breakfast biscuits?

[halfeye]

Apparenty a certain political situation has put up the price of wheat.

I like "wheat biscuits" with milk for breakfast, but the price is going up extremely, corn flakes are much more reasonably priced, is it impossible to make corn biscuits in a similar way to the way wheat biscuits are made?

[Algeh]

What does a wheat biscuit mean in a UK context? In a USA context, a biscuit is a shortbread made with flour, baking powder, fat (usually solid fat like butter that's cut in), salt, milk/water/other liquid, and perhaps some added "goodies", mixed into dough, separated into single-serving portions, and baked. Similar in culinary uses to a roll or scone. The phrasing "with milk" is what's throwing me here and making me wonder if it means something different over there, mostly, although biscuits and a glass of milk isn't a terrible idea for breakfast. (I'd probably want some sort of filling in the biscuits, though.)

If that's what you mean, then I'd guess cornbread muffins would be the most similar cornmeal item. A lot of cornbread recipes use a mix of corn and wheat flour, though, I assume mostly to make things stick together more thanks to wheat gluten. I tend to make a pan of cornbread and cut it into pieces rather than use muffin pans personally, but I've seen it done both ways fairly often.

[Rynjin]

Cornbread muffins are a tasty breakfast item but they're not going to give you the same experience as a "wheat biscuit". Great toasted in a pan with some butter slathered on after though. I've had some excellent blueberry cornbread too, love the stuff.

[halfeye]

I was trying to avoid using the brand, mainly because I buy the stores own brand substitutes, but according to Wikipedia in the USA what's called Weetabix here is called Weet-bix there, and either way they're not what either of us would usually call biscuits. Wikipedia says they're not to be confused, but I think that's mainly so Wikipedia doesn't get sued for promoting trade mark confusion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weet-Bix

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weetabix

[TerrickTerran]

Yeah, that's my other's favorite cereal but hard to get here. Could you make corn cereal into that? Perhaps, but it would probably be a lot of work and not sure how much you would save if anything money wise.

[Aedilred]

Yeah, what halfeye is talking about is not what is normally called a biscuit in the US, nor something that would leap to mind when the generic term "biscuit" is used in the UK either. (Not that they are wrong to use the term, just that there seems to be some confusion). Unfortunately I do not know enough about cereal properties or manufacture to know if "Cornabix" is a thing that can be made, or why it isn't.

I suppose the question is, in addition to the above, whether corn flakes are also increasing in price in step with weetabix, but are just cheaper per kg. To halfeye, normally a non-cornflakes consumer, they would notice the increase in price in weetabix, and look around for cheaper alternatives, alighting on cornflakes as a cheaper option but not notice that they have also increased in price. If so that would suggest that there isn't a meaningful distinction in raw ingredients costs between corn and wheat, but weetabix are just more expensive to produce (or are priced higher for other commercial reasons). In which case a new "cornabix" product would not be any cheaper than the existing weetabix, outside the potential of an initial discount to help build demand.

I don't actually know if corn flakes have gone up in price lately as I don't often buy cornflakes either, but bran flakes have.

[Peelee]

I was trying to avoid using the brand, mainly because I buy the stores own brand substitutes, but according to Wikipedia in the USA what's called Weetabix here is called Weet-bix there, and either way they're not what either of us would usually call biscuits. Wikipedia says they're not to be confused, but I think that's mainly so Wikipedia doesn't get sued for promoting trade mark confusion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weet-Bix

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weetabix

That is not a thing I have ever seen. For what little that's worth.

[halfeye]

I don't actually know if corn flakes have gone up in price lately as I don't often buy cornflakes either, but bran flakes have.

I would expect bran flakes to be wheat based (Wikipedia says wheat or oats).

Last time I bought corn flakes, shops own brand, they were £ 0.55 for 500gm, claimed to be new, and were just about competitive with the pre-rise price of the wheat "biscuits".

[Khedrac]

I think the main reason why they are not biscuits is because "biscuit" means "twice-baked" and I find it highly unlikely you could make them with twice-baking the ingredients.

I too can see nothing obvious to stop manufacturers making a maize-based variant, in the UK we already have "Oatibix" as an alternative from the same manufacturer,

I suspect this is one of those areas where they assume there is no demand because no one has tried making them - a bit of a "Catch 22" situation.

[Rynjin]

I'd second the cornbread notion. Very solid stuff, though you don't want to eat daily. Corn is known to increase your body-PH (acidity).

Unless you're literally pumping acid into your veins, or consuming poison/overdosing on meds, nothing you put in your body is going to meaningfully increase your "body's pH" (as if that's one specific thing anyway instead of different parts of the body having different levels of acidity).