Cookie

A cookie is a sweet, portable, flour-based cake. The term cookie originated from koekeje -- the dutch word for little cake. It is believed that the earliest cookies date back to 7th century Persia.

There are six basic types of cookies:


 * Drop cookies - made from spoonfuls of dough which are dropped onto a baking sheet
 * Bar cookies - soft dough spooned into a shallow pan which is then baked, cooled and cut into bars
 * Molded cookies - hand-shaped dough in the form of small balls, logs, crescents or other shaped
 * Pressed cookies - cookies with fancy shapes and designs made by pressing dough through a cookie press (or pastry bag)
 * Refrigerator cookies - made by shaping dough into a log, refrigerating the dough until firm and then slicing and baking it
 * Rolled cookies - roller-pin flattened dough cut into shapes with cookie cutters or a knife

Most cookies are sweet dessert or snack food in individual servings (usually 1-3 cookies in a serving).

There are other types of cookies, like German springerle which are made by imprint designs on dough either with a special rolling pin or by pressing the dough through a carved cookie mold.

Cookies are eaten on their own as a snack or dessert. When crushed, mixed with melted margarine or butter, and pressed into a pan, they make flavorful crusts for pies. Spicy gingersnaps, rich chocolate wafers, classic vanilla wafers, and whole-grain graham crackers, the varieties most frequently used for crusts, are sold in packages in grocery stores.

Name Variations

 * biscuits (England)
 * galletas (Spain)
 * keks (Germany)
 * biscotti (Italy)