Crafty Moms Share: National Homemade Cookie Day -- Let's Get Baking -- Recipe Round-Up and Fun Facts

There is nothing better than a homemade cookie fresh out of the oven. What is your favorite kind? Today, October 1st, is National Homemade Cookie Day, so I thought I would share some fun facts and a cookie recipe round-up so you can get baking!!

Fun Facts

The name cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekje which means small or little cake. In England and Australia, they are called biscuits, in Spain they are galletas, in Germany they are keks or Plzchen and in Italy they are called by their types like biscotti and amaretti.
According to historians, the first cookies were small cakes used to test cakes where a small amount of batter was put in the oven to bake and check the oven temperature.
The earliest cookie style cake dates to 7^th century A.D. Persia (now Iran). Sugar originated in Southeast Asia and spread to Persia and then Eastern Mediterranean. By the 14^th century they were being sold on the streets of Paris and the Renaissance cookbooks were filled with cookie recipes.
The first chocolate chip cookie was made in 1937, in Whitman, Massachusetts, by Ruth Graves Wakefield. In the Middle East chocolate chip cookies are eaten with a fork and knife and topped with chocolate sauce.
The macaroon originated in an Italian monastery in 1792. They are traditionally flavored with almonds however in the US coconut is more typical.
Peanut butter cookies came about in the 1930s. A 1933 cookbook had a recipe that suggested flattening the peanut butter balls with a fork which is still common today.
Snickerdoodles were brought to the United States by Dutch, English and Scottish Immigrants. They didn’t become popular until about one hundred years ago. There are many theories about where they came from and how they got their name. Some say it was New Englanders and other say it comes from German or Dutch words.
Americans consume about 2 billion cookies a year which means each American eats an average of 300 cookies a year.
Cookie cutters were originally carved out of wood in Germany’s Black Forest. The metal cookie cutters evolved when a German wood cutter thought the wooden molds would work better if outlined with tin or metal. There is a National Cookie Cutter Museum in Joplin, Missouri.
The sugar cookie as we know it today comes from a Protestant settlement in the Nazareth colony of Pennsylvania in 1790.

Sources:

Country Living. Orlando Sentinel. “Cookie Cutters Have Intriguing History.” 4 Feb 1990. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1990-02-04/business/9002012616_1_cutters-tin-cookie
Grit. “The Sweet Story of Snickerdoodles.” 19 Feb 2010. https://www.grit.com/food/the-sweet-story-of-snickerdoodle-cookies
Myrick, Richard. Mobile Cuisine. “Cookie Fun Facts.” https://mobile-cuisine.com/did-you-know/cookie-fun-facts/
Myrick. Richard. Mobile Cuisine. “Sugar Cookie Fun Facts.” https://mobile-cuisine.com/did-you-know/sugar-cookie-fun-facts/
What’s Cooking America. “History of Cookies.” https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CookieHistory.htm

Cookie Recipe Round-Up

I asked my Kid Blogger Network friends to share some of their cookie recipes. Variations on oatmeal cookies seemed to be the most popular. I divided them into different categories to make it easier for you. Enjoy!! Let me know what kind you bake today!