10 Bite-Size Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Cookies

Chew on these. And then, chew on a SUBWAY® cookie for dessert.

1. The word "cookie" comes from the Dutch word for "little cake."

Steven Vance (CC BY 2.0) / Via Flickr: jamesbondsv

Whoa, man. Cookies, like, are little cakes. Meh, not really. But it is true that the word "cookie" comes from the Dutch word koekje, meaning "little cake." First used in 1703, "cookies" — we can all agree — are a way more appetizing word than "biscuit."

2. Cookies weren't sweet until about 1,400 years ago...

Steve Snodgrass (CC BY 2.0) / Via Flickr: 10710442@N08

According to Cookies & Crackers, cookies are actually "the descendants of the earliest food cooked by man," i.e., the stuff Neolithic farmers baked on stones 10,000 years ago. It wasn't until 7th-century Persia that sugar sweetened the deal.

3. ...and chocolate chip cookies weren't even around until 1938.

Centron Productions (CC0) / Via archive.org

While often rumored to be an accidental creation, chocolate chip cookies actually came into existence deliberately. Says inventor Ruth Wakefield, "I was trying to give [everybody] something different. So I came up with the [chocolate chip] cookie."

4. The raisins in your oatmeal raisin cookie almost certainly come from California.

Tim Quijano (CC BY 2.0) / Via Flickr: timquijano

Historically, the United States is the largest global exporter of those things you had hoped were chocolate chips. The California raisin industry alone produces all of the U.S. raisins, a third of which are exported to almost 50 countries around the world.

5. At least three states have tried to make chocolate chip their official state cookie.

What's Gaby Cooking (CC BY 3.0) / Via youtube.com

So far, only Massachusetts has succeeded, which makes sense because the cookie was invented there. But Wyoming and Pennsylvania have also tried to own it — the latter being a toss-up between oatmeal chocolate chip and boring sugar cookies.

6. The nuts in white chocolate macadamia cookies are named after a guy who had nothing to do with them...

https://goo.gl/tJvIwC

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiejamison/5581363966

Macadamia isn't a place; it's a genus of trees. And while Aboriginal Australians enjoyed them for thousands of years, the nuts earned their current label when a botanist named them after his friend, John Macadam, who never even tasted them.

7. ...and white chocolate isn't even real chocolate, FYI.

Tablespoon (CC BY 3.0) / Via vimeo.com

Ever wonder why those who are allergic to chocolate can sometimes eat white chocolate? It's because, legally, it's not chocolate, as it doesn't "contain chocolate liqueur from the cocoa bean." Sorry, ~white confection coating~ — you're a phony.

8. There's a National Historical Cookie Cutter Museum in Joplin, Missouri.

Sy J. Abudu (CC BY-SA 3.0) / Via vimeo.com

In 2004, the enigmatic National Cookie Cutters organization moved their wares to the Joplin Museum Complex. Ever since, thousands of visitors have pilgrimaged to Missouri to gaze at the curious collection — and also snag a free plastic cookie cutter.

9. A survey once found that 53% of Americans prefer chocolate chip.

Via ffffound.com

Of the 1,033 adults polled, just over half chose chocolate chip. Peanut butter (16%), oatmeal (15%), sugar (11%), and "other" (5%) took up the rest, but most importantly, chocolate chip won "regardless of gender, politics, age, and regional differences."

10. The largest cookie ever weighed over 40,000 pounds.

Via konczakowski.tumblr.com

It's true. On May 17, 2003 — after building an enormous oven and mixing countless batches of dough — Flat Rock, North Carolina, birthed the world's biggest cookie ever. Weighing 18 tons and covering 8,120 square feet, it was one tough cookie.

Hungry for more? Fun fact: SUBWAY® has cookies. 🍪