Cookie

In the United States and Canada a cookie is a small, flat, baked treat, usually containing flour, eggs, sugar, and either butter or cooking oil, and often including ingredients such as raisins, oats, or chocolate chips.
==Terminology==
In most English-speaking countries outside North America, including the United Kingdom, the most common word for this type of treat is biscuit and the term cookie is often used to describe only certain types of biscuits. However, in many regions both terms are used, such as the American-inspired Maryland Cookies, while in others the two words have different meanings.
In North American English a biscuit is a kind of quick bread similar to a scone.
In Scotland the term cookie is sometimes used to describe a plain bun.
==Description==
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 better form. 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 tends to 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.
==Classification of cookies==
Cookies are broadly classified according to how they are formed, 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". Examples include brownies, fruit squares, and bars such as date squares.
* Drop cookies are made from a 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 (or oatmeal raisin) cookies, and rock cakes are popular examples of drop cookies. In the UK, the term "cookie" often refers only to this particular type of product.
* Filled cookies are made from a rolled cookie dough filled with a fruit or confectionery filling before baking. Hamantash are a filled cookie.
* Molded cookies are also made from a 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 are an example of a pressed cookie.
* Refrigerator cookies (also known as icebox cookies) are made from a stiff dough that is refrigerated to become even stiffer. 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.
Cookies also may be decorated with an icing, especially chocolate, and closely resemble a type of confectionery.
==Biscuits (cookies) in the United Kingdom==
A basic biscuit (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.
==Cookie varieties==
* Abbracci
* Alfajor
* Almond crescent
* Angel Wings (Chruściki)
* Anginetti
* Anisette
* Animal cracker
* Anzac biscuit
* Berger cookie
* Berner Haselnusslebkuchen
* Biscotti
* Biscuit rose de Reims
* Black and white cookie
* Blondie
* Brownie
* Butter cookie
* Chocolate chip cookie
* Chocolate crinkle
* Chocolate-coated graham cracker
* Chocolate-coated marshmallow treat
* Coyota
* Custard creme
* Congo bar
* Digestive biscuit
* Dolci dei morti
* Farfallette
* Fat rascal
* Fattigmann
* Flies graveyard
* Florentine biscuit
* Fortune cookie
* Fruit squares and bars (date, fig, lemon, raspberry, etc.)
* Ginger snap
* Gingerbread house
* Gingerbread man
* Graham cookie
* Hamentashen
* Hermit
* Haloua
* Hertzog cookie
* Jumble
* Kandil Simit
* Kifli
* Kolach
* Koulourakia
* Krakelinge
* Krumkake
* Lace cookie
* Linzer cookie
* Lukken
* Macaroon
* Meltaway
* Mexican wedding cake
* Meringue
* Molasses cookie
* Montecado
* Nan Khatai
* Oatmeal cluster
* Oatmeal cookie
* Oatmeal raisin cookie
* Oatmeal sandwich
* Pastelito
* Peanut butter cookie
* Peanut blossom
* Pecan swirl
* Pepparkakor
* Pfeffernüsse
* Pinwheel cookies
* Pizzelle
* Polvorón
* Qurabiya
* Rainbow cookie
* Riposteria
* Rosette
* Rum ball
* Rusk
* Russian tea cake
* Rock cake
* Sablé
* Sandbakelse
* Sandwich creme
* Şekerpare
* Shortbread
* Snickerdoodle
* Snowball
* Speculoos
* Spice cookie
* Sponge cookie
* Springerle
* Spritzgebäck (Spritz)
* Stained glass cookie
* Stroopwafel
* Sugar cookie
* Sugar wafer
* Tea biscuit
* Thumbprint
* Toruń gingerbread
* Tuile
* Wafer
* Windmill cookie
==Related pastries and confections==
* Baklava
* Berliner
* Bun
* Cake
* Churro
* Cracker
* Cupcake
* Danish pastry
* Doughnut
* Funnel cake
* Galette
* Graham cracker
* Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme
* Kit Kat
* Halvah
* Ladyfinger
* Lebkuchen
* Mille-feuille
* Marzipan
* Milk cracker
* Moon pie
* Napoleon
* Nut cluster
* Pastry
* Palmier
* Petit four
* S'more
* Snack cake
* Tartlet
* Teacake
* Teething biscuit
* Whoopie pie
==Manufacturers==
* Arnott's Biscuits Holdings (Division of Campbell)
* Bahlsen
* Burton's Foods
* D.F. Stauffer Biscuit Company
* Fox's Biscuits
* Interbake Foods
* Jules Destrooper
* Keebler (Division of Kellogg)
* Lance
* Lotte Confectionery (Division of Lotte)
* Lotus Bakeries
* McKee Foods
* Meiji Seika Kaisha Ltd.
* Mrs. Fields
* Nabisco (Division of Kraft)
* Nestlé
* Northern Foods
* Otis Spunkmeyer (Division of Aryzta)
* Pillsbury (Division of General Mills)
* Pinnacle Foods
* Pepperidge Farm (Division of Campbell)
* Royal Dansk (Division of Kelsen Group)
* Sunshine Biscuits (historical)
* United Biscuits
* Walkers Shortbread
* Utz Quality Foods, Inc.
==Product lines and brands==
* Animal Crackers (Meiji)
* Anna's (Lotus)
* Archway Cookies (Lance)
* Barnum's Animals (Nabisco)
* Betty Crocker (General Mills, cookie mixes)
* Biscoff (Lotus)
* Chips Ahoy! (Nabisco)
* Chips Deluxe (Keebler)
* Danish Butter Cookies (Royal Dansk)
* Duncan Hines (Pinnacle, cookie mixes)
* Famous Amos (Kellogg)
* Fig Newton (Nabisco)
* Fox's Biscuits (Northern)
* Fudge Shoppe (Keebler)
* Girl Scout cookie (Keebler, Interbake)
* Hello Panda (Meiji)
* Hit (Bahlsen)
* Hydrox (Sunshine, discontinued by Keebler)
* Jaffa Cakes (McVitie)
* Jammie Dodgers (United)
* Koala's March (Lotte)
* Leibniz-Keks (Bahlsen)
* Little Debbie (McKee)
* Lorna Doone (Nabisco)
* Maryland Cookies (Burton's)
* McVitie's (United)
* Milano (Pepperidge Farm)
* Nilla Wafers (Nabisco)
* Nutter Butter (Nabisco)
* Oreo (Nabisco)
* Pillsbury (General Mills, cookie mixes)
* Pecan Sandies (Keebler)
* Peek Freans (United)
* Pirouline (DeBeukelaer)
* Stauffer's (Meiji)
* Stella D'Oro (Lance)
* Sunshine (Keebler)
* Teddy Grahams (Nabisco)
* Toll House (Nestle)
* Tim Tam (Arnott's)
* Vienna Fingers (Keebler)
==Miscellaneous==
* Christmas cookie
* Cookie bouquet
* Cookie cutter
* Cookie dough
* Cookie sheet
* Cookie table
* Cookies and cream
* Girl Scout cookie