The tradition of baking cookies for the holidays goes back to the Middle Ages when Christmas took the place of winter solstice festivities throughout Europe. It was also at this time that Europeans were introduced to the exotic spices of the Far East, including ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon.
In Medieval times sugar, lard, butter and the newly introduced spices were expensive commodities and saved for important celebrations and gift-giving. Sweet treats like pies, cakes and what we now know as cookies became prized gifts. But unlike pies and cakes, cookies could be made in large batches and were easy to store for long periods, making them ideal gifts for friends and loved ones.
The Dutch, English and Scots brought the first cookies to America in the 1600s in the forms of teacakes and shortbread, in fact, the word “cookie” comes from the Dutch word “koeptje,” which means little cakes. These little cakes were thought to have been created by accident in the Seventh Century AD when Persian bakers used a small amount of cake batter to test the oven temperature before baking a large cake.
After the Civil War, cookie recipes for jumbles, a spiced butter cookie, and for macaroons began showing up in cookbooks around the county, not just in the northeast.
The arrival of trains in the 19th century allowed people to travel farther distances in a shorter amount of time, bakers now had access to new ingredients like coconut and oranges.
As the 20th century unfolded sugar remained a luxury item, iceboxes were used to keep food cold, and cooking was done on coal or wood stoves. Cookie recipes were simpler. However, after the gas range was introduced, cookies became more sophisticated because temperatures could be more easily regulated. Refrigeration allowed for the use of chilled doughs. These new innovations in the kitchen allowed for the creation of many new types of cookies; like bar, drop, filled, molded, no-bake, pressed, refrigerator, rolled and sandwich cookies.
Today, Americans favor a wide variety of holiday cookies including sugar cookies, snowballs, peanut butter blossoms, snickerdoodles, spritz, turtles, cowboy cookies, chocolate chip and of course, the cookie that started it all, gingerbread. And these are just a few of the options.
For the last several years, Google Trends has reported on the holiday cookie searches by state, Illinoisians most frequently searched for Red Velvet Cookies (2023), Christmas Bar Cookies (2022) and Fudgy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (2021).
For many it’s not Christmas without cookies. We even leave cookies and milk out for Santa.
All that’s left to do is to enjoy your favorite cookie on this National Cookie Day.