Origin of a cookie.

After I made cookies last night I was curious about why cookies are named cookies and where they originated from. I have been out of school for 5 months now and I decided to stimulate my brain and share it with you.  I love learning random facts and being able to share the few bits of knowledge that is stored in my brain.  This information comes from http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CookieHistory.htm.

In America, a cookie is described as a thin, sweet, usually small cake. By definition, a cookie can be any of a variety of hand-held, flour-based sweet cakes, either crisp or soft. Each country has its own word for "cookie." What we know as cookies are called biscuits in England and Australia, in Spain they're galletas, Germans call themkeks or Plätzchen for Christmas cookies, and in Italy there are several names to identify various forms of cookies including amaretti andbiscotti, and so on. The name cookie is derived from the Dutch wordkoekje, meaning "small or little cake." Biscuit comes from the Latin word bis coctum, which means, “twice baked.” According to culinary historians, the first historic record of cookies was their use as test cakes. A small amount of cake batter was baked to test the oven temperature.