Biscuits

Appears in
The Cook's Companion: A step-by-step guide to cooking skills including original recipes

By Josceline Dimbleby

Published 1991

  • About
Homemade biscuits are always eaten up. They can be made very quickly on a last minute whim and are nearly always eaten just as quickly. Biscuit-making is often something children can do, too.

Much of the delight of biscuits lies in their being so totally fresh, although the name biscuit is derived from the French biscuit, meaning twice cooked, which was to pre serve them. Biscuits are now hardly ever twice cooked, though many are very crisp and firm as if they have been. The American word ‘cookie’ comes from the Dutch koekje, meaning little cake, and cookies are usually drop-type biscuits which are made from a softer dough. They are chewier than cut-out pastry-like crisp biscuits.