EDITORIAL: The way the cookie crumbles

ROGER MORONEY | 13th March 2010

What's in a recipe?

Well, several things actually _ depends on the article being created.

When that article is a biscuit, and a pretty modest sort of cookie at that, then the ingredients are basic _ the usual suspects like flour, sugar, eggs, some flavouring and a spot of colouring. And if the biscuit is a traditional little number, made regularly, then you can't go wrong really.

More so when you bake millions of the things through the years, although it seems Griffins has left a bad taste in the mouth.

Brownies are browned off. The Pippins have got the pip.

Soon they'll likely get their male chums in the Scouts to scout around for a new baker.

Over the past week the tastebuds of Kiwis have spoken up and declared that the dear old Girl Guide biscuit has succumbed to a recipe change.

``Things ain't what they used to be,'' was the outcry.

So I tried a Girl Guide biscuit after a packet was dropped off at work during the week.

While not exactly a connoisseur of the biscuit, I know what I like.

My observations:

* The packet looked fine. It told me all the right things.

* The top of the bikky looked dandy _ the Guide's emblem and all that.

* But the bottom looked very pitted and crumbly.

* They tasted fine _ even better when dunked in a coffee.

* Dunk for 1/300th of a second only _ they disintegrate quickly.

My conclusions:

No, they do not taste exactly the same as the Girl Guide bikkies of yore. But nothing much these days is as good as it used to be a decade ago. But they are pleasant enough and I detected a sort of light maltiness to them. But above all, the Girl Guides Association is a very worthy outfit, and deserves support. So what if the biscuits are not ``like they used to be''. They still taste okay to me.

And the fact is, the girls and young women who encourage and develop the Guides should be supported. Go and buy some ... just be wary of the slightly-too-long dunk.