A History of the Cookie

Is there anything more comforting than a warm cookie? Especially if it is cool fall day and the cookie is served with a warm cup of tea or a glass of cold milk. 🙂

The history of the cookie is fairly simple. Cookies are believed to date back to the Persian Empire where the Persians were some of the first people to cultivate sugar.  It use to be that a baker would put a bit of batter from a cake into the oven to test if the oven was hot enough yet. Before electric and gas ovens were invented, ovens were wood or coal burning. These could be temperamental and the temperature could be hard to regulate. Testing the oven before putting your baked goods in to cook was a necessity. These little bits of batter were “test cakes”. Later they became known as cookies from the Dutch word “koekje ” or koekie. The Dutch are credited with bringing the love of cookie baking to early America.

Around the 1800s, cookies took on a life of their own. All manner and types of cookies began to appear as they were easy and quick to make and many types of fun and wholesome ingredients could be used. The 1920s and the Great Depression saw a boom in the prepackaged name brand cookies that we still love and the cookie jar became popular.

There is definitely something very comforting and calming and often nostalgic about taking the time to bake our favorite cookies!