A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. Savoury biscuits are called crackers.
Types of biscuit include biscotti, sandwich biscuits (such as custard creams), digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, Anzac biscuits, and speculaas.
A stroopwafel (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈstroːpˌʋaːfəl] ; lit. 'syrup waffle') is a thin, round biscuit made from two layers of sweet baked dough held together by syrup filling. First made in the city of Gouda in South Holland, stroopwafels are a well-known Dutch treat popular throughout the Netherlands.
Dough is a malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from flour (which itself is made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops). Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening agents, as well as ingredients such as fats or flavourings.
Making and shaping dough begins the preparation of a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly breads and bread-based items, but also including biscuits, cakes, cookies, dumplings, flatbreads, noodles, pasta, pastry, pizza, piecrusts, scones and similar items. Dough can be made from a wide variety of flour, commonly wheat and rye but also maize, rice, legumes, almonds, and other cereals or crops.
A cookie is a sweet biscuit with high sugar and fat content. Cookie dough is softer than that used for other types of biscuit, and they are cooked longer at lower temperatures. The dough typically contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil or fat. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts. Cookie texture varies from crisp and crunchy to soft and chewy, depending on the exact combination of ingredients and methods used to create them.
People in the United States and Canada typically refer to all sweet biscuits as "cookies". People in most other English-speaking countries call crunchy cookies "biscuits" but may use the term "cookies" for chewier biscuits and for certain types, such as chocolate-chip cookies.
An almond biscuit, or almond cookie, is a type of biscuit that is made with almonds. They are a common biscuit in many different cuisines and take many forms.Types of almond biscuits include almond macaroons, Italian amaretti, Spanish almendrados, Armenian nshablits (Armenian: նաշաբլիթ), qurabiya (a shortbread biscuit made with almonds), Moroccan biscuits and desserts, and Turkish acıbadem kurabiyesi. In addition, Turkish şekerpare are often decorated with an almond.
In Norway, sandbakelse or sandkake are a type of almond cookie that is baked in fluted tins.
A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. They frequently have a waffle surface pattern but may also be patterned with insignia of the food's manufacturer or may be patternless. Some chocolate bars, such as Kit Kat and Toffee Crisp, are wafers with chocolate in and around them.
A cookie cutter in North American English, also known as a biscuit cutter outside North America, is a tool to cut out cookie/biscuit dough in a particular shape.
They are often used for seasonal occasions when well-known decorative shapes are desired, or for large batches of cookies where simplicity and uniformity are required. Cookie cutters can also be used for shaping, molding, forming and cutting numerous other types of foods, including meat patties, pancakes, sandwiches and decorative embellishments for platters (for example, fancy-cut fruit).
A cracker is a flat, dry baked biscuit typically made with flour. Flavorings or seasonings, such as salt, herbs, seeds, or cheese, may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top before or after baking. Crackers are often branded as a nutritious and convenient way to consume a staple food or cereal grain.
Crackers can be eaten on their own, but can also accompany other food items such as cheese or meat slices, fruits, dips, or soft spreads such as jam, butter, peanut butter, or mousse. Bland or mild crackers are sometimes used as a palate cleanser in food product testing or flavor testing, between samples. Crackers may also be crumbled and added to soup. The modern cracker is somewhat similar to nautical ship's biscuits, military hardtack, chacknels, and sacramental bread. Other early versions of the cracker can be found in ancient flatbreads, such as lavash, pita, matzo, flatbrød, and crispbread. Asian analogues include papadum, senbei and num kreab.
An ice cream sandwich is a frozen dessert consisting of ice cream between two biscuits, wafers, soft cookies, or other baked goods. The ingredients are not the same around the world, with Ireland using wafers and the United States commonly using cookies.