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j ac Dad's Cookies Review	Playbox cookies - ah they were such a favorite - weren't our tastebuds simple! sometimes I would carefully lick at the inpenetrable icing for awhile to slowly remove the design.... yes, back before video games.... Someone could make a small fortune bringing back this classic..... oh, perhaps I shouldn't have said that..... Dads cookies - I was flying from California to Toronto, Canada in 1985... five hours in the air and a lovely older lady sitting beside me to chat with. She brought out her knitting (back before knitting needles were a threat to our safety!) and shared a few "how to knit" lessons with me inflight... even letting me work on the lovely piece she was making.... and we chatted. It turned out she was the "Mom" so to speak of the "Dad" whose recipe it was for the hallowed cookie.... Me, sitting with such a celebrity... but I had to ask "The cookies just don't taste the same as they did when I was a child.. do they?". She smiled and responded "When my husband sold the recipe (in his retirement years) it gave the company full right to change the recipe in any way they wished....." and she was surprised and praised my discerning tastebuds.... That's my story - and I'm sticking to it. It was lovely to chat and share a cup of tea with you.
	Nicey replies: Thanks for sharing that brush with biscuit celebrities with us.
MK Young Dad's Cookies Review	hi! Bought your book and love it, though I'm Canadian there are so many similar cookies between Canada and England (thank you Peek Frean!). FYI, Dad's Cookies can be shipped to the UK via canadaonly.ca. I was looking for the Dad's chocolate chip in a white dough, which are hard to find in Canada now, though the oatmeal are still easy to find. My personal madeleine are those gorgeous Playbox(?) cookies I had when I was little, but no one seems to remember: square, coverered in hard, coloured, thick icing with a picture stencilled on (clock, etc.). Tasted divine!! Were they Engish or Canadian? Thought they were Peek Frean (strange, the Peek Frean brand name is still used in Canada but not in UK). Thanks, MK Young
	Nicey replies: We certainly remember the late Playbox biscuit, which other NCOTAASD readers mention frequently too, and have an entry in our Paleolithic Biscuits section which has a nice picture of a Playbox tin. Peek Frean in Canada was a conseqence of the thriving export business in British biscuits to the now commonwealth nations in the early part of the 20th century. Peek Frean based in Bermondsey South London, built a bakery in 1949 in O'Conner Drive, East York, Toronto, and started supplying 'fresh baked' biscuits into the local Canadian market. When Peek Frean, Huntley and Palmer then Jacobs merged to form Associated Biscuits the brand began to take a bit of a back seat in the UK as iconic products from all three jostled for attention. However in Canada which lacked this sibling rivalry Peek Frean continued to be the recognised brand. Take overs by Nabisco, then Danone kept the names both here in the UK and in Canada. The last set take overs saw Danone selling Peek Freans Canada back to the Kraft Group who owns Nabisco too.
The Biscuit Doctor Dad's Cookies Review	Dear Nicey, As the Biscuit Doctor I feel it is high time that I contributed to your excellent and informative treaties on biscuits. I would like to add to the information on the demised Dads Cookies. When in 1974, I was Technical Director at Chiltonian Biscuits in Lee, South London this company bought the rights from the Canadian company to make Dads Cookies in Britain. Formerly, they were being made at a company called Smiths in Corby. Smiths later closed. There were four varieties, the ‘original’, which was the most popular, and also Coconut, Chocolate Chip and Candy. They were all basically the same recipe including oats, peanuts, raisin paste and a little cinnamon for flavouring but with additions of coconut, chocolate chips or Chellies (Chellies were flavoured pectin drops in various colours). Chiltonian introduced the use of raisin paste (from California) as previously the fruit was either Turkish sultanas or raisins that were mashed up by mincing. The fruit was the characteristic flavour of the cookies and can be greatly recommended. So, Dads Cookies were made by Chiltonian until the early 1980’s when the factory was closed and many of the famous products such as Garibaldi and Lemon Puffs were transferred to Jacob’s Aintree factory. I believe Dads Cookie production was stopped after the closure of the Chiltonian factory. Duncan Manley
	Nicey replies: Thank you for casting some light over so many issues. Not only have you helped reconcile the Dads cookies lineage questions, but also explained why Lemon Puffs in addition to Garibaldis took a turn for the worse back in the 1980s. All these biscuits were glorious under your stewardship and we salute your work. Nicey
David Miles Dad's Cookies Review	Just an addition to the information about Dad's Cookies, the flavour and taste of which I can almost recall. (I had a sudden flash-back and came to the Internet and just stuck in the name, so here I am.) I left the bakery trade in the 1960's, having been for six years with my father in the company of which he was a director and, at that time we were coming to the end of the era of loose biscuit sales. Dad's Cookies in those days - and I think I can recall them before World War 2 - were kept in our twenty-odd shops in a very large glass jar and served therefrom into bags. They were large and very toothsome. All "commercial"biscuits to-day are but a pale shadow of their former selves, both in size and quality.
Paul Fairall Dad's Cookies Review	Hi there, I was an avid eater of Dads Cookies as a child in the 1950’s and until they went AWOL in the 70’s. Imagine my delight when I re-discovered them on a recent trip to Canada. I had intended to buy a load before coming back, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, and a distinct lack of time, it just didn’t happen. I just read a write up that you guys did about them a couple of months back. However is there a grocery organisation, or indeed the company themselves, to whom I could write in order to obtain some more. Not just a packet, but a whole box will do for a start! ( my sister also remembers them and also wants some if we can get them into the UK). The tourist shop in Covent Garden sounds not the best move! Any help very much appreciated, Kind regards, Paul Fairall
	Nicey replies: Paul, Really the shop in Covent Garden seems to cater for all those Canadians, Kiwis and South Africans who are resident in London and prepared to pay for some reminders of home. It's a bit like a horrendously expensive cornershop that sells tee shirts too. There is one in the next street that caters exclusively for Australians, and is a good place to get hold of exotic Tim Tams. Apart from this though we haven't come across another source of Dad's cookies in the UK.