Brit Treat

Brit Treat butter cookies are baked in India for a UK importer and packed in printed metal tins, in the tradition of the butter cookie tins that sit on so many sideboards. The cookies are crisp, sweet and buttery, the sort that disappear from the plate while the tea is still being poured.

We keep Brit Treat with the cookies in biscuits and cookies, part of snacks and noodles. There are two tins, one blue and one red, with the same butter cookies inside, so the choice is simply which colour suits the occasion. The red tin looks right at Diwali and Christmas, and the blue one makes a good gift at any time of year.

A tin of butter cookies is one of the easiest things to take when visiting relatives, for Eid, Diwali, a new baby or a housewarming, and it is just as welcome on your own table. Serve them with masala chai or milky coffee, crumble a few over a bowl of ice cream, or scatter them over kheer for a little crunch. Children like them in lunchboxes, a few at a time.

Press the lid down firmly after opening and store the tin in a cool, dry cupboard so the cookies stay crisp. Once empty, the tin becomes the household home for sewing kits, spare spices or homemade sweets. For more tea time biscuits, browse sweet biscuits and cream biscuits, and for the chai itself see masala chai and instant chai.