote fat storage. But then there are those biscuits called healthy biscuits, like wheat biscuits, high fiber biscuits, etc. So, we decided to find out two things. First, if these wheat, high fiber biscuits are really healthy, and which among them are the healthiest: Britannia Marie Gold, Sunfeast Marie Lite, Britannia NutriChoice and McVities (the original)

All biscuits had very similar ingredients. Britannia Marie Gold was the lowest calorie count at 441 calories per 100 gm. This was slightly lower calorie count than Sunfeast Marie Lite. Highest fiber is Britannia NutriChoice- at 6 gm per every 100, but had a high calorie count of 487 calories and double the fat content of the Marie biscuits.

Honestly, it was a tight race. In general, biscuits aren't exactly nutritious, so it was more a question of which wheat biscuits are the least harmful.

Fitho's choice of the healthiest wheat biscuits is Britannia Marie Gold- With the lowest calorie count, its also fortified with vitamins (A, D, B, E) and calcium.

Funny note: Britannia Marie Gold says, 1 pack of Marie Gold contains the same amount of protein of 1 glass of milk. But one pack of Marie Gold contains 616 calories, whereas 1 glass of low fat milk is about 60-80 calorie. You decide your protein source

Below is the nutrition information of healthiest wheat biscuits in India (Note: All nutritional facts are per 100 gm of each product):

Britannia Marie Gold: 441 calories- 76.5 gm carbohydrates (27 sugar), 8 gm protein, 11.5 gm fat (5 saturated fat, 5 unsaturated fat), 48.6 mg calcium, Vitamin A 880 mcg, Vitamin D 5.8 mcg, Vitamin E 17.6 mg, Vit B1, B2, B3, B6, folic acid.

Ingredients: Wheat flour (58%), sugar, edible vegetable oil, milk solids, invert syrup, butter

Sunfeast Marie Lite: 446 calories- 76.3 gm carbohydrates (19.2 sugar), 8.4 protein, 11.9 fat (5.8 saturated, 6.1 unsaturated), 3.4 fiber, 0 cholesterol

Ingredients: wheat flour (66%), sugar, edible vegetable oil, wheat fiber (0.13%)

Britannia NutriChoice (high fiber digestive): 487 calories- 58 gms carbohydrates (15 sugar), 7.5 gm protein, 25 fat (12 saturated fat, 12 unsaturated fat), 6 gms dietary fiber, 0 transfats, 0 cholesterol.

Ingredients: wheat flour (41%), edible vegetable oil, whole wheat flour (19%), sugar, wheat bran (4.5%)

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Sunfeast Pasta Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

Sunfeast Pasta -- 1 packet
Pasta masala - 1 packet (tastemaker inside the pasta packet).
Pepper powder - 2 tsp
Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Ginger powder - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

METHOD OF PREPARATION :

1) Boil pasta with 2 cups of water till it gets well cooked.

2) Strain the remaining water and keep aside .

3) Again , boil 2 cups of water . Add all the powders and finally pasta. Cook till it gets thicken .

Serve hot with a tbsp of Milk .