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 381 recipes in total:

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Chräbeli (Anise Biscuits)      Origin: Switzerland	Currant Shortbread      Origin: Scotland	Gingerbread Men      Origin: Britain
Christmas Biscotti with Lemon and Mixed Spice      Origin: Italy	Curry and Cardamom Cookies      Origin: American	Glazed Easter Biscuits      Origin: Britain
Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits      Origin: British	Dabo Kolo (Crunchy Spice Bites)      Origin: Ethiopia	Glücksbringer (Lucky Charm Biscuits)      Origin: Germany
Christmas Honey Biscuits      Origin: Scotland	Digestive Biscuits      Origin: England	Glücksbringer II (Lucky Charm Biscuits)      Origin: Germany
Christmas Sugar Cookies      Origin: American	Dry Baking Mix Biscuits      Origin: American	Gluten-free Inverness Ginger Nuts      Origin: Scotland
Christmas Walnut and Mincemeat Cheesecake      Origin: Britain	Dundee Biscuits      Origin: Scotland	Glykinai (Wine Cakes)      Origin: Roman
Cinnamon Stars      Origin: British	Easter Biscuits      Origin: England	Good Luck Chilli Biscuits      Origin: Fusion
Cinq Centimes (Five-cent Biscuit)      Origin: Senegal	Easter Biscuits II      Origin: Britain	Goosnargh Cakes      Origin: England
Clotted Cream Shortbread Biscuits      Origin: England	Easter Biscuits III      Origin: British	Graham Cracker Cheesecake Crust      Origin: American
Cocoa Pistachio Pinwheels      Origin: American	Easter Bunny Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Graham Crackers      Origin: American
Coconetes (Dominican Rustic Coconut Biscuits)      Origin: Dominica	Easter Egg Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Grasshopper Cheesecake      Origin: American
Coconut Biscuits      Origin: Philippines	Easter Egg Cheesecakes      Origin: Britain	Griláž (Caramel Nut Wafers)      Origin: Slovakia
Coconut Biscuits      Origin: Macau	Easy Praline Cookies with Tonka Beans      Origin: British	Gulab Jamun Cheesecake      Origin: India
Coconut Macaroons      Origin: Britain	Eggnog Biscuits      Origin: British	Halloween Sugar Cookies      Origin: American
Cocos Islands Sago Pudding      Origin: Cocos Islands	Empire Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Hard Tack Figgy-dowdy      Origin: England
Cookies and Cream Cheesecake      Origin: American	Fedt Kager (Melting Moments)      Origin: Denmark	Haselnuss Halbmonde (Hazelnut Crescent Biscuits)      Origin: Germany
Cornflower Shortbread      Origin: Scotland	Feisty Cock      Origin: Scotland	Hawthorn and Nut Autumn Biscuits      Origin: British
Cornish Easter Cakes      Origin: England	Fig and Almond Cheesecake      Origin: Britain	Hazelnut Crescents      Origin: Turkmenistan
Cornish Fairings      Origin: England	Figolli (Maltese Easter Biscuits)      Origin: Malta	Heather and Lavender Shortbread      Origin: Ireland
Cornish Gingerbreads      Origin: England	Finsk Brød (Finnish Bread)      Origin: Denmark	Heather Biscotti      Origin: Scotland
Cornish Tea Biscuits      Origin: England	Flapjacks      Origin: British	Holiday Delight Cheesecake      Origin: American
Costmary Shortbread      Origin: Britain	Fochabers Gingerbread      Origin: Scotland	Holiday Eggnog Cheesecake      Origin: American
Cranberry Lime Cheesecake      Origin: Britain	Fruit Shrewsbury Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Hollantide Fairings      Origin: Manx
Creamy Chilled Cheesecake      Origin: American	Galette des rois bretonne (Breton King Cake)      Origin: France	Home-made roses de Reims Biscuits (Biscuits roses de Reims maison)      Origin: France
Creamy Orange Crockpot Cheesecake      Origin: American	Galettes Bretonnes      Origin: France	Honey and Catkin Grain Biscuits      Origin: Britain
Crema de Frutas con Barquillo (Fruit and Cream with Wafers)      Origin: Spain	Galletas de quinua y chocolate (Quinoa and Chocolate Biscuits)      Origin: Bolivia	Iced Raspberry and Eggnog Trifle Cake      Origin: Britain
Crème Brûlée Cheesecake      Origin: Britain	Gari Biscuits      Origin: Ghana	Intensely Chocolatey Sables      Origin: France
Crempog Gri (Welsh Currant Pancake)      Origin: Welsh	Gehackte Herring      Origin: South Africa	Inverness Ginger Nuts      Origin: Scotland
Crêpe dentelle (Lace crepe)      Origin: France	Ginger Fairings      Origin: England	Israeli Mamul (Israeli Date Pastries)      Origin: Israel
Croatian Nut Meringue and Jam Biscuits      Origin: Croatia	Ginger Nuts      Origin: Britain	Italianate Easter Cheesecake      Origin: Britain
Crockpot Chocolate and Amaretto Cheesecake      Origin: America	Ginger Snap Biscuits      Origin: Britain	Itrion (Sesame Biscuits)      Origin: Roman
Cuciadate (Italian Fig Rolls)      Origin: Italy	Gingerbread Cookies      Origin: American	Johnny Cakes      Origin: Anguilla
Curly Dock Seed Crackers      Origin: American	Gingerbread Easter Bunnies      Origin: Britain
Curly Dock Seed Flour Biscuits (Curly Dock Seed Flour Flour Biscuits)      Origin: Britain	Gingerbread Easter Bunny Biscuits      Origin: Britain

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