Hide & Seek Choco Chip Cookies: The Moulded Chai Biscuit

Moulded is a manufacturing word, and it explains almost everything about this cookie. Pressed dough bakes denser and drier than cut dough, which is why Hide & Seek snaps cleanly and survives a dunk that would sink a soft-bake.

Pressed, not cut

Biscuit dough can be pushed out and sliced off with a wire, which gives a craggier, shorter biscuit, or it can be packed into a shaped mould and baked, which is what the word on this pack means. Moulding compacts the dough, so the cookie comes out uniform, sharp-edged and noticeably dense. That density gives the clean snap, and it is why the 82.5g pack travels well in a bag.

The chocolate is in the crumb rather than on top. The published ingredient list names two kinds of chip, chocolate flavoured chips and chocolate chips, both made with soya lecithin, alongside cocoa solids in the dough and artificial vanilla flavour. Because nothing coats the outside, nothing melts onto your fingers, and the chocolate arrives in bursts between plainer, toffee-edged bites rather than evenly in every mouthful.

A crisp tradition, made for tea

Parle Products, the Mumbai company behind the cookie, opened its first factory in 1929 in Vile Parle, where twelve people made confectionery. Hide & Seek followed in 1996, presented by Parle as India's first chocolate chip cookie of its type, and these days it is part of Parle Platina, a premium range the company launched in 2017. Its stablemates in the wider Parle family include Parle-G, Monaco and Krackjack.

The Indian chip cookie leans crisp where the American soft-bake leans chewy, and that is not a small difference. A crisp biscuit keeps better and is designed to sit beside strong, sweet tea. It is why we stock this one: it is proper chai-time company. A milky masala chai suits it best; after that, a strong Assam or a sturdy breakfast brew with milk, or a milky instant coffee at the desk.

Dunking and keeping

Dunking is where the density pays off. Tea soaks into compacted dough slowly, so you get about two seconds in the cup, where a short, crumbly biscuit gives you barely a moment. The chocolate is the thing to watch: the chips go soft well before the cookie does, and once they begin to smear, lift it out. A strong brew with plenty of tannin balances the sweetness best.

Air is the enemy of a crisp cookie, and an opened wrapper lets it straight in, so tip what is left into a tin with a tight lid. On allergens, the published ingredient list says it contains wheat (gluten) and soya, and it may contain milk, tree nuts and oats. Check the current UK pack before buying, since recipes and allergen advice can differ between markets and can change.

The packs we stock

• Hide & Seek Best Moulded Choco Chip Cookies, 82.5g (barcode 8901719104046)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Hide & Seek Best Moulded Choco Chip Cookies, 82.5g (barcode 8901719104046) says it contains wheat (gluten) and soya, and it may contain milk and nuts. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.

Ingredients, as published: Enriched wheat flour, Sugars (sugar, invert sugar syrup), Chocolate flavoured chips [sugar, hydrogenated vegetable fats (palm kernel oil), dextrose, cocoa solids, emulsifier (soy lecithin) and artificial vanilla flavour], Palm oil, Chocolate chips [sugar, cocoa solids, cocoa butter, dextrose, emulsifier (soy lecithin), artificial vanilla flavour], Leavening [ammonium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate], Cocoa solids, Salt, Artificial vanilla flavour, Emulsifier (diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides). May Contain: Milk, Tree nuts, Oats.

Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.

What to drink with it

• Yorkshire Tea Original Everyday Blend, 80 Tea Bags 250g: A strong everyday black tea with milk has the backbone to stand up to a sweet chip cookie.
• Twinings English Breakfast Loose Tea, 125g: Loose English Breakfast simmered strong with milk and your own spices makes an easy homemade chai for dunking.
• Nescafe Gold Blend Intense Instant Coffee, 190g: A milky mug of intense instant is the coffee-break version of the same pairing.
• Teapigs Rooibos Creme Caramel, 15 Tea Bags, 37.5g: Its creme caramel flavour picks up the toffee edge of the baked dough.

Elsewhere in the Hide & Seek range

The full range is on the Hide & Seek brand page.

FAQ

What does moulded mean on Hide & Seek cookies? Each cookie is formed in a mould rather than sliced from a length of dough, so it bakes dense, even and crisp.

Is Hide & Seek a soft or crisp cookie? Crisp. It belongs to the Indian style of chip cookie, which snaps, rather than the chewy American soft-bake.

Can you dunk Hide & Seek cookies? Yes, for about two seconds. Lift it out when the chips start to soften.

Do Hide & Seek cookies contain milk or nuts? The published ingredient list says they contain wheat and soya and may contain milk, tree nuts and oats; check the current pack.

Who makes Hide & Seek? Parle Products of Mumbai, which launched it in 1996. It is part of the Parle Platina range.

Curator's note: Make a pan of masala chai, milky and strong, and dunk one for a count of two. That is what this cookie is for. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Hide & Seek Choco Chip Cookies: The Moulded Chai Biscuit

More from the tea wiki

• Tea and Biscuits
• Biscuit Dunking Physics: The Real Science
• Tea Pairing Principles: Reason, Don't Memorise
• Tea With Cake: The Pairing That Never Fails (If You Get It Right)
• Tea and Food Pairing: The Five Principles
• Tea with Chocolate: Pair by Cocoa Percentage
• Tea and Chocolate Pairing

Download as PDF