Cookies & Confections

A SHORT, FLAT HISTORY OF THE COOKIE.
We all know that cookies originally were little cakes (called koekjes) that the Dutch bakers made for testing cake recipes.

Eatymologists (people who study food words) say that the word was re-pronounced when it crossed Ellis Island and came into the Americas.

Biscuits followed closely behind, some even say on the same boat! What is the difference between a cookie and a biscuit, you ask?

It all depends on the definition and the continent you are standing on - and even then it varies from north to south within the country you are in.

History tell us that the “biscuit” is an old French word, bescuit, meaning twofold or twice cooked. Originally, baked and then dried in a drying “oven”.

In the middle ages in England, the word bisquite was used to describe a hard, twice baked thing. And then, as lots of things developed, biscuit became more like a classification and came to include crackers, cookies and sugar wafers.

I hope that was confusing, because it is. No matter the name, we wish and hope to share the same, and a happy cookie holiday this year. (Except when we consider a true southern biscuit, then it is more like a cake than a cookie.)