History of Cookies

In the USA, a cookie is described as a thin, sweet, usually small cake.  By definition, a cookie can be any of a variety of hand-held, flour-based sweet cakes - crisp or soft.  Each country has its own word for “cookie.”  What we know as cookies are called biscuits in England and Australia, in Spain they’re galletas.  Germans call them keks, or Plzchen for Christmas cookies, and in Italy there are several names to identify various forms of cookies including amaretti and biscotti, and so on.  The name cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekje, meaning “small or little cake.”  Biscuit comes from the Latin word bis coctum, which means, “twice baked.”

According to culinary historians, the first historic record of cookies was their use as test cakes.  A small amount of cake batter was baked to test the oven temperature.

 

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