Half The Cookies Baked In American Homes Each Year Are Chocolate Chip.

National Homemade Cookies Day is observed annually on October 1. If you are looking for an excuse to bake some homemade cookies, look no further. Package them up and share them with neighbors, co-workers, and friends!

• 10,000 Years Ago – Cookies are the descendants of the earliest food cooked by man — grain-water-paste baked on hot stones by Neolithic farmers 10,000 years ago.
• 7th Century – The earliest cookies are thought to date back to 7th century AD Persia (now Iran), shortly after the use of sugar became relatively common in the region.
• 12th Century – Shortbread cookies originate in Scotland and eventually become commonplace under the influence of Mary Queen of Scots
• 14th Century – By the 14th century, homemade cookies were common in all levels of society throughout Europe, from royal cuisine to street vendors.
• 14th Century – Cookbooks from the Renaissance era are filled with many different types of homemade cookie recipes
• 15th Century – Gingerbread dates from the 15th century and figural biscuit-making was practiced in the 16th century. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits was at the court of Elizabeth I of England.
• 17th Century – Cookies first appeared in America in the 17th century. Among the most popular early American recipes were macaroons and gingerbread.
• 1620s- Cookies came to America through the Dutch in New Amsterdam in the late 1620s.
• 17th Century – The first documented trade of gingerbread cookies (biscuits) dates to the 17th century, when they were sold in monasteries, pharmacies, and town square farmers’ markets.
• 1700s – Early American tinsmiths began making cookie cutters by hand.
• 17th Century – The first documented trade of gingerbread cookies (biscuits) dates to the 17th century, where they were sold in monasteries, pharmacies, and town square farmers’ markets.
• 1703 – The earliest reference to cookies in America is in 1703, when “The Dutch in New York provided…’in 1703…at a funeral 800 cookies…’”
• 19th Century – The British took a liking to cookies in the 19th century, incorporating them into their daily tea service and calling them biscuits.
• 1902 – The first commercial cookie in the U.S. was the Animal Cracker, introduced in 1902
• 1912 – The Oreo, the best-selling cookie of the 20th century, was developed and introduced by the American company Nabisco
• 1920s – The Girl Scouts first began selling cookies in the 1920s.
• 1930s  – Ruth Wakefield runs the Toll House restaurant in Massachusetts and invents the recipe that was meant to be served with ice cream
• 1930s – American cookie jars evolved from British biscuit jars and first appeared on the scene during the Depression in the 1930s when housewives began making more cookies at home, rather than buying them at the bakery, and needed containers for them.
• 1989 – New Mexico named the ‘bizcochito’ its official state cookie. Bizcochito, derived from the Spanish word ‘bizcocho’ which means biscuit, is a delicious shortbread cookie flavored with anise and topped with cinnamon sugar
• More than half of Americans prefer homemade cookies to store-bought.
• For both men and women, 33% say they eat cookies a couple of times a week.
• The U.S. leads the world as the biggest cookie bakers and eaters, spending more than $550 million annually on Oreos alone..
• The U.S. has a National Cookie Cutter Historical Museum located within the Joplin Museum Complex in Joplin, Missouri.
• The official state cookie of both Massachusetts and Pennsylvania is the chocolate chip cookie.
• Christmas cookies date back to Medieval Europe.
• There are eight basic types of cookies: bar cookies, drop cookies, fried cookies, molded cookies, no-bake cookies, refrigerator (ice box) cookies, rolled cookies and sandwich cookies.
• The name cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekje, meaning “small or little cake.”
• Fortune cookie is actually an American invention originating in California.
• English women used to eat gingerbread “husbands” to improve their chances of finding a real mate.
• Americans consume over 2 billion cookies a year – about 300 cookies for each person.
• The average American eats 35,000 cookies in a lifetime.
• Half the cookies baked in American homes each year are chocolate chip.
• The cookies that the Cookie Monster enjoys on Sesame Street are actually painted rice cakes.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Mobile-Cuisine

Days of the Year

Bake from Scratch

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