Toast is the new biscuit for cheese

I'm always struggling to find the perfect biscuit for cheese. I really don't like digestive biscuits and even find oatcakes a touch too sweet (except with blue cheese). I'm not a big fan of crackers and water biscuits though I do like crisp Italian-style flatbreads. Now along comes Toast for Cheese, the brainwave of the inventive Ann-Marie Dyas of the Fine Cheese Company in Bath (below).


I must confess I'm a huge fan of Ann-Marie's. She was the first to create biscuits and pastes to complement different cheeses, the first to devise attractively packaged cheese selections to sell online, the first cheesemonger - so far as I know - to sponsor a cheese festival and now she's discovered toast.

And not just any toast. Three different kinds studded with dates, hazelnuts & pumpkin seeds (for creamy cheeses such as Brillat-Savarin, Brie de Meaux and Vacherin Mont D’Or), apricots, pistachios & sunflower seeds for goats’ cheeses such as Valençay, Crottin de Chavignol and Ragstone and cherries, almonds and linseeds for blue cheeses such as Fourme D’Ambert, Stilton and Gorgonzola Dolce. Of course you can try other cheeses with them. I wasn't at all sure the apricot and pistachio biscuits wouldn't have been better with a slightly stronger washed rind cheese but the main point is that they look absolutely stunning and would make a great present for anyone you were visiting over Christmas. You can buy all three boxes for £7.50.

Here's what I did with the date, hazelnut and pumpkin seed ones at Cheese School the other week.

Cradoc's savoury biscuits

I'm usually underwhelmed by ready made cheesy biscuits but I came across these at the Love Food spring festival in Bristol earlier today and thought they were delicious.

The range has been created by Allie Thomas of Brecon and includes flavour combinations like Stilton and Cranberry and Pear and Earl Grey I wouldn't generally go for. But the flavours are so natural and the texture of the biscuits so perfectly crisp that I ended up buying four packets. Other flavours include Leek and Caerphilly and Perl Las and Walnut. They'd be great to put out with drinks.

There's also an Italian style flatbread flavoured with rosemary that would look lovely on a cheeseboard.

Apparently Allie is on the way to getting some Bristol delis to stock them but in the meantime you can buy them at various Welsh farmers' markets. Contact her on 01874 624339 or through her Facebook page.

Cheesy biscuits, biscuits for cheese

Hot on the heels of the Vache qui Rit incident I've rediscovered another old retro favourite, Roka Cheese Crispies which I can remember my parents serving with drinks when I was a kid. Frankly it would be hard to make a better cheese biscuit - they're incredibly light and crispy (as the name aptly suggests) with a real hit of what tastes like Cheddar but is actually Gouda cheese (the biscuits are Dutch). They're very good with a glass of medium dry amontillado which is how my parents served them but I've been enjoying them with red and sparkling wine. And the packaging, which looks as if it hasn't been changed since the company was founded in 1949, is simply great.

The other discovery is some charmingly rustic-looking Swedish crispbread from a company called Peter's Yard. I have to admit I'm not a big crispbread fan but these taste of wholemeal bread rather than cardboard - very plain, crisp and delicious. Because they're not overly salty or coated with seeds you can equally well eat them with sweet spreads like honey as savoury ones but they're obviously a great companion for cheese.

Not every cheese, I should say. I tried them with a strong cheddar that overwhelmed their subtle flavour but spreadable young goats' and sheeps' cheeses, mild Scandinavian slicing cheeses, hard sheeps' cheese and creamier blues would all work well. And cream cheese mixed with a little sour cream, chopped onion and dill topped with a few curls of smoked salmon would be fabulous.

Again the presentation - they come in a very cool tin - is great. A good present to take to a dinner party.

What are your favourite biscuits for cheese?