The Delicious History of Cookies

Welcome back to the Porch! Help yourself to some tea cakes and lemonade and settle in for a few minutes. In fact, you showed up just in time to help me with a little project I’m working on. All I need for you to do is tell me – what is your favorite kind of cookie?  (Just send me an email and let me know!)

While I was in the kitchen baking those tea cakes you’re enjoying, I started wondering about who the first person was to actually bake a cookie. And as a random history buff, I had to go find the answer to that question. I never discovered an actual person, but I did learn a bit about the origins of this sweet treat. 

Not only that, but I also learned a life lesson, about how baking cookies can easily apply to living a Simple Life. Listen in to learn more about the history of baking cookies, and how they may help you to be a bit braver about taking the next step in your own Simple Life journey!

Transcript

Welcome back to the Porch! Help yourself to some tea cakes and lemonade and settle in for a few minutes. In fact, you showed up just in time to help me with a little project I’m working on. All I need for you to do is tell me – what is your favorite kind of cookie? 

While I was in the kitchen baking tea cakes for today’s visit, I started wondering about who the first person was to actually bake a cookie. And as a recreational history buff, I had to go find the answer to that question. I never discovered an actual person, but I did learn a bit about the origins of this sweet treat. 

It seems that originally, cookies were nothing more than what we would call a mini cake. Persian bakers in 7 A.D. would use a small drop of cake batter to test the heat of the oven.  And if you consider the definition of cookie given by Dictionary.com – which is ‘a small, sweet cake, typically round and flat and having a crisp or chewy texture”, it makes sense. Considering Persia was possibly one of the first countries to grow, harvest, and use sugar cane, it makes even better sense. I mean, what better way to use sugar than in cookies, right? 

But even with access to sugar, cookies weren’t always as sweet as the ones we enjoy today. Instead, they were hard disks, presumed to be made with flour, water, and a bit of sweetener. These were often carried on long journeys, whether on foot or by ship, as they were small, easily portable, and didn’t mold like a regular loaf of bread would do after a few days. 

It wasn’t until the end of the 14th century that cookies were a common treat in Europe. Queen Elizabeth 1 may have been the first to envision the Gingerbread Man cookie, although her main goal in having these baked was to have them represent her royal guests. It wasn’t until the 1600s that cookies made their way to America. 

Since then, cookies have evolved as ingredients became more available, and refrigeration allowed for those ingredients to stay fresher longer. 

Depending on where you are, cookies may go by a different name. In England, they are referred to as biscuits. In Spain, they are referred to as galletas, the German Christmas cookie is called a Platzchen, and one of the words used in Italy for cookies is biscotti.

And then you have the different types of cookies. A regular cookie, such as a Chocolate Chip, are small round disks that can either be soft and chewy or hard and crunchy. A refrigerator cookie, such as the tea cakes we’re enjoying right now, require chilling time in order to easily roll out the dough, or to firm it up enough to hold its shape. A bar cookie is usually baked in what we consider a casserole pan, and these include brownies, lemon bars and pecan squares, as well as other flavors and types. 

That leads us to the almost unlimited varieties of cookies that exist. Some of the most common types are chocolate chip, oatmeal, tea cake, sugar, snickerdoodles, chocolate crinkles, and thumb prints. When checking on Wikipedia for just how many varieties existed, I quit counting somewhere around Paprenjak, a Croatian cookie which includes pepper as an ingredient, alongside sugar, butter, nuts, and other spices. And I quit counting because not only did it kick my sweet tooth into gear, I realized that I wanted to bake every single variety – and not only do I not need to eat that many cookies, but I don’t have that much time to spend in the kitchen. But I still earmarked a few I just gotta try. And since Friday around here is cookie day, I can at least bake 52 varieties.

Cookies should be one of the bricks in the foundation of living a Simple Life. They are one of the things you can make and almost be guaranteed that people will love them. These are perfect to serve with afternoon tea, to serve with coffee when a friend stops by for a visit, to give as gifts at Christmas time, or to welcome a new neighbor to the neighborhood. 

As I said before, Friday is cookie day around here. Most Friday’s you will find racks of cookies cooling on the kitchen table. I love making them, as they are a perfect sweet treat to add to a lunch box, or to send out into the pasture in order to encourage the Country Boy to take a break from all the work he has to do. 

And it’s funny how word gets around rather quickly, especially when it’s about something delicious. A year or two after we moved to the farm, our neighbor Danny happened to stop by right as I was taking a tray of chocolate crinkles out of the oven. Of course, I offered him coffee, and he and the Country Boy sat at the table enjoying the snack and the conversation. The next Friday, Danny and Jasper came by – yep, you guessed it, just as I was transferring spiced oatmeal cookies onto a cooling rack. The next Friday Johnny was added to the mix, and soon after there was a whole crew of men sitting at the table enjoying coffee and the cookie of the day. 

I had another fun experience with cookies as well. At one point in time, we had a yellow lab named Lacy. As I was baking spiced oatmeal cookies one Friday, I noticed that, as I was mixing up the dough, she came and laid down by the table, which is on the other end of the kitchen from the stove. When I put the first batch into the oven, I noticed she had moved a little closer. And when I turned to take them out, she was sitting, pretty as you please, right next to the oven door. As I moved the hot tray from the oven to the table to cool, she followed them and sat next to the table. When they were cool enough, I offered her a small piece. 

Each Friday I try to make a different type of cookie. With each different type, Lacy was nowhere to be found. But on the day I baked spiced oatmeal, she would ease herself into position, until she was directly next to the cooling cookies. I guess even dogs have their favorite variety – even if Lacy only got a small bite and was never lucky enough to consume all of them she wanted.

Danny, Jasper, Johnny, and Lacy are gone now, but their memory lingers on. When it comes time to bake cookies, I can almost see all the men sitting at the table, and the air echoes with their stories, laughter, and ‘farming politics’. Some days those memories are so strong I’m almost tempted to set a plate on the table and see if any of the cookies disappear. And I still double check the spot next to the oven before I open it, to prevent Lacy from burning her nose on the oven door – even if it’s only her spirit that lingers. 

You may be wondering where all this pondering has led me. And my thoughts weren’t just about cookies. Instead, I think about all the trials and errors people have put into their cookie baking. Throughout the years, different ingredients have been added. Some of these attempts were huge failures and tossed out into the trash. But some, like the Toll House cookie turned out to be such a huge success, they are probably the first thing you think of when someone says ‘cookie’. 

In 1939, Ruth Wakefield, who ran the successful Toll House Restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts, decided on a whim to toss a few broken pieces of Nestles semi-sweet chocolate into her cookie dough. To her surprise, the chocolate didn’t melt as suspected, but instead kept its shape, although softer and creamier. Nestle Toll House cookie is by far the most used recipe for this sweet little cake.

Living a Simple Life is a lot like cookies. It all comes down to trial, error, bravery, and eventual success. Some of our ideas are failures, and destined for the trash can or compost heap. Some are successful beyond our wildest dreams. And some of our ideas are just a way to test out something else. 

But you will never know if your ideas will fail miserably, or if you will be enjoying that sweet taste of success. And it gives me encouragement to at least try out a few of those ideas. Well – most of them anyway. I think I’ll wait awhile on trying to figure out how to build a model steam locomotive for my grandkids to ride around in. That project just takes too much math for this Farm Wife. 

When you settle in for your afternoon tea with a plate of freshly baked cookies, take time to ponder – and thank -those bakers who tipped the first domino when it comes to baking these delicious treats. And take a bit of time to ponder your own ideas. You may start out with a test for one thing, but you may also end up with the equivalent of the best tasting cookie you’ve ever eaten.

If you want to learn more about living a Simple Life, just visit my website at www.thefarmwife.com/ . If you’re enjoying listening to these podcasts, you can support the show by clicking the SUPPORT button in the show notes. When you do, you’ll be helping me continue bringing you fun and helpful ideas for living the Simple Life you love!

If you have questions or just want to stop in for a visit, you can do that through email at thevirtualporch@gmail.com. And be sure to subscribe – you don’t want to miss a single conversation. I'll be sitting on the porch every Monday morning waiting for your visit!

Thanks again for stopping in. I will see you next week on Living a Simple Life with a Back Porch View. And while you are waiting for the next episode, grab that glass of refreshment, pull up a rocker, and sit back for a while. It’s time to relax and enjoy.