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Chocolate chip cookies
Alternative names Biscuit
Course Snack, dessert
Place of origin Persia, 7th century AD[1]
Serving temperature Often room temperature, although they may be served when still warm from the oven
Cookbook: Cookie  Media: Cookie

A cookie is a baked or cooked good that is small, flat, and sweet, usually containing flour, sugar and some type of oil or fat. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips or nuts.

In most English-speaking countries except for the US and Canada, crisp cookies are called biscuits. Chewier biscuits are sometimes called cookies even in the UK.[2] Some cookies may also be named by their shape, such as date squares or bars.

Cookies or biscuits may be mass-produced in factories, made in small bakeries or home-made. Biscuit or cookie variants include sandwich biscuits such as Custard creams, Jammie Dodgers, Bourbons and Oreos, with marshmallow or jam filling and sometimes dipped in chocolate or another sweet coating. Cookies are often served with beverages such as milk, coffee or tea. Factory-made cookies are sold in grocery stores, convenience stores and vending machines. Fresh-baked cookies are sold at bakeries and coffeehouses, with the latter ranging from small business-sized establishments to multinational corporations such as Starbucks.


American traditional Christmas cookie tray

In most English-speaking countries outside North America, including the United Kingdom, the most common word for a crisp cookie is biscuit.[2] The term cookie is normally used to describe chewier ones.[2] However, in many regions both terms are used.

In Scotland the term cookie is sometimes used to describe a plain bun.[3]

Cookies that are baked as a solid layer on a sheet pan and then cut, rather than being baked as individual pieces, are called bar cookies or traybakes.[2]


Its American name derives from the Dutch word koekje or more precisely its informal, dialect variant koekie [4] which means little cake, and arrived in American English with the Dutch settlement of New Netherland, in the early 1600s.



A dish of assorted cookies, including sandwich cookies filled with jam.





Cookies packed in a tin for shipment








  • 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".[2] 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. 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.[9] In the UK, the term "cookie" often refers only to this particular type of product.
  • 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.


Notable varieties

See also: List of cookies

Related pastries and confections


Product lines and brands


Chocolate sandwich cookies

See also


  2. ^ a b c d e Nelson, Libby (29 November 2015). "British desserts, explained for Americans confused by the Great British Baking Show". Vox. Retrieved 2015-12-03. 
  3. ^ "cookie - food". Encyclopædia Britannica. 
  4. ^ "7 vertalingen voor het dialectwoord 'koekie'". 
  8. ^ "History of cookies/biscuits". 
  9. ^ Miller, Jan. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. p. 251. Retrieved January 6, 2017. 

Further reading

External links

  • Media related to Cookies at Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of cookie at Wiktionary