Most English-speaking countries call crunchy cookies "biscuits", except for the United States and Canada, where "biscuit" refers to a type of quick bread. Chewier biscuits are sometimes called "cookies" even in the United Kingdom.[3] Some cookies may also be named by their shape, such as date squares or bars.
In many English-speaking countries outside North America, including the United Kingdom, the most common word for a crisp cookie is "biscuit".[3] The term "cookie" is normally used to describe chewier ones.[3] However, in many regions both terms are used. The container used to store cookies may be called a cookie jar.
In Scotland, the term "cookie" is sometimes used to describe a plain bun.[5]
Cookies that are baked as a solid layer on a sheet pan and then cut, rather than being baked as individual pieces, are called bar cookies in American English or traybakes in British English .[3]
Etymology
The word cookie dates from at least 1701 in Scottish usage where the word meant "plain bun", rather than thin baked good, and so it is not certain whether it is the same word. From 1808, the word "cookie" is attested "...in the sense of "small, flat, sweet cake" in American English. The American use is derived from Dutch koekje "little cake", which is a diminutive of "koek" ("cake"), which came from the Middle Dutch word "koke".[6] Another claim is that the American name derives from the Dutch word koekje or more precisely its informal, dialect variant koekie[7] which means little cake, and arrived in American English with the Dutch settlement of New Netherland, in the early 1600s.[8]
A dish of assorted cookies, including sandwich cookies filled with jamCookies baking in an oven
Cookies are most commonly baked until crisp or else for just long enough to ensure a soft interior. Other types of cookies are not baked at all, such as varieties of peanut butter cookies that use solidified chocolate rather than set eggs and wheat gluten as a binder.[10] Cookies are produced in a wide variety of styles, using an array of ingredients including sugars, spices, chocolate, butter, peanut butter, nuts, or dried fruits.
A general theory of cookies may be formulated in the following way. Despite its descent from cakes and other sweetened breads, the cookie in almost all its forms has abandoned water as a medium for cohesion. Water in cakes serves to make the batter as thin as possible, the better to allow bubbles—responsible for a cake's fluffiness—to form. In the cookie the agent of cohesion has become some form of oil. Oils, whether in the form of butter, vegetable oils, or lard, are much more viscous than water and evaporate freely at a far higher temperature. Thus a cake made with butter or eggs in place of water is much denser after removal from the oven.
Rather than evaporating as water does in a baking cake, oils in cookies remain. These oils saturate the cavities created during baking by bubbles of escaping gases. These gases are primarily composed of steam vaporized from the egg whites and the carbon dioxide released by heating the baking powder. This saturation produces the most texturally attractive feature of the cookie, and indeed all fried foods: crispness saturated with a moisture (namely oil) that does not render soggy the food it has soaked into.
History
Thumbprint cookies
Cookie-like hard wafers have existed for as long as baking is documented, in part because they survive travel very well, but they were usually not sweet enough to be considered cookies by modern standards.[11]
Cookies appear to have their origins in 7th century AD Persia, shortly after the use of sugar became relatively common in the region.[2][1] They spread to Europe through the Muslim conquest of Spain. By the 14th century, they were common in all levels of society throughout Europe, from royal cuisine to street vendors.[12] The first documented instance of the figure-shaped gingerbread man was at the court of Elizabeth I of England in the 16th century. She had the gingerbread figures made and presented in the likeness of some of her important guests.[13]
With global travel becoming widespread at that time, cookies made a natural travel companion, a modernized equivalent of the travel cakes used throughout history. One of the most popular early cookies, which traveled especially well and became known on every continent by similar names, was the jumble, a relatively hard cookie made largely from nuts, sweetener, and water.
Cookies came to America through the Dutch in New Amsterdam in the late 1620s. The Dutch word "koekje" was Anglicized to "cookie" or cooky. The earliest reference to cookies in America is in 1703, when "The Dutch in New York provided...'in 1703...at a funeral 800 cookies...'"[14]
The modern form of cookies, which is based on creaming butter and sugar together, did not appear commonly until the 18th century.[15] The Industrial Revolution in Britain and the consumers it created saw cookies (biscuits) become products for the masses, and firms such as Huntley & Palmers (formed in 1822), McVitie's (formed in 1830) and Carr's (formed in 1831) were all established.[16] The decorative biscuit tin, invented by Huntley & Palmers in 1831, saw British cookies exported around the world.[16] In 1891, Cadbury filed a patent for a chocolate-coated cookie.[16]
Cookies are broadly classified according to how they are formed or made, including at least these categories:
Bar cookies consist of batter or other ingredients that are poured or pressed into a pan (sometimes in multiple layers) and cut into cookie-sized pieces after baking. In British English, bar cookies are known as "tray bakes".[3] Examples include brownies, fruit squares, and bars such as date squares.
Drop cookies are made from a relatively soft dough that is dropped by spoonfuls onto the baking sheet. During baking, the mounds of dough spread and flatten. Chocolate chip cookies (Toll House cookies), oatmeal raisin (or other oatmeal-based) cookies, and rock cakes are popular examples of drop cookies. This may also include thumbprint cookies, for which a small central depression is created with a thumb or small spoon before baking to contain a filling, such as jam or a chocolate chip.[17] In the UK, the term "cookie" often refers only to this particular type of product.
Filled cookies are made from a rolled cookie dough filled with a fruit, jam or confectionery filling before baking. Hamantashen are a filled cookie.
Molded cookies are also made from a stiffer dough that is molded into balls or cookie shapes by hand before baking. Snickerdoodles and peanut butter cookies are examples of molded cookies. Some cookies, such as hermits or biscotti, are molded into large flattened loaves that are later cut into smaller cookies.
No-bake cookies are made by mixing a filler, such as cereal or nuts, into a melted confectionery binder, shaping into cookies or bars, and allowing to cool or harden. Oatmeal clusters and rum balls are no-bake cookies.
Pressed cookies are made from a soft dough that is extruded from a cookie press into various decorative shapes before baking. Spritzgebäck is an example of a pressed cookie.
Refrigerator cookies (also known as icebox cookies) are made from a stiff dough that is refrigerated to make the raw dough even stiffer before cutting and baking. The dough is typically shaped into cylinders which are sliced into round cookies before baking. Pinwheel cookies and those made by Pillsbury are representative.
Rolled cookies are made from a stiffer dough that is rolled out and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter. Gingerbread men are an example.
Sandwich cookies are rolled or pressed cookies that are assembled as a sandwich with a sweet filling. Fillings include marshmallow, jam, and icing. The Oreo cookie, made of two chocolate cookies with a vanilla icing filling, is an example.
Other types of cookies are classified for other reasons, such as their ingredients, size, or intended time of serving:
Breakfast cookies are typically larger, lower-sugar cookies filled with "heart-healthy nuts and fiber-rich oats" that are eaten as a quick breakfast snack.[18]
Low-fat cookies or diet cookies typically have lower fat than regular cookies.[19]
Raw cookie dough is served in some restaurants, though the eggs may be omitted since the dough is eaten raw, which could pose a salmonella risk if eggs were used. Cookie Dough Confections in New York City is a restaurant that has a range of raw cookie dough flavors, which are scooped into cups for customers like ice cream.[20]
Skillet cookies are big cookies that are cooked in a cast-iron skillet and served warm, while they are still soft and chewy. They are either eaten straight from the pan or cut into wedges, often with vanilla ice cream on top.[21]
Supersized cookies are large cookies such as the Panera Kitchen Sink Cookie.[22] These very large cookies are sold at grocery stores, restaurants and coffeeshops.
Vegan cookies can be made with flour, sugar, nondairy milk and nondairy margarine. Aquafaba icing can be used to decorate the cookies.
Cookie cakes are made in a larger circular shape usually with writing made of frosting.
Reception
Leah Ettman from Nutrition Action has criticized the high calorie count and fat content of supersized cookies, which are extra large cookies; she cites the Panera Kitchen Sink Cookie, a supersized chocolate chip cookie, which measures 5 1/2 inches in diameter and has 800 calories.[22] For busy people who eat breakfast cookies in the morning, Kate Bratskeir from the Huffington Post recommends lower-sugar cookies filled with "heart-healthy nuts and fiber-rich oats".[18] A book on nutrition by Paul Insel et al. notes that "low-fat" or "diet cookies" may have the same number of calories as regular cookies, due to added sugar.[19]
Popular culture
There are a number of slang usages of the term "cookie". The slang use of "cookie" to mean a person, "especially an attractive woman" is attested to in print since 1920.[6] The catchphrase "that's the way the cookie crumbles", which means "that's just the way things happen" is attested to in print in 1955.[6] Other slang terms include "smart cookie" and "tough cookie." According to The Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, a smart cookie is "someone who is clever and good at dealing with difficult situations."[23] The word "cookie" has been vulgar slang for "vagina" in the US since 1970.[24] The word "cookies" is used to refer to the contents of the stomach, often in reference to vomiting (e.g., "pop your cookies", a 1960s expression, or "toss your cookies", a 1970s expression).[24] The expression "cookie cutter", in addition to referring literally to a culinary device used to cut rolled cookie dough into shapes, is also used metaphorically to refer to items or things "having the same configuration or look as many others" (e.g., a "cookie cutter tract house") or to label something as "stereotyped or formulaic" (e.g., an action movie filled with "generic cookie cutter characters").[25] "Cookie duster" is a whimsical expression for a mustache.
Cookie Monster is a Muppet on the children's television showSesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite for cookies and his famous eating phrases, such as "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!" (or simply "COOKIE!"), and "Om nom nom nom" (said through a mouth full of food).[26][27][28][29]
Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.
A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies are claimed to have originated in the United States in 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and added the chopped chocolate to a cookie recipe; however, historical recipes for grated or chopped chocolate cookies exist prior to 1938 by various other authors.
A cracker is a flat, dry baked biscuit typically made with flour. Flavorings or seasonings, such as salt, herbs, seeds, or cheese, may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top before baking. Crackers are often branded as a nutritious and convenient way to consume a staple food or cereal grain.
A biscuit, in most English speaking countries, is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. Types of biscuit include sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, biscotti, and speculaas.
Lebkuchen, Honigkuchen or Pfefferkuchen are honey-sweetened German cakes, moulded cookies or bar cookies that have become part of Germany's Christmas traditions. They are similar to gingerbread.
Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as a ginger snap.
Sunshine Biscuits, formerly known as The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, was an independent American baker of cookies, crackers, and cereals. The company, which became a brand on a few products such as Cheez-It, was purchased by Keebler Company in 1996, which was purchased by Kellogg Company in 2001. Around then, Sunshine Biscuits was headquartered in Elmhurst, Illinois, where Keebler was located until 2001.
Cookie dough is an uncooked blend of cookie ingredients. While cookie dough is normally intended to be baked into individual cookies before eating, edible cookie dough is made to be eaten as is, and usually is made without eggs to make it safer for human consumption.
Christmas cookies or Christmas biscuits are traditionally sugar cookies or biscuits cut into various shapes related to Christmas.
An animal cracker is a particular type of cracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or a circus, such as a lion, a tiger, a bear, or an elephant. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, but darker chocolate-flavored and colorful frosted varieties are also sold. Although animal crackers tend to be sweet in flavor like cookies, they are made with a layered dough like crackers and are marketed as crackers and not cookies.
Lärabar is a brand of energy bars produced by General Mills. The bars come in a variety of flavors such as Apple Pie, Carrot Cake, Cinnamon Roll, and Mint Chip Brownie.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
A fudge cookie is a cookie that is prepared with fudge or that has the flavor, consistency or texture of fudge. Chocolate fudge cookies are a variety, along with other fudge flavors, such as peanut butter fudge.
Cookie Dough Bites is an American candy owned by Taste of Nature, Inc. With a cookie dough confectionery center, they are chocolate covered and most typically sold in theater-sized boxes. Although launched as a chocolate-chip cookie dough flavor, since their introduction, there have been a variety of flavors released. Originally launched in movie theaters in the US in 1997 they are now available in many areas of the world including Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, UK, Europe/EU, several Middle Eastern countries, Australia and New Zealand
↑ Sesame Street - "The First Time Me Eat Cookie". 7 April 2004. Event occurs at 0:30. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Me was just a mild-mannered little kid. In fact, back then, me think me name was Sid. Yeah, yeah.
↑ "Cookie Monster: Me wasn't ..."Sesame Street (sesamestreet) on Twitter. 10 August 2010. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2019. Me wasn't born with name "Cookie Monster." It just nickname dat stuck. Me don't remember me real name… maybe it was Sidney?
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