What is a shopping list without adding biscuits to it? Whether with our regular evening tea time or to fill hunger pangs, biscuits are the most common snack and easy food items we all know about. But do you know about different types of biscuits that are around the corner? We bet not everyone will know such varieties of biscuits!
Depending on the ingredients, tastes, texture, and appetite, the biscuit varieties range quite across. Today, let us know and learn all about their variants, types, and more. Let’s get going and dig into the delicious world of biscuits and broaden our tastes about them!
Biscuits, History And How Are They Different From Cookies: A Glance
We all love biscuits, but do we know where did they come from? Whether it is a small and soft biscuit or a large and bakery particular variant, we love how tasty and delicious they are, but you should know that they are quite different in range and type.
While there is a range of evidence and stories surrounding how the biscuits evolved over time, there is no clear-cut or agreed to evidence on their origin. Many believe biscuits to be existing right from the English and French food savories; however, they got popular around the 17th century, given the broader access to ingredients and popularity they have received. The earlier variants are more flat, crisp, and broad to fill in the hunger and keep oneself full for a longer time, especially for travelers and soldiers. However, they later evolved widely as technology improved and were often eaten for pleasure and snacks as well.
But one shouldn’t confuse biscuits with cookies. The cookies evolved much later as a pure snack and delicious special food item, thicker, denser, and larger than biscuits.
Classification Of Biscuits:
Do you know there are different distinct classifications of biscuits as well, depending on the nature of dough, ingredients, and specialty?
Hard Biscuits: These biscuits are made with harder or stiffer dough that is dense and thick, with good gluten within it. They are also heavier and fills fast than the other type of biscuits.
Soft Biscuits: These are much smoother dough biscuits that are easier and relatively better off to digest. They come in both sweetened and savory variants. They are easier to break, lesser dense, and flatter than the ones before. These biscuits also have higher levels of sugar and fat than the former variant.
Fried Biscuits: Do you know there are also fried types of biscuits varieties? These are many traditional variants with completely different preparation techniques. The batter and biscuit dough are well fried in this case. These include both sweetened and unsweetened ones.
Confectionery Biscuits: These are special variant ones that often are made specifically with fillings within them, such as chocolate, nuts, fruits, honey, jam, and more. These require much more time and ingredients and are specialty biscuits within the broader range. Most often, they are taken as a snack and special foods.
Now let us go ahead and explore various biscuit types and kinds list.
Read: Types of Milk and Their Characteristics
20 Most Common And Popular Biscuit Varieties And Types Of Biscuits Names:
Now let us go ahead and explore furthermore about the most common and famous different types of biscuits names with their details.
1. Rolled Biscuits:
The rolled biscuits are among the most classic and popular variants that are thicker and twice the original biscuit height. These biscuits are fluffy, crunchy, and tender, with a very crisp taste and nature. These powdery biscuits are made with rolled dough and are cut neatly to bring on that texture of layers. They come in different shapes, depending on how the dough is cut out and can be both sweetened and unsweetened flavors, depending on the ingredient. The rolled biscuits are among the most common types we often find used during mostly snack time.
2. Drop Biscuits:
Unlike the rolled biscuits, drop biscuits are much softer and cannot be rolled similarly. The reason is the presence of milk and moisture inside the biscuit dough. As the name suggests, the drop biscuits are made by dropping the dough on baking sheets to bring them into shape. They are coarse in appearance, thickness, and texture and are much flatter invariant. These are easier to make and are believed to have come into origin near the US’s Southern part. However, evidence is not established clearly as yet. However, these come with a bit of sweetness; they aren’t too sweet to consider them a dessert.
3. Scones:
Scones are already popular variants of biscuits across the globe. They originated in ancient Scotland and Europe, taken as breakfast or tea options in most parts around the world. The scones come in sweet and savory flavor, wedge-shaped biscuits with crusty sides, crisp look, and heavy taste with cakey texture. The scones are soft and tasty and are often considered as a delicacy and rich biscuit to try out.
4. Wafer Biscuits:
Wafers are the crisp, soft, thin, and light flat textured cookie biscuits originated in Italy and Austria. These are mostly the sweetest savory biscuits, taken with tea and coffee and snacks too. These dry biscuits in the current context come in a range of flavors in the market, right from vanilla to chocolaty flavor, often with a layer of the cream-filled inside. Most often, they come in rectangle-shaped bars. By today, wafer biscuits have gained quite a lot of popularity in the gourmet foods section.
5. Angel Biscuits:
If you are looking for a biscuit variant to suit your morning breakfast and snack options, Angel biscuits can be a good deal to try out. These delicious ones are originated from America and are made with baking powder, flour, soda, and yeast. These are much fluffier and lightweight biscuits, small and flat, but rise during the baking process. The ones are also light on the stomach and easy digestion, yet tasty and can be taken with or without any other accompaniments. While most of us haven’t come across Angel biscuits heavily in our day-to-day life, they are pure tasty and worth a try.
6. Ginger Biscuits:
Ginger biscuits are a popular English goodie and snack option. As the name suggests, the biscuits are made with powdered ginger, accompanied by other baking ingredients such as flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. These biscuits are hard in texture yet melt in the mouth and bring a delicious unsweetened taste to the buds. They are crunchy, crisp, and ideal to go with snack time options alongside tea or coffee.
Read: Popular Types of Desserts
7. Digestive Biscuits:
Digestive biscuits are unsweet or semi-sweet biscuits that have come up in the recent past in the context of healthy and wholesome food and living. These are high in fiber biscuits that help oneself feel full for longer time periods. Further, they are made with wholesome flours, unlike white flours or refined ingredients, and have more proteins and fiber than fats. They are best when had with teas and coffees as accompaniments. However, different types of digestive biscuits are available as well, made with special ingredients or tastes.
8. Shortcake:
Shortcakes are very rich and heavier biscuits. In most cases, they are combined with cream or sugars or toppings to bring them into a fancy and delicious taste. These are heavier in texture, thick, and come in a range of flavors and varieties.
9. Southern Buttermilk:
If you are looking for very tender biscuits, nothing like the southern buttermilk ones. They are also flaky, bringing in a layer-type feel with multiple foldings, giving a distinct as well as delicious look. As the name suggests, buttermilk is the main ingredient here which helps the dough get sticky and smooth. These biscuits taste best when paired with soups.
10. Fig Roll Biscuits:
The fig roll biscuits that originated and developed in Egypt are lesser-known yet very delicious biscuits one must try out. These are the healthy form of biscuit items that are made with the goodness of fig paste and wheat flour that has good protein, calcium, and fiber. They are flat and tender in form with roll filling of fig paste inside, making them the perfect snack item to fill the hunger and bring on good satisfaction to the taste buds.
11. Cantuccini:
If you have heard of biscuit items from Tuscany and surrounding Italian delicacies, Cantucci is one of them. These Cantuccini cookies are mild sweetened Italian cookie biscuit variants that appear dry, crunchy, crispy, and tasty. They are made with almonds, flour, pine nuts, eggs, and sugar that are cooked and baked twice to bring out the best form. The cantucci almond biscuits are best when paired at dinner times with a glass of wine or similar drinks. These are indeed among the most popular ones in types of Italian biscuits.
12. Cookies:
Cookies are a much denser and thicker form of biscuits. While a few types of biscuits are also called cookies, most cookies come in dry, thick, crunchy, and dense forms, given the texture. The cookies are types of bakery biscuits that may come in a varied range of flavors as well as fillings too, with different structures within them. Cookies are filling as a snack item and are best when had to solo or even with snacks time or drinks and tea.
13. Crostoli:
Crostoli is another fine Italian delicacy that can be seen both as a biscuit as well as pastry. They are light and flaky biscuits that easily digest and melt in the mouth without any heavy or dense structure and filling. The crostoli are traditional fried forms of biscuits that are dusted with sugar, ideal for snack or dessert time for a deliciously sweet ending.
14. Arrowroot Biscuits:
Arrowroot biscuits are a healthy and delicious snack option for those looking for suitable substitutes for normal flour cookies and biscuits. They are made and prepared with arrowroot flour to bring on a fine and delicious taste, without transfat and with good vitamins and other macronutrients. These are perfect snack items to be had with tea and coffee.
Read: Types of Dessert Names with Pictures
15. Bourbon:
Although now available in several parts of the globe, the bourbon biscuits are initially developed around the United Kingdom region. These are the tasty and thick rectangular biscuits that come in a sandwich form with good cream filling inside. Most often, the bourbon biscuits are chocolate flavored and are dense, thick, and heavier in nature. They are dry, crunchy, and tasty, ideal to have as a snack option anytime in the day. We love them in different types of sweet and chocolate cream biscuits available across.
16. Marshmallow:
Marshmallows are as old and ancient as a food biscuit type, and most of us know about their popularity already. As many know, the marshmallows have come into origin from the Egyptians, and now the sweet tiny white biscuits are pretty famous globally, from children to adults. They are soft and spongy and are made with sugar and corn syrup to give a distinct and delicious unique taste.
17. Rich Tea Biscuits:
As the name suggests, the rich tea types of biscuits are a thick and dense sweet ingredient that is known to be the best accompaniment with tea and coffee. They come with a mild sweetened taste to go well with snacks and are prepared with wheat flour, all-purpose flours, sugar, and malt extracts. They came into origin around England in the 17th century and, to date, are popular in Europe mainly to bring in good taste with tea.
18. Indian Biscuits:
The famous Indian biscuits, which are also popularly known as Karachi or Osmania biscuits, are thick and flat round-shaped biscuits that are known to go well during evening snack times. The Indian biscuits are dense in taste and flavor with mild sweet and salty delicacy, best when taken with tea and coffees.
19. Kourabiethes:
We bet most of you haven’t heard this name of biscuits. The Kourabiethes are known to have originated and got popular in Greece and are the sugar-coated biscuits to like the flavor of sweet-toothed people. These types of biscuit cookies are pretty famous in the festive seasons and come in different shapes. They are fun to make, tasty and sound in desserts.
20. Macaroons:
The American type and version of French biscuits, the Macaroons, are another famous variant of biscuits one must know. These biscuits are made with coconuts and bring on a mild sweet flavor. They are dry and lightweight biscuits and are often made in round shape. The crunchy out and soft inside biscuits are best when had as desserts or as accompaniments with other snacks during evening and dinner times.
Read: Most Popular Varieties of Cakes
We hope you enjoyed exploring about these different types of biscuits across the globe. If you are a biscuit lover, you must try these popular ones out. They indeed are tasty and delicious, perfect for our hunger-filling snack. If you tried any of these, which are your favorite ones, we would love to hear from you too!
Disclaimer:
This is exclusively a guide about types of biscuits for informative purposes only. The opinions and overview in this article are provided from various sources across the web. The author does not guarantee or promise any accuracy of the facts provided in this article.
