BS: Playbox Buiscuits

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: gnu
Date: 11 Oct 14 - 05:36 AM

Oh! PlayboX. Never mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 10 Oct 14 - 01:08 PM

In the UK, the closest are Fox's Party Rings.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Oct 14 - 12:20 PM

Colo(u)red frosting? Animal shapes? Oh, sure, animal crackers! Recipes online, for example-

http://buttermeupbrooklyn.com/2013/10/pink-and-white-frosted-circus-animal-crackers

Or buy Nabisco Circus Animal Crackers and add colored frosting.
Or buy Mother's Circus Animal Cookies or Nabisco Classics Iced Animal Cookies, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 10 Oct 14 - 05:55 AM

I have a vague recollection of biscuits with thin coloured icing and a little stencil of a toy - are those the ones?

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Biscuits
From: maeve
Date: 10 Oct 14 - 05:36 AM

One way to urge the manufacturer to re-introduce Playbox cookies is to contact them here: https://www.facebook.com/PeekFreansLifestyleSelections

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST,Donna
Date: 10 Oct 14 - 03:51 AM

Oh yeah, I remember Playbox biscuits. Can you still find them anywhere under a different name perhaps? Is there any company making these or anything very similar to the original ones?
Would love to find them too! Please reply with name of company making very similar ones. In taste and design. Thanks! I remember the pink and yellow ones were the ones I would always pick to eat first. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 07 Oct 14 - 09:26 AM

Make a batch and freeze half. It's cookie dough, no water, it'll freeze fine and keep forever.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST,Janet
Date: 07 Oct 14 - 03:44 AM

To Q:

I have a lot of cookbooks (most are current within the last 5 years) with a few being older. However, not one of these books which I bought in stores in USA have the metric equivalents. They were all published in USA. It seems like too much trouble to make these biscuits though - probably won't come out like the original Peek Freen ones. Since I am only cooking for myself some recipe amounts given here might be just too many for me.

P.S. Sorry about the incorrect spelling on the Subject line. I was super tired when I first typed it and didn't realize until later that Biscuits was misspelled. :-))) Not intentional. :-) I stay up too late on the computer sometimes. (like right now)

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 12:46 PM

As posted above, Superfine in U. S. is the approx. caster sugar. keep it dry !
Guest Janet- conversions Metric-Imperial easy to find on the net. No problem. ml to cups, weight, etc. Also many cookbooks have the equivalents.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 05:12 AM

Just be careful your superfine remains crystallised, though, as some of the superfine we came across in Europe is powder, which came out too sweet, for some reason.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: BobL
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 04:33 AM

Janet, white sugar in the UK is generally available in three grades, granulated (regular table sugar), caster (US superfine), and icing (confectioner's).
Try using 5oz sugar, 10oz butter, 12oz flour - this is a tad more than the metric amounts, but the proportions are the same.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST,Janet
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 09:58 PM

Still curious when were Playbox Biscuits last being made in England?
What year approx?

I saw the various posts of different companies taking over but was it still being made by other biscuit companies after mergers happened after Peak Freen made them?

Someone else posted a recipe but here in USA we do not use metric system for measurements so really don't know what it would be in our recipes which we use oz. quarts, gallons, etc. Also don't know what caster sugar is. Is that different from regular sugar? Was at the store today (large supermarket and they do not have anything called Castor sugar) where I shop anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 01:50 PM

Also sold as "superfine sugar" in N. Am.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 01:36 PM

Caster sugar is not a term found in N. Am.
Caster sugar is very finely granulated. Some markets in U. S. and Canada sell it as "finely granulated sugar."

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 12:39 PM

Anyway, the recipe's easy enough to do your own. Basic biscuits and sugar icing made with food colour. 250g butter creamed together with 125g caster sugar, add 300g flour. If you want to ponce it up, add an egg yolk and vanilla essence to the cremed butter.
Roll out, cut circles, bake and ice.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 12:01 PM

On this side of the pond "playbox biscuits" sounds like euphemism for lumps in the cat box. Sorry, but that is a very unappealing name. Maybe that's why they aren't apparently around now, too many visiting Americans made fun of the name?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 07:52 AM

I remember both well, used to have them about once or twice a week.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST,Henry Piper of Ottery.
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 05:49 AM

Anyone remember "Kunzle" cakes ???

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 04:03 AM

I have had a quick look in Wikipedia and found that Peak Frean merged with Huntley and Palmers of Reading in the 1920s, and later with Jacob's, to form Associated Biscuits, which was later acquired by Nabisco and then Danone. Following many mergers and takeovers involving United Biscuits, as well as Nabisco and Danone, much of this group is now owned by a business consortium, though some of the original company names survive or have been re-created.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 03:31 AM

Maybe it has something to do with biscuit makers being 'rationalised' into something known as United Biscuits.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: Jack Campin
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 03:16 AM

Blast from the past, that.

I remember them too but we left England for New Zealand in 1958 and that was the last time I saw them.

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Biscuits
From: GUEST,Janet
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 01:49 AM

Yes, now I remember that name - Peek Frean. Thank you.

Do you know when they stopped making Playbox Biscuits?

Or why? I used to love them! :-))

Subject: RE: BS: Playbox Buiscuits
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 12:49 AM

Peek Frean used to make them.

Subject: BS: Playbox Biscuits
From: GUEST,Janet
Date: 05 Oct 14 - 12:21 AM

When I was a child living in England in the late 50's & early 60's, my father used to bring home these wonderful biscuits (seemed to be mostly for children) to enjoy. I believe they were called "Playbox Biscuits" and they had different colours with icing; pink, yellow, light blue and maybe a few other colours. I do not know what company made them. We moved to Canada and then later to USA. Then in the 1970's I returned to England with my parents for a nice holiday and again in the 80's.
I believe I did find them in a grocery store in the 70's in London, but I think as the years went by and I was visiting in England in later years I could no longer find them. I asked at various stores, including Selfridges and different food stores. No one seemed to have them anymore.

I was wondering if anyone remembers them and if they are actually still being made? I also seem to recall that they were of different shapes of animals or some other shapes. But it was a biscuit and each one had light colour icing on the top.