Biffins

Biffins are a special kind of dried apple, flat in appearance and soft to the touch, prepared in large quantities in Norfolk, England. They are obtained by a very slow drying of the fruit and occasional pressing.

These were specifically apples of the Norfolk Biffin variety baked in cooling bread ovens under weights to flatten and then sold cold.

These were slowly cooked whole, then cored, then rubbed with sugar. To eat, you would peel off the tough skin, and garnish with more sugar and cream. You would eat them cold or room temperature.

Very popular in Victorian times but largely died out commercially after World War II.

Biffins are mentioned in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, when the ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge out on the streets on Christmas Day and Dickens describes the wares in the shops: "...there were Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner..."

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ward, Artemas (1911). "The Grocer's Encyclopedia". The Grocer's Encyclopedia.