23 articles
Alfajor
Alfajor (from Arabic al-hasu, "filling"): a confection of thin baked dough pieces joined by dulce de leche or, in Andalusia, a honey-almond-spice paste. South American staple, especially Argentina, with regional varieties and Medina Sidonia PGI in Spain.
Antwerp hands
Antwerp hands (Antwerpse handjes) are hand-shaped almond biscuits from Antwerp, Belgium, created in 1934 by Jewish Amsterdam-born baker Jos Hakker, referencing the Brabo legend, not Congo atrocities.
Anzac biscuit
Anzac biscuit: eggless oat, coconut and golden syrup biscuit of Australia and New Zealand, originally called Soldiers' Biscuit, renamed after the 1915 Gallipui landings; name legally protected under the Protection of Word 'Anzac' Act 1920.
Black and white cookie
Black and white cookie, also called half-moon or Amerikaner: a soft, cake-like New York City bakery cookie frosted half chocolate, half vanilla fondant; origin debated between Glaser's Bake Shop (1902) and Utica's Hemstrought's Bakery.
Canelé
Canelé (also cannelé, Occitan canelat): small fluted cylindrical pastry from Bordeaux with a caramelized crust and custardy interior, baked in beeswax-coated copper molds; one-n spelling trademarked in 1985.
Choco pie
Choco pie (초코파이) is a Korean marshmallow-filled, chocolate-coated snack cake launched by Orion in 1974 and also made by Lotte, Crown, and Haitai; the name is generic, and Orion's version sells in 60+ countries with 84% of sales overseas.
Chocolate brownie
Chocolate brownie: dense American bar cookie of chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. Credited to Chicago's Palmer House for the 1893 World's Fair; fudgy, chewy, and cakey styles differ by fat, flour, and leavening ratios.
Chocolate chip cookie
Chocolate chip cookie, or Toll House cookie: American drop cookie with chocolate pieces, invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield at the Toll House Inn, Whitman, Massachusetts, late 1930s; recipe published 1938, licensed to Nestlé in 1939, chips marketed from 1940.
Cookie
Cookie (Dutch koekje; UK biscuit): small sweet low-moisture, high-fat, high-sugar baked good; texture set by spread, gluten setting, and Maillard browning; $140bn global market.
Dorayaki (どら焼き)
Dorayaki (どら焼き, 銅鑼焼き), also called Mikasa in Kansai, is a Japanese wagashi of two castella-like griddle-baked pancakes sandwiching azuki anko; named for its gong-like shape, modernized in Meiji-era Tokyo.
Fortune cookie
Fortune cookie: a crisp folded wafer with a paper fortune, served in Chinese-American restaurants. Also called tsujiura senbei in Japan. Japanese origin, American invention, rare in China; WWII internment shifted production to Chinese-American makers.
Gingerbread man
Gingerbread man: a human-shaped spiced Christmas cookie, also called Lebkuchenmann in Germany. Word from Old French gingembrat (preserved ginger); shape attributed to Elizabeth I; runaway tale published 1875 in St. Nicholas Magazine.
Ice cream sandwich
An ice cream sandwich is a frozen dessert of ice cream between two baked goods, usually thin chocolate wafers, born as late 19th century New York street food.
Lebkuchen
Lebkuchen, German spiced honey-gingerbread, traditionally from Nuremberg; Nürnberger Lebkuchen (Lebküchner documented 1395, guild 1643) holds EU PGI status since 1996, with Elisenlebkuchen capped at 10% flour and at least 25% nuts.
Macaron
Macaron: French almond, egg-white, and sugar confection (macaron de Nancy, Parisian sandwich macaron); distinct from the coconut macaroon; Rabelais 1552, Nancy 1793, Ladurée filling.
Macaroon
Macaroon: a dense drop cookie of whipped egg whites, sugar, and shredded coconut or ground almonds; distinct from the French macaron; flourless, kosher for Passover, from Italian maccarone.
Madeleine (cake)
Madeleine (cake): small French sponge cake from Commercy, Lorraine, baked in a scallop-shell mold with a signature hump; famed for Proust's In Search of Lost Time episode and the Madeleine Paulmier origin legend.
Nanaimo bar
Nanaimo bar: Canadian no-bake three-layer dessert bar (crumb base, custard buttercream, chocolate top) named after Nanaimo, BC; first printed 1952 as "chocolate square", official recipe by Joyce Hardcastle since 1986.
Pastila (пастила)
Pastila (пастила) is a traditional Russian fruit confection of baked apple purée whipped with egg whites and dried, dating to the fourteenth century and most famously made in Kolomna.
Shiroi Koibito (白い恋人)
Shiroi Koibito (白い恋人, "white lover") is a white chocolate langue de chat sandwich cookie made by Ishiya Seika in Sapporo since December 1976; Hokkaido's iconic souvenir, with a Black milk-chocolate version, Shiroi Koibito Park factory theme park, and a 2007 expiration-date scandal.
Speculaas
Speculaas (Dutch, speculaas): a thin, crisp, spice-filled shortcrust biscuit from the Low Countries, molded in carved wooden boards for St. Nicholas (5-6 December); distinct from the cinnamon-only caramelized Belgian speculoos.
Stroopwafel
Stroopwafel (syrup waffle): Dutch cookie of two thin waffle discs with syrup filling, invented in Gouda around 1810, credited to baker Gerard Kamphuisen; oldest recipe 1840, warmed on coffee.
Whoopie pie
Whoopie pie: American sandwich dessert of two chocolate cake rounds with white marshmallow or shortening frosting filling; also called gob in Pennsylvania; Maine's official state treat since 2011.