Cookie Treats!

What exactly are cooooooooooooooooooooookies?!!!!!!!!!!!
It was interesting to check out across the web as to how a cookie is defined. Here are the definitions I've collated and sharing with you.





cook•ie n. [kkee] ['kʊkiː]
(plural cook•ies) or also cook•y
Origin:
1695–1705, < D koekie, dial. var. of koekje, equiv. to koek cake + -je dim. suffix
1703, Amer.Eng., from Du. koekje "little cake," dim. of koek "cake," from M.Du. koke

A small flat sweet cake.
A small flat crisp baked cake.
A small sweet cake that is usually flat and in the shape of a circle.
A thin, sweet, usually small cake.
A sweet biscuit.
A small flat or slightly raised cake.
A small, sweet, flat cake.
A thin, sweet, usually small cake.
A biscuit.
A small, flat-baked treat, usually containing fat, flour, eggs and sugar.
A small, usually flat and crisp cake especially one made from sweetened dough.
A small flat, baked cake which is either crisp or soft but firm (often with chocolate chips, candies or nuts mixed in.)
A small, sweet cake, variously shaped, filled, etc., but usually flat and either crisp or chewy.
A small, sweet, flat or ball-shaped cake baked from stiff dough.
A small cake made from stiff, sweet dough rolled and sliced or dropped by spoonfuls on a large, flat pan (cookie sheet) and baked.
Any of a variety of hand-held, flour-based sweet cakes, either crisp or soft.
Any of various small flat sweet cakes.
Any of various small sweet cakes, either flat or slightly raised, cut from rolled dough, dropped from a spoon, cut into pieces after baking, or curled with a special iron.



COOKIES
[As based on Wikipedia.com, TheNibble.com & Linda Stradley of WhatsCookingAmerica.net]

In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat-baked treat, usually containing fat, flour, eggs and sugar. It 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, either crisp or soft. The name cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekje dimunitive of koek which means “little cake.” Biscuit comes from the Latin word bis coctum, which means, “twice baked.” The first historic record of cookies was their use as test cakes where a small amount of cake batter was baked to test the oven temperature.

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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 Plätzchen for Christmas cookies, and in Italy amaretti and biscotti, and so on. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit while in the United States a biscuit is a kind of quick bread similar to a scone. In the United Kingdom the term cookie often just refers to chocolate chip cookies or a variation (oats, Smarties) while a cookie is a plain bun in Scotland

Cookies are small, sweet, flat, dry cakes—single-serving finger food. They are generally flour based, but they can be flourless—made from egg whites and/or almonds like macaroons, for example—or made from gluten-free flour, like rice flour. Cookies can be soft, chewy or crisp. They can be big or small, plain or fancy. They can be simple—butter and sugar—or complex, with a multitude of ingredients, or fashioned into cookie sandwiches, two layers and filling. But They started out long ago, not as a treat or a comfort food, but as an oven regulator!



COOKIES DESCRIBED
A basic cookie recipe includes flour, shortening (often lard), baking powder or soda, milk (buttermilk or sweet milk) and sugar. Common savory variations involve substituting sugar with an ingredient such as cheese or other dairy products. Shortbread is a popular biscuit in the UK. Cookies are most commonly baked until crisp or just long enough that they remain soft, but some kinds of cookies are not baked at all. Cookies are made in a wide variety of styles, using an array of ingredients including sugars, spices, chocolate, butter, peanut butter, nuts or dried fruits. The softness of the cookie may depend on how long it is baked.






A general theory of cookies may be formulated this way. Despite its descent from cakes and other sweetened breads, the cookie in almost all its forms has abandoned water as a medium for cohesion.Water in cakes serves to make the base (in the case of cakes called "batter") as thin as possible, which allows the bubbles – responsible for a cake's fluffiness – to form better. In the cookie, the agent of cohesion has become some form of oil. Oils, whether they be in the form of butter, egg yolks, vegetable oils or lard are much more viscous than water and evaporate freely at a much higher temperature than water. Thus a cake made with butter or eggs instead of water is far denser after removal from the oven. Oils in baked cakes do not behave as soda in the finished result. Rather than evaporating and thickening the mixture, they remain, saturating the bubbles of escaped gases from what little water there might have been in the eggs, if added, and the carbon dioxide released by heating the baking powder. This saturation produces the most texturally attractive feature of the cookie, and indeed all fried foods: crispness saturated with a moisture (namely oil) that does not sink into it.







HISTORY of COOKIES
[As based on best-ever-cookie-collection.com & WhatsCookingAmerica.net]

• According to culinary historians, cookies evolved from test cakes used to test oven temperature. Small amounts of cake batter were dropped onto pans to test the temperature of the oven before the cakes were baked.



• Cookies appear to have their origins in 7th century AD Persia, shortly after the use of sugar became relatively common in the region. According to historians, sugar originated either in the lowlands of Bengal or elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Sugar spread to Persia and then to the Eastern Mediterranean. With the Muslim conquest of Spain, then the Crusades and the developing spice trade, the cooking techniques and ingredients of Arabia spread into Northern Europe. By the end of the 14th century, one could buy little filled wafers on the streets of Paris. Renaissance cookbooks were rich in cookie recipes.


• 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.



• The history of cookies continued with their journey to America during English and Dutch settlement in the 1600s. Cookies came to America in the early English settlement (the 1600s), although the name "koekje" arrived with the Dutch. This became Anglicized to "cookie" or cooky. Among the popular early American cookies were the macaroon, gingerbread cookies, and of course jumbles of various types.The most common modern cookie, given its style by the creaming of butter and sugar, was not common until the 18th century. The English, Scotch, and Dutch immigrants originally brought the first cookies to the United States. Our simple butter cookies strongly resemble the English teacakes and the Scotch shortbread. The Southern colonial housewife of America took great pride in her cookies, almost always called simply tea cakes. These were often flavored with nothing more than the finest butter, sometimes with the addition of a few drops of rose water.



• During the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe, baking was a carefully controlled profession, managed through a series of Guilds or professional associations. To become a baker, people had to complete years of an apprenticeship - working through the ranks of apprentice, journeyman, and finally master baker. By having guilds, authorities could easily regulate the amount and quality of goods baked. As technology improved during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, so did the ability of bakers to make a wide range of sweet and savory biscuits for commercial consumption. Despite more varieties becoming available, the essential ingredients of biscuits didn't change. These ingredients are 'soft' wheat flour, which contains less protein than the flour used to bake bread, sugar, and fats, such as butter and oil.





• By the 1800s, cookie recipes were being published in cookbooks as 'small cakes.' In fact, the term 'cookie' comes from the Dutch word koekje or koekie which means little cake!



• Throughout the 19th century, most cookies were baked at home as special treats because of the high cost of sugar. Many early cookbooks included recipes for macaroons, jumbles, and gingerbread. Recipes for cookies in a variety of styles and flavors increased in the early 1900s and continues today.







• Today there are hundreds upon hundreds of cookie recipes in the United States. No one book could hold the recipes for all of the various types of cookies. > Ninety percent of home bakers bake cookies, making them the most common home baked good. Half of all home baked cookies are chocolate chip.









Classification of Cookies
(Wikipedia.com & TheNibble.com)

Cookies are classified by the way the dough is formed or handled. Cookies also may be decorated with an icing, especially chocolate, and closely resemble a type of confectionery.

• Bar Cookies. Consist of batter or other ingredients that are poured or pressed into a rectangular pan (sometimes in multiple layers), and cut into individual-sized squares or cookie-sized pieces after baking. Brownies are an example of a batter-type bar cookie, while Rice Krispie treats are a bar cookie that doesn't require baking, perhaps similar to a cereal bar. In British English, bar cookies are known as "tray bakes".

• Drop Cookies. A relatively soft dough is dropped by the spoonful onto the baking sheet. During baking, the mounds of dough spread and flatten. Chocolate chip cookies (Toll House cookies), oatmeal (or oatmeal raisin) cookies and rock cakes are popular examples of drop cookies.

• Molded Cookies. Made from a stiffer dough that is molded into balls or other shapes (wreaths, for example) before baking. Almond crescents, Snickerdoodles and peanut butter cookies are examples of molded cookies.



• No-Bake Cookies. A “faux” cookie, a kind of candy-cookie hybrid. An example is Rice Krispies Treats.





• Pressed Cookies. Made from a soft dough that is extruded from a cookie press (cookie gun) or pastry tube into various decorative shapes. Spritzgebäck are an example of a pressed cookie.





• Refrigerator Cookies or Ice Box Cookies. Made from a stiff dough that is refrigerated in logs until it becomes hard. The dough is typically shaped into cylinders which are sliced into round cookies before baking. Examples include pinwheels and shortbread.


• Rolled Cookies. Made from a stiffer dough that is chilled and then rolled out and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter, knife or pastry wheel. Gingerbread men are an example (or any cookie made with a cookie cutter).







• Sandwich Cookies. Rolled or pressed cookies that are assembled as a sandwich with a sweet filling: frosting, ganache, jam, marshmallow creme and peanut butter creme are popular. The whoopie pie, made of two soft cookies with a vanilla creme filling, is an example (as is the iconic Oreo creme sandwich). French macaroons(photo above), two macaroons filled with a layer of ganache, are perhaps the most elegant example.




• Fried Cookies. These are fried dough, often dusted with powdered sugar. Examples include the Jewish/Polish krusczyki and the Italian zeppole. Fried dough is becoming increasingly popular, with chocolate chip cookie dough, oatmeal cookie dough and others all headed to the fryer.

























Now, I definitely believe, without any doubt, when they say "one book cannot cover all the recipes (for all the cookies in the world) in one book." I am so overwhelmed but being a sweet tooth, it is to my delight. There is so much information that I gathered through my research, there isn't much space left here for the recipes ;-). No worries....they are coming to you soon enough for your next craving....See you in a while....!

Photos:
Flickr.com
[distopiandreamgirl, Whipped bakeshop, Mrs.Magic, chotda, wenday :D]