Cookie Making: History, Terminology, and Recipes

Cookies have been around since antiquity. The earliest versions were similar to Italian biscotti but were drier and less sweet. In Egypt, a toasty version of anise biscotti called Rusk have been around for millennia. Since the Romans conquered and occupied Egypt for its wheat, it is very likely that it is also where they got their beloved biscotti recipe – which they used to carry on trading ships. As wheat and sugar became more plentiful- cookies became more and more prominent and extravagant. The first cookie recipe appeared in a book by Apicius, (the Roman philosopher and first known cookbook author), and it consisted of "a thick paste of fine wheat flour that was boiled and spread out on a plate, allowed to harden, and then fried and topped with honey and pepper.” Another Roman mixture consisted of flour, water, sugar, and spices, that was cut into pieces and fried.

By the 7th century, sugar was less expensive and more widely

available in Persia. This is when cookies became common place in the Middle East.  Arab cookery also boasted molded cookie recipes as early as the 9th century. These recipe, including shortbread cookies called Ghrayebeh in Arabic and Montecados in Spanish made their way from the Arab world to Muslim Spain and eventually were dispersed throughout Europe. By the 14th century, they were available in all levels of European society, and every place from royal palaces to street vendors served them.

A variety of cookies that evolved and flourished in the Middle

Ages, including gingerbread.  Ginger was brought to Europe from India via Arab traders.  In the 1600’s in France, meringue cookies including Savoy cookies, were made with egg white, sugar, and flour.  Lisbon biscuits, Naples biscuits, and Spanish biscuits, based on the same ingredients and baking style became popular as control of the Southern European countries volleyed back and forth between various empires.

Baking skills reached new heights during the Renaissance in Italy,

when Catherine de Medici married King Henri IV of France and brought her bakers from Florence with her to Paris. Many Italian recipes (like amaretti) were morphed into French recipes like macarons. They, along with many others, were altered and became part of the French repertoire. The English  word for cookie comes from the Dutch word koekje or which means little cake, and is said to  have been brought to the United States via the Dutch.
 

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the prices of sugar and flour dropped in Europe. Chemical leavening agents like baking soda were also developed. This lead to more wide spread cookie making. With the industrial revolution, manufactured cookies appeared on the scene.  Since that time, the homemade cookie has been a real treat –and a labor of love.

Cookie Making Techniques

Here are a few different cookie making techniques that you may want to become acquainted with.  Cookies are broadly classified according to how they are formed:

•    Drop cookies are made from a soft dough that is dropped by spoonfuls (rounded or freeform) onto a baking sheet. They spread out during baking.
•    Refrigerator/Icebox cookies are made from a stiff dough that is refrigerated so it  becomes even stiffer. The dough is typically shaped into cylinders which are sliced into round cookies before baking.
•    Molded cookies such as Calabrian Sesame, Apple Ma’moul, and Petit Fours Secs are also made from a stiffer dough that is molded into balls or cookie shapes by hand before baking. Sometimes an actual cookie mold is used to form the cookies into specific  shapes.
•    Rolled cookies such as Casarecci Style Cut-Outs and Sicilian Spice Cookies are made from a stiff dough that is rolled out and cut into shapes.
•    Pressed cookies such as Spritz are made from soft dough that is extruded from a cookie press into various decorative shapes before baking.
•    Bar cookies consist of batter or other ingredients that are poured or pressed into a pan (sometimes in multiple layers), and cut into cookie-size pieces after baking. Brownies and cereal bars are technically examples of bar cookies. In this book, however, they are located in a different chapter because of their ease and consistency.
•    Sandwich cookies like Oreos and Macarons are rolled or pressed cookies that are assembled as a sandwich, and filled with jam, marshmallow, or chocolate.
•    Confectionery cookies are decorated with royal icing. Their overall aesthetic appeal and sugar content makes them more like candy than cookies.
•    Piped cookies such as Pine Nut Cookies have very loose batters which are piped out of a pastry bag and onto a lined baking sheet in specific shapes.

 Italian Casarecci-Style Holiday Cutouts

 

Italian Cookies - Biscotti/Pizzelle/Sesame Cookis

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip and Apricot Cookies

Almond Macaroons/Amaretti