Regal Puff Pastry Finger Biscuits: the laminated biscuit explained

A puff pastry finger is mostly air held in place by fat, which is why it shatters into flakes where a digestive would snap. Regal tops its fingers with sugar instead of filling them, so the sweetness is on the outside and the pastry does the rest.

How lamination builds a finger

Puff pastry is a laminated dough, with fat and dough stacked in alternating sheets and folded over and over until there are many thin layers of each. In the oven, water in the dough flashes to steam and forces those sheets apart, and as the fat sets it holds them in their raised position. What comes out is light for its size, rich in the eating and inclined to shed crumbs everywhere.

The published ingredient list for this barcode matches that construction. Wheat flour and a vegetable margarine made with palm fat and sunflower oil come first, then sugar, butter, glucose syrup and malt from wheat and barley. The sugar goes on top rather than into a filling, so the first thing you meet is the sugared surface, over pastry that is faintly buttery and only moderately sweet.

Keeping the flake

Laminated pastry takes up moisture much more readily than a solid biscuit, and once the flake softens it never returns. Move the fingers into an airtight tin as soon as the pack is open and store them lying flat rather than standing on end. A finger that has lost its shatter is still perfectly edible, but it is no longer the reason you bought it.

They are no dunkers. Pastry this airy floods with tea at once and collapses before you can get it back to your mouth, so eat them dry beside the cup. Choose the drink with the same care: an ordinary black tea at medium strength with milk, or a plain coffee, lets the butteriness show. A very heavy, stewed brew simply flattens something this delicate.

Puddings, ice cream and the Regal story

Because the sweetness is moderate, the fingers carry fruit and cream rather than fighting them. Stack them with whipped cream and soft fruit for a quick, cheat's mille-feuille, and put it together at the table, because cream turns the layers soft within minutes. Snapped over a bowl of ice cream they add the crunch a wafer would, with more richness behind it.

Regal is a bakery brand of Regal Food Products Group, a family firm founded in Yorkshire in 2001 with its UK head office at Regal House in Bradford. The group's catalogue runs well beyond biscuits to more than 400 products, from cake rusks and Madeira cakes to sauces and juices, exported to over 40 countries, and in 2022 it received the Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade. This finger is the one Regal line we stock.

The packs we stock

• Regal Puff Pastry Finger Biscuits, 200g (barcode 5027738101118)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Regal Puff Pastry Finger Biscuits, 200g (barcode 5027738101118) says it contains wheat and barley (gluten) and milk, and it may contain egg and soya. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.

Ingredients, as published: Wheat flour, vegetable margarine (palm fat, sunflower oil, water, emulsifiers: mono and diglycerides of fatty acids), sugar, butter, glucose syrup, malt (wheat and barley), salt, natural flavouring. May contain egg and soy.

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: An everyday black tea, brewed to medium strength with milk, that sits beside the pastry without drowning its butteriness.
• Yorkshire Tea Cherry Bakewell Brew, 40 Tea Bags 112g: A cherry-flavoured black tea that plays the part of the jam when the fingers are served with cream.
• Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated, 80 Tea Bags 218g: The same milky, medium cup for the evening, decaffeinated, for fingers with a late pudding.

Elsewhere in the Regal range

The full range is on the Regal brand page.

FAQ

What allergens are in Regal Puff Pastry Finger Biscuits? The published ingredient list for this barcode contains wheat, barley and milk, and the pack warns that it may contain egg and soya. Check the pack in your hands before buying.

Why do puff pastry fingers collapse in tea? Their layers are mostly air, so they soak up tea almost instantly and fall apart. They belong beside the cup rather than in it.

Is a puff pastry finger the same as a palmier? It uses the same laminating technique that gives France the palmier. The finger is simply the plainest shape of the idea.

How do I keep puff pastry fingers crisp? Transfer them to an airtight tin, lying flat, as soon as the pack is open. Laminated pastry loses its flake to damp quickly.

Is there butter in them? Yes. Butter is listed alongside a vegetable margarine in the published ingredients for this barcode.

Curator's note: Snap two over a bowl of vanilla ice cream and call it pudding. They are not trying to be the star of the tin, and that is exactly their charm. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Regal Puff Pastry Finger Biscuits: the laminated biscuit explained

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• 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

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