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Cookies, or biscuits, are usually a sweet snack or dessert. They have a long history as they probably developed from Middle Eastern pastries.
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==Cookie Definition==
Whether it be called a cookie or a biscuit, cookies are popular worldwide. Cookies are known as biscuits through out most United Kingdom while in the United States the term cookie is used. No matter the terminology, a cookie is usually  rolled, dropped, shaped or made into bar form and typically baked. Some cookies are “no bake” cookies meaning an oven is not used to finish the cooking process.
 
To clarify the terminology the following information is quoted from Food Timeline.org:
 
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "biscuit" debuted in the 14th century. Primary definition here:
"Biscuit: 1. a. A kind of crisp dry bread more or less hard, prepared generally in thin flat cakes. The essential ingredients are flour and water, or milk, without leaven; but confectionery and fancy biscuits are very variously composed and flavoured. Even the characteristic of hardness implied in the name is lost in the sense ‘A kind of small, baked cake, usually fermented, made of flour, milk, etc.’ used, according to Webster, in U.S."
The OED states "cookie" was introduced to the Engish language during the 18th century via the Dutch:
"Cookie: 1. a. In Scotland the usual name for a baker's plain bun; in U.S. usually a small flat sweet cake (a biscuit in U.K.), but locally a name for small cakes of various form with or without sweetening. Also S. Afr. and Canad." <ref name="Food Timeline">{{cite web |url=http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html |title=http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html |accessdate=2010-10-11}}</ref>
The word cookie is probably derived from the Dutch word koekjes that is the diminutive for the word koek or cake. Cookies were first used as “test” cakes by bakers, according to some food historians. <ref name="The Nibble Great Food Finds">{{cite web |url=http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cookies/cookies2/cookie-history.asp#origin |title=The History of Cookies: The Origin of the Cookie |accessdate=2010-10-11}}</ref>
 
In Britain cookies are called biscuits. The root word for biscuits is probably derived from the term bis coctum which means twice baked. The latin term for this cookie is biscotti.<ref name="The Nibble Great Food Finds">{{cite web |url=http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cookies/cookies2/cookie-history.asp#america |title=The History of Cookies |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
The term biscuit came from the Old French word biscoit. or twice baked. Seafaring sailors used to leave port with a good supply of twice baked savory crackers, or biscotti, as they provided food during long voyages.<ref name="Food Timeline">{{cite web |url=http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html |title=http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
Scandinavians prepared and ate a flat bread or biscuit. These breads were often made from oats, rye, barley and a small amount of wheat. <ref name="The Viking Answer Lady">{{cite web |url=http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/food.shtml |title=Viking Foods |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
The very earliest cookies were probably from Persia and were sweet pastries. The pastry recipes, along with the spices, were brought to Europe by the Crusaders when they returned home from the Middle East.<ref name="Food Timeline">{{cite web |url=http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html |title=http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref><ref name="The Nibble Great Food Finds">{{cite web |url=The History of Cookieshttp://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cookies/cookies2/cookie-history.asp#america |title=The History of Cookies |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
 
During the 17th,  18th and 19th centuries cookies evolved to include the addition of sugar,  along with the use of honey, while adding the ingredient baking soda to help add leavening. Cookies were often baked at home. Some popular early cookies included jumbles, gingerbread and macaroons. Later popular cookies included butter cookies and shortbread. <ref name="The Nibble Great Food Finds">{{cite web |url=The History of Cookieshttp://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cookies/cookies2/cookie-history.asp#america |title=The History of Cookies |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
 
Some cookies used hartshorn salt (ammonia bicarbonate) for leavening instead of baking soda or baking powder. Some Scandinavian and German cookie recipes still use this ingredient today.<ref name="O Chef">{{cite web |url=http://www.ochef.com/539.htm |title=What is Hartshorn? |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref><ref name="What's Cooking In America">{{cite web |url=http://www.ochef.com/539.htm |title=Questions and Answers: Hartshorn, Bakers' Amonia (Amonia Carbonate) |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref><ref name="Sugarcraft">{{cite web |url=http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/misc/bakeramm.htm |title=Bakers' Amonia; Cookie Recipes |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
 
Historic Cookies
 
==Baklava==
While not a cookie, Baklava is a famous pastry attributed to Turkey. The country Turkey used to be part of the Persian Empire. Baklava is made filo pastry, honey and chopped nuts.  Earlier forms of Baklava were made from layered bread or noodle paste. In fact, the “...Janissary troops stationed in Istanbul used to march to the palace, where every regiment was presented with two trays of baklava. They would...march back to their barracks in what was known as the Baklava Procession." This is one of the earliest records of baklava being made from filo dough and this recipe most likely came from the Topkapi palace in Istanbul.<ref name="Food Timeline.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html |title=A Little Bit of Cookie History |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
==Gingerbread==
Medieval gingerbread was often made from honey, spices and breadcrumbs. An updated version uses honey, ginger (optional), breadcrumbs, saffron (optional) and red food coloring (optional).<ref name="Mediveal Gingerbread">{{cite web |url=http://www.godecookery.com/ginger/ginger.htm |title=Gingerbread |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
Another form of gingerbread popular during Mediveal times was the familiar gingerbread cookie. These cookies were made with spices and sweetened. They were shaped to look like flowers, birds, animals and armor. <ref name="Smithsonian.com">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2008/12/24/a-brief-history-of-gingerbread/ |title=Food & Think: A Brief History of Gingerbread |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
 
In Germany Lebkuchen is the name for gingerbread. Often found at street festivals the cookie is usually baked in a heart shaped form and frosted.<ref name="Smithsonian.com">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2008/12/24/a-brief-history-of-gingerbread/ |title=Food & Think: A Brief History of Gingerbread |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
==Chocolate Chip Cookie==
Ruth Wakefield is credited with creating the chocolate chip cookie. Wakefield was famous for her butter drop cookies but ran out of the needed chocolate she used in her recipe. She substituted some chopped up semisweet chocolate and the chocolate chip cookie was created.<ref name="About.com History of Chocolate Chip Cookies">{{cite web |url=http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventors/a/Chocolate_Chip.htm |title=History of Chocolate Cookies & Ruth Wakefield |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref><ref name="Food History">{{cite web |url=http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/AmericanHeritageRecipes/ChocolateChipCookie/ |title=The History of Chocolate Chip Cookies (Original recipe featured) |accessdate=2010-10-12}}</ref>
 
==References==
<references>

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