Cookies Vs Biscuits

One day, Wayne was telling me about the cookies that he ate and upon listening to his brother, my little girl told me: “Mom, kor kor says he ate cookies but actually he ate biscuits.”


Curious, I asked her: “What’s the difference between a cookie and a biscuit?”


She answered: “Cookies are like those we eat during Chinese New Year and biscuits are those with cream.” (not her exact words but that was what she meant)


I have to laugh because I myself am not too sure about this. So, I google for “biscuits” and “cookies” and here’s what I found from Wikipedia:


In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat-baked treat, containing milk, flour, eggs, and sugar, etc. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit; in many regions both terms are used, while in others the two words have different meanings—a cookie is a plain bun in Scotland,[1] while in the United States a biscuit is a kind of quick bread similar to a scone.


A biscuit is a kind of crisp, dry bread product that, if leavened, is usually made with a chemical leavener. The exact meaning varies markedly in different parts of the world. The origin of the word "biscuit" is from Latin via Middle French and means "cooked twice,"[1] hence biscotti in Medieval Italian (similar to the German Zwieback, and still present in Dutch "beschuit"). In modern Italian usage the term biscotti is used to refer to any type of cookie or cracker. Some of the original biscuits were British naval hard tack; such hard tack was made in the United States through the 19th century. Throughout most of the world, the term biscuit still means a hard, crisp, brittle bread, except in the USA and Canada, where it now denotes a softer bread product baked only once.