It can be argued that the development of biscuits, as a dry form of flour dough began with the need for travelling bread, particularly for travelling. The introduction of the baking of processed cereals, including the creation of flour, provided a more reliable source of food. Egyptian sailors carried a flat, brittle loaf of millet bread called dhourra cake while the Romans had a biscuit called buccellatum. 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'.

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. Baked 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 broken into pieces and cooked into a skillet meal.

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.

By the 7th century AD, cooks of the Persian 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 Armenian 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. This was originally a dense, treacly (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.[4] 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.[19] 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.

The milk chocolate coated side of a McVitie's chocolate digestive. It is routinely ranked the UK's favourite snack. As the making and quality of bread had been controlled to this point, so were the skills of biscuit-making through the craft guilds. 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 nuns were baking gingerbread to ease digestion in 1444. 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 Crawfords were all established by 1850.

Most modern biscuits can trace their origins back to either the hardtack ship's biscuit or the creative art of the baker:
Ship's biscuit derived: digestive, rich tea, hobnobs, Garibaldi.
Baker's art: biscuit rose de Reims.

Biscuits today can be savoury (crackers) or sweet. Most are small, at around 5 cm (2.0 in) in diameter, and flat. Sandwich-style biscuits consist of two biscuits sandwiching a layer of "creme" or icing, such as the custard cream, or a layer of jam (as in the biscuits that are known as "Jammie Dodgers" in the United Kingdom).

Sweet biscuits are commonly eaten as a snack food, and are, in general, made with wheat flour or oats, and sweetened with sugar or honey. Varieties may contain chocolate, fruit, jam, nuts, ginger, or even be used to sandwich other fillings.

Savoury biscuits or crackers (such as cream crackers, water biscuits, oatcakes, or crisp breads) are usually plainer and commonly eaten with cheese following a meal. Many savoury biscuits also contain additional ingredients for flavour or texture, such as poppy seeds, onion or onion seeds, cheese (such as cheese melts), and olives. Savoury biscuits also usually have a dedicated section in most European supermarkets, often in the same aisle as sweet biscuits. The exception to savoury biscuits is the sweetmeal digestive known as the 'Hovis biscuit', which, although slightly sweet, is still classified as a cheese biscuit.[32] Savoury biscuits sold in supermarkets are sometimes associated with a certain geographical area, such as Scottish oatcakes or Cornish wafer biscuits.

The alphabetical list of all the biscuit, cookie and cracker recipes on this site follows, (limited to 100 recipes per page). There are 310 recipes in total:

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2-Minute Lemon Cheesecake      Origin: Britain	Bisgedi Brynog (Brynog Biscuits)      Origin: Welsh	Chocolate Chip Cookies      Origin: American
Abernethy Biscuits      Origin: Scotland	Bisgedi Ceirch (Oat Biscuits)      Origin: Welsh	Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cheesecake      Origin: Britain
Absolutely Delicious Cheesecake      Origin: American	Bisgedi Ceirch a Sbelt (Oat and Spelt Biscuits)      Origin: Welsh	Chocolate Crinkles      Origin: British
Acorn Flour Biscuits      Origin: American	Bisgedi Ceirch Euraidd (Golden Oat Biscuits)      Origin: Welsh	Chocolate Digestive Biscuits      Origin: Britain
Açucarinhas (Coconut and Sugar Biscuits)      Origin: Sao Tome	Bisgedi Cennin Pedr (Daffodil Biscuits)      Origin: Welsh	Chocolate Graham Cracker Cheesecake Crust      Origin: American
Air Fryer Cheesecake      Origin: Britain	Bisgedi Cymreig (Welsh Biscuits)      Origin: Welsh	Chocolate Graham Crackers      Origin: American
Air Fryer Cheesecake II      Origin: Britain	Bisgedi Gele (Gele Biscuits)      Origin: Welsh	Chocolate Peanut Butter Ginseng Cookies      Origin: American
Alfajores      Origin: Welsh (Patagonia)	Bisgedi Nadolig (Christmas Biscuits)      Origin: Welsh	Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake      Origin: American
Almond and Lavender Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Bisgedi Pasg (Easter Biscuits)      Origin: Welsh	Chocolate Tiffin      Origin: Scotland
Almond Biscotti      Origin: Italy	Bisket Bread      Origin: Britain	Chocolate Velvet Cheesecake      Origin: Britain
Almond Christmas Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Bisquick Copycat Mix      Origin: American	Chocolate Wafer Cheesecake Crust      Origin: American
Amaretti Orestano      Origin: Italy	Boudin de Café (Coffee Pudding)      Origin: Ecuador	Chocolate Wafers      Origin: American
Amaretto Cheesecake      Origin: American	Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake      Origin: America	Chocolate-flavoured Digestive Biscuits      Origin: England
Amarula No-bake Cheesecake      Origin: England	Boxemännercher (Gingerbread Men)      Origin: Luxembourg	Chräbeli (Anise Biscuits)      Origin: Switzerland
Amish Chocolate Chip Cookies      Origin: Amish	Braune Kuchen (Brown Biscuits)      Origin: Germany	Christmas Biscotti with Lemon and Mixed Spice      Origin: Italy
ANZAC Biscuits      Origin: New Zealand	Brunsli (Swiss Brownies)      Origin: Switzerland	Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits      Origin: British
Autumn Cheesecake      Origin: Britain	Buccellatum (Roman Hardtack)      Origin: Roman	Christmas Sugar Cookies      Origin: American
Ayrshire Shortbread      Origin: Scotland	Bunny Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Christmas Walnut and Mincemeat Cheesecake      Origin: Britain
Ayrshire Shortbread II      Origin: Scotland	Burrebrede      Origin: Scotland	Cinnamon Stars      Origin: British
Bacon, Brown Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies      Origin: American	Bury Simnel Cake      Origin: England	Cinq Centimes (Five-cent Biscuit)      Origin: Senegal
Baked Millet Biscuits      Origin: Kenya	Butterscotch Biscuits      Origin: Scotland	Clotted Cream Shortbread Biscuits      Origin: England
Baked Vanilla Cheesecake      Origin: Britain	Bysedd Melys (Sweet Fingers)      Origin: Welsh	Cocoa Pistachio Pinwheels      Origin: American
Bara Ceirch (Welsh Oatcakes)      Origin: Welsh	Canella Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Coconut Macaroons      Origin: Britain
Bara Ceirch Lafwr Sych (Dried Laver Oatcakes)      Origin: Welsh	Cantucci Biscotti      Origin: Italy	Cookies and Cream Cheesecake      Origin: American
Basler Leckerli (Basel Biscuits)      Origin: Switzerland	Caramel Shortbread      Origin: Britain	Cornflower Shortbread      Origin: Scotland
Beer Cakes      Origin: Ancient	Cathedral Windows      Origin: Britain	Cornish Easter Cakes      Origin: England
Benne-seed Wafers      Origin: West Africa	Cenci all Fiorentina (Italian Bow-tie Biscuits)      Origin: Italy	Cornish Fairings      Origin: England
Berreen Giar Vanninagh (Manx Short Cake)      Origin: Manx	Cheesecake Breton (Breton Cheesecake)      Origin: France	Cornish Gingerbreads      Origin: England
Bethmaennchen (German Marzipan Christmas Biscuits)      Origin: Germany	Cherry Cheesecake      Origin: Britain	Cornish Tea Biscuits      Origin: England
Birthday Biscuits      Origin: British	Cherry Cheesecake II      Origin: American	Costmary Shortbread      Origin: Britain
Biscotti Mandorle e Pistacchio (Pistachio and Almond Biscuits)      Origin: Italy	Chinese Almond Cookies      Origin: China	Cranberry Lime Cheesecake      Origin: Britain
Biscuit      Origin: Mayotte	Chocolate Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Creamy Chilled Cheesecake      Origin: American
Biscuit-topped Lamb Casserole      Origin: America	Chocolate Cheesecake      Origin: Britain
Biscuits Molleux aux Carrotes et Cumin (Soft Carrot and Cumin Biscuits)      Origin: Mali	Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake      Origin: American

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