National Cookie Day
It is baking season and what better time to celebrate one of my favorite treats. December 4th is National Cookie Day. Started in 1987 by San Francisco’s Blue Chip Cookie Company, the day has grown into a worldwide celebration. I, like most families, am busy putting together shopping lists, putting up the Christmas tree, and planning the perfect holiday treats to tempt every family member…young and old. Whether it is sugar cookies, spritz cookies, gingerbread cookies, peanut butter blossoms, or Christmas pinwheels, cookies are a must-have when it comes to Christmas treats. Baking cookies has been a tradition that my mom passed on to me, and I have passed on to my own kids and will continue on to the next generation. Sharing our creative talents is something most of us look forward to every year. We can put together a variety of holiday cookies in a Christmas tin or simply arrange them on a platter, and it will bring joy to the ones we care about.
If you are curious like me, you may wonder ‘how did cookies originate?’ Cookies have dated back to the 7th century in Persia where sugar canes were grown and harvested into sugar. Unknowingly, the Persians created “tiny cakes” in order to check the temperature of their ovens. These cookie-like wafers were not sweet by current standards, but they served a purpose and later evolved into a natural travel-size staple. Over time, as territories were conquered and travel became global, sugar, along with cookies, made its way into Europe during the 14th century.
The word cookie came to America through the Dutch in New Amsterdam in the late 1620s. Derived from the Dutch word koekje which means “little cake,” the modern cookie was born by creaming butter, sugar, and flour together. The earliest reference to cookies in America was in 1703 when the Dutch in New York provided 800 cookies for a funeral and the rest is history. Eventually, Americans began developing their own types of cookies and the chocolate chip cookie became one of the most famous.
In America, a cookie is described as a thin, sweet, small cake but a cookie can be a variety of hand-held, sweet cakes, crunchy or soft. Each country has its own word for cookie, and I wanted to include some of those variations. In England and Australia, they are referred to as biscuits. In Spain, they are galletas. Germans call them keks and in Italy, they have several names to identify the various forms of cookie, but biscotti is one of them.
So, enjoy your holiday baking this year and when you make those favorite treats or share your traditional creation, just know that this sweet treat has been a part of history that has transcended across time and territories for centuries.
