About Cookies Pralines Brownies
Cookies Pralines Brownies Crackers Recipes
A cookie is a small, flat, sweet, baked good, usually containing flour, eggs, sugar, and either butter, cooking oil or another oil or fat. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips or nuts.
In most English-speaking countries except for the US and Canada, crisp cookies are called biscuits. Chewier biscuits are sometimes called cookies even in the UK. Some cookies may also be named by their shape, such as date squares or bars.
Cookies or biscuits may be mass-produced in factories, made in small bakeries or home-made. Biscuit or cookie variants include sandwich biscuits such as Custard creams, Jammy Dodgers, Bourbons and Oreos, with marshmallow or jam filling and sometimes dipped in chocolate or another sweet coating. Cookies are often served with beverages such as milk, coffee or tea. Factory-made cookies are sold in grocery stores, convenience stores and vending machines. Fresh-baked cookies are sold at bakeries and coffeehouses, with the latter ranging from small business-sized establishments to multinational corporations such as Starbucks.
A brownie is a flat, baked dessert square that was developed in the United States at the end of the 19th century and popularized in the U.S. and Canada during the first half of the 20th century. It is a cross between a cake and a soft cookie in texture[1] and comes in a variety of forms. Depending on its density, it may be either fudgy or cakey and may include chocolate chips, nuts, or other ingredients. A variation made with brown sugar and chocolate bits but without melted chocolate in the batter is called a blonde brownie or blondie.
Brownies are typically eaten by hand, often accompanied by milk or coffee. They are sometimes served warm with ice cream (à la mode), topped with whipped cream, or sprinkled with powdered sugar. They are common lunchbox treats, and also popular in restaurants and coffeehouses.
Praline is a form of confection containing at a minimum nuts and sugar; cream is a common third ingredient.
There are two main types:
French pralines, a firm combination of almonds and caramelized sugar.
American pralines, a softer, creamier combination of syrup and pecans, hazelnuts or almonds with milk or cream, resembling fudge.
Belgian pralines consist of a chocolate shell with a softer, sometimes liquid, filling, traditionally made of different combinations of hazelnut, almonds, sugar, syrup and often milk-based pastes. These high-fat, low-melting point chocolates are at the luxury end of Belgian chocolate and represent an important product of many Belgian chocolatiers.
A praline cookie is a chocolate biscuit containing ground nuts. Praline is usually used as a filling in chocolates or other sweets.