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A biscuit is a Flour baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and Unleavened bread. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. Savoury biscuits are called crackers.
Types of biscuit include biscotti, (such as ), digestive biscuits, , shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, , and speculaas.
The term "biscuit" is used in many English-speaking countries. In the United States and parts of Canada, sweet biscuits are nearly always called "" and savoury biscuits are called "crackers".
The introduction of the baking of processed cereals, including the creation of flour, provided a more reliable source of food. sailors carried a flat, brittle loaf of millet bread called dhourra cake while the Ancient Rome had a biscuit called buccellum. Roman cookbook Apicius describes: "a thick paste of fine wheat flour was boiled and spread out on a plate. When it had dried and hardened, it was cut up and then fried until crisp, then served with honey and pepper."
Many early physicians believed that most medicinal problems were associated with digestion. Hence, for both sustenance and avoidance of illness, a daily consumption of a biscuit was considered good for health.
Hard biscuits soften as they age. To solve this problem, early bakers attempted to create the hardest biscuit possible. Because it is so hard and dry, if properly stored and transported, navies' hardtack will survive rough handling and high temperature. Baking hard, it can be kept without spoiling for years as long as it is kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two. To soften hardtack for eating, it was often dunked in brine, coffee, or some other liquid or cooking into a skillet meal.
The collection Sayings of the Desert Fathers mentions that Anthony the Great (who lived in the 4th century AD) ate biscuits and the text implies that it was a popular food among monks of the time and region.page 23, paragraph 20: "At one time Abba Agathon had two disciples each leading the anchoretic life according to his own measure. One day he asked the first, 'How do you live in the cell?' He replied, 'I fast until the evening, then I eat two hard biscuits.' He said to him, 'Your way of life is good, not overburdened with too much asceticism.' Then he asked the other one, 'And you, how do you live?' He replied, 'I fast for two days, then I eat two hard biscuits.' The old man said, 'You work very hard by enduring two conflicts; it is a labour for someone to eat every day without greed; there are others who, wishing to fast for two days, are greedy afterwards; but you, after fasting for two days, are not greedy.'" http://www.g4er.tk/books/sayings-of-the-desert-fathers.pdf
At the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the daily allowance on board a Royal Navy ship was one pound of biscuit plus one gallon of beer. Samuel Pepys in 1667 first regularised naval victualling with varied and nutritious rations. Royal Navy hardtack during Queen Victoria's reign was made by machine at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard at Gosport, Hampshire, stamped with the Queen's mark and the number of the oven in which they were baked. When machinery was introduced into the process the dough was thoroughly mixed and rolled into sheets about long and wide which were stamped in one stroke into about sixty hexagonal-shaped biscuits. This left the sheets sufficiently coherent to be placed in the oven in one piece and when baked they were easy to separate. The hexagonal shape rather than traditional circular biscuits meant a saving in material and was easier to pack. The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol III, (1847), London, Charles Knight, p.354. Biscuits remained an important part of the Royal Navy sailor's diet until the introduction of . Canned meat was first marketed in 1814; preserved beef in tins was officially added to Royal Navy rations in 1847.
By the 7th century AD, cooks of the Sassanian Empire had learnt from their forebears the techniques of lightening and enriching bread-based mixtures with eggs, butter, and cream, and sweetening them with fruit and honey. One of the earliest spiced biscuits was gingerbread, in French, pain d'épices, meaning "spice bread", brought to Europe in 992 by the Armenians monk Grégoire de Nicopolis. He left Nicopolis Pompeii, of Lesser Armenia to live in Bondaroy, France, near the town of Pithiviers. He stayed there for seven years and taught French priests and Christians how to cook gingerbread. Le Pithiviers This was originally a dense, molasses (molasses-based) spice cake or bread. As it was so expensive to make, early ginger biscuits were a cheap form of using up the leftover bread mix.
With the combination of knowledge spreading from Al-Andalus, and then the Crusades and subsequent spread of the spice trade to Europe, the cooking techniques and ingredients of Arabia spread into Northern Europe. By mediaeval times, biscuits were made from a sweetened, spiced paste of breadcrumbs and then baked (e.g., gingerbread), or from cooked bread enriched with sugar and spices and then baked again. King Richard I of England (aka Richard the Lionheart) left for the Third Crusade (1189–92) with "biskit of muslin", which was a mixed corn compound of barley, rye, and bean flour.
As the making and quality of bread had been controlled to this point, so were the skills of biscuit-making through the . As the supply of sugar began, and the refinement and supply of flour increased, so did the ability to sample more leisurely foodstuffs, including sweet biscuits. Early references from the Vadstena monastery show how the Swedish were baking gingerbread to ease digestion in 1444. Pepparkakans historia Annas Pepparkakor The history of gingerbread Annas Pepparkakor The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates to the 16th century, where they were sold in monastery pharmacies and town square farmers markets. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution in Britain sparked the formation of businesses in various industries, and the British biscuit firms of McVitie's, Carr's, Huntley & Palmers, and United Biscuits were all established by 1850.
British biscuit companies vied to dominate the market with new products and eye-catching packaging. The decorative biscuit tin, invented by Huntley & Palmers in 1831, saw British biscuits exported around the world. In 1900 Huntley & Palmers biscuits were sold in 172 countries, and their global reach was reflected in their advertising. Competition and innovation among British firms saw 49 patent applications for biscuit-making equipment, tins, dough-cutting machines and ornamental moulds between 1897 and 1900. In 1891, Cadbury filed a patent for a chocolate-coated biscuit. Along with local farm produce of meat and cheese, many regions of the world have their own distinct style of biscuit due to the historic prominence of this form of food. The Scots, for example, created shortbread, and in 1898 the Scottish manufacturer Walker's Shortbread was founded.
In a general process to make crackers, dough is mixed and fermented. It is fed through a dough feed conveyer to be laminated, Dough sheeting and cut. It is baked, sprayed with oil and cooled, before finally being packed. Baking surfaces differ by the country biscuits are baked in: traditional British biscuits being baked on light wire mesh, while American biscuits are baked on heavy mesh. The baking process requires high amounts of energy to get the relatively high hydration doughs to a final biscuit that is 1.5–2.5% water.
Short doughs are produced through a two stage mixing process. The dough is stood, fed and undergoes rotary molding, the step by which short biscuits derive their alternative name of rotary molded biscuits. They are baked, cooled and stacked and packed. The structure is derived from a high humidity during early stages of baking
Cookies are produced through mixing a dough in two stages. The dough is baked on a steel oven band. It is then cooled and finally stacked and/or packed.
In British culture, the digestive biscuit and rich tea biscuit are the traditional accompaniment to a cup of tea and are regularly eaten as such. "Crunch time: why Britain loves a good biscuit". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2014 Some tea drinkers dunk biscuits in tea, allowing them to absorb liquid and soften slightly before consumption. Chocolate digestives, rich tea, and Hobnobs were ranked the UK's top three favourite dunking biscuits in 2009. "Chocolate digestive is nation's favourite dunking biscuit". The Telegraph. 2 May 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2014. In a non-dunking poll the Chocolate Hobnob was ranked first with custard creams coming third. "What is the nation's favourite biscuit?" . Kernpack. 10 August 2019 Favourite biscuits. The Express. Retrieved 13 March 2017
Confectionery biscuits
Early biscuits were hard, dry, and unsweetened. They were most often cooked after bread, in a cooling bakers' oven; they were a cheap form of sustenance for the poor.
Introduction in South Asia
Biscuits and loaf were introduced in Bengal during the British colonial period and became popular within the Sylhetis Bengali Muslim. However, the middle-class Hindus of Cachar and Sylhet region were very suspicious of biscuits and breads as they believed they were baked by Muslims. On one occasion, a few Hindus in Cachar caught an Englishman eating biscuits with tea, which caused an uproar. The information reached the Hindus of Sylhet and a small rebellion occurred. In response to this, companies started to advertise their bread as "machine-made" and "untouched by (Muslim) hand" to tell Hindus that the breads were "safe for consumption". This incident is mentioned in Bipin Chandra Pal's autobiography and he mentions how culinary habits of Hindus gradually changed and biscuits and loaves eventually became increasingly popular.
Types
'']]Biscuits can be divided into four categories, separated by their process and ingredients:
Crackers
Crackers are savory biscuits with a "crispy, open texture". They include biscuits such as cream crackers, "Ritz Crackers, Saltine cracker, snack crackers (e.g. Arnott's Shapes) and . Cracker doughs often have some of the following features: they are leavened, have a water content between 15–25%, are Laminated dough and rise during the first part of baking.
Semi-sweet
Semi-sweet biscuits are distinguished by a their consistent texture and colour. This consistency, and a voluminous appearance are a product primarily of the presence of humidity during the first part of baking. Examples of semi-sweet biscuits include Arrowroot, Belvita, Marie biscuit, Petit-Beurre and Rich tea. The doughs of semi-sweet biscuits have strong gluten, making it shrink during baking. They have low sugar and fat contents, and their water content, about 12%, is reduced to 1.5–3% through the baking process. In making semi-sweet biscuits, the dough is mixed, fed, undergoes sheeting and is cut and baked. The biscuits are cooled before they are processed through stacking and/or packing.
Short doughs
Biscuits contain relatively high amounts of sugar and fat. The category covers many regional specialties, including the British custard cream and digestives, the Dutch speculaas, the Indian glucose biscuit and the Scottish shortbread. It also covers more generic biscuits of Lincoln biscuit and malted milk. Short biscuits are the simplest biscuits to make, which has led to them being widely produced in great volumes. They are frequently fortified. Short dough biscuits have a relatively low water content, and are cooked slower, and at low temperatures than crackers and semi-sweet biscuits.
Cookies
The widest category, cookies have very soft doughs. They are often baked directly on a steel oven band. Cookies have high sugar and fat contents, and are cooked longer than other biscuits at relatively low temperatures. Through the presence of humidity during the first stage of cooking, cookies spread as they are baked. Many cookies contain inclusions, such as nuts, chocolate chips (chocolate chip cookie) and fruits (e.g. raisins and figs in ). They include , extruded cookies and cookies with their centres filled.
Culture
Biscuits are eaten worldwide by people from many cultures.
Industry
Brands in the European biscuit market are unusually old for the food and drink industry, with the main brands as of 2016 being on average 100 years old. Historically in these companies, the owners and top-level managers were heavily involved in brand management.
See also
Notes
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