History

The cookie, such a small little treat, but surprisingly has a very long history and is loved by
millions. Did you ever how the first cookie came to be and what they look like in different
cultures? Here is a Brief History of the Cookie.
The actual definition of a cookie is pretty wide. A cookie is any flour-based sweet cake that can
easily be held in your hand. Cookies can either be crisp or soft, thick or thin.

The Origin of the Cookie and History

The first cookies are thought to be test cakes bakers used to test the oven temperature. They date
back as early as 7th Century A.D. Persia which is now Iran. They were one of the first countries
to grow and harvest sugar cane.

With war and exploration eventually sugar was introduced to the Mediterranean area and
European countries and so were cookies. And by the end of the 14th century, cookies were
common place in European cities. The earliest cooking books from the Renaissance were
chockful of cookie recipes.

One popular type of cookie in Elizabethan England was a square short-cookie made with egg
yolks and spices and baked on parchment paper.
After the Industrial Revolution, improvements in technology led to more variety of cookies are
available commercially. The bases for all cookies were the same though: wheat flour, sugar and
fats like butter and oil.

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.

Cookies appear to have their origins in 7th century AD Persia, shortly after the use of sugar
became relatively common in the region. 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. 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.

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...'

The most common modern cookie, given its style by the creaming of butter and sugar, was not
common until the 18th century. 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. The decorative biscuit tin, invented by Huntley & Palmers in 1831, saw British
cookies exported around the world. In 1891, Cadbury filed a patent for a chocolate-coated cookie

Coming to America

Of course when the Europeans arrived in the Americas, they brought their cookie recipes with
them. Soon they adapted the old recipes to fit the New World. American butter cookies are a
close relative to the English teacake and the Scottish shortbread.

In the Southern colonies, every housewife knew how to bake tea cakes that had no extra
flavoring except butter and sometimes a couple drops of rose water.

The first American cookies that showed up in cook books had creative names like Jumbles,
Plunkets and Cry Babies which gave no clue to what was inside the cookie. As the expansion of
technology grew in the United States, new ingredients started to show up in cookie recipes. For
instance with the railroad, more people could purchase fruits and nuts like coconuts and oranges.
Even cereal started showing up in cookie recipes after the Kellogg brothers invented cornflakes
in the late 1800s. Then when electric refrigerators became available in the 1930s, icebox cookies
also became popular.

Here are some of the most popular types of cookies from around the world.
Animal Crackers originally came from England to the United States and were first just called
“Animals”. Then in the late 1800s, manufacturers in the United States began making them. Then
with the rise of P.T. Barnum and his circus, “Animals” became “Animal Crackers” and that is
when you started to see the still familiar square box with a circus cage on it and a handle for easy
carrying.
Anzac Biscuit are Australia’s National Biscuit, but they started out as a hardtack biscuit for the
Australian army. Because of their longer shelf life, these biscuits were used as a substitute for
bread.

Biscotti is the general term in Italian for cookies. The word actually means “twice cooked”. For
these cookies, the dough is shaped into logs and baked until they are a golden brown color. Then
the logs are sliced into individual cookies and baked again.
Other countries have their own version of the Biscotti. The Dutch call theirs a rusk cookie and in
Germany it is the zwieback.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie actually was invented by mistake by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1937
in Massachusetts. She ran the Toll House Restaurant and would often bake cookies for her
guests. On the day in question, she was making “Butter Drop Do” cookies when she realized she
had run out of baker’s chocolate. She used a bar of semisweet chocolate instead expecting it to
melt into the dough but instead the pieces of chocolate kept their shape. And that was the first
bath of chocolate chip cookies. She originally called the cookies, “The Toll House Crunch
Cookies”.
In 1939, Betty Crocker mentioned the cookie on her radio series on “Famous Foods From
Famous Eating Places” and soon people everywhere were asking for the chocolate chip cookie.
Ruth eventually made an agreement with the Nestle company that allowed them to print the
recipe on the back wrapper of their Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar and the rest is history.

In 1997, the chocolate chip cookie became of the official cookie of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts.
The origin of the Fig Newton is still up for debate. One claim is that the jam-filled cookies were
invented by a Philadelphia inventor named James Henry Mitchell in 1891 when he created the
machine that allows the cookies to be filled with jam. The machine was patented in January of
1892 and the cookies got its name from the town of Newton, Massachusetts.
Another claim is that the Fig Newtown was instead first created in 1899 by Charles Martin Roser
in St. Petersburg, Florida. He had a cookie and candy manufacturing company and the legend
says that he sold the right to his fig cookies for 1 million dollars, but there is little evidence to
support this.

Ladyfingers date back to 11th century France and were popular among the royalty of Europe. In
the early 1900s, they also became popular in the United States and Specialty Bakers Inc. in
Marysville, Pennsylvania became known as “The Lady Finger Specialist”.

The Nazareth Sugar Cookie, also known as the Amish Sugar Cookies, probably has origins in
Germany, but was perfected in the Nazareth area of Pennsylvania by German Protestants that
settled there in the 1700s. The cookie is actually shaped like a Keystone, the state’s symbol.

Classification

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 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 rolled cookie dough filled with a fruit, jam or confectionery
filling before baking. Hamantashen are a filled cookie.

 Molded cookies are also made from 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 used to decorate the cookies.

 Cookie cakes are made in a larger circular shape usually with writing made of frosting.