Cookie is Cocky ...in the Indian market

Demand for healthy bakery products, particularly cookies, is increasing in India due to active lifestyle of consumers' looking for convenient eating options. Millennials, who form a major percentage of the working population in India, are a driving force behind the consumer trends today. As far as bakery products are concerned, they desire for healthy products with high nutritional values. Cookies which are not only healthy and nutritious but can also be consumed as snacks are becoming popular globally. Ashok Malkani takes a kaleidoscopic look at all aspects of cookies and the rising market for these scrumptious tidbits.

- Ashok Malkani

The bakery industry's two most popular products are biscuits and bread. But no one seems to pay heed to the popularity of cookies. This, in spite of the fact that every Indian regional cuisine has a cookie variant, the mathri and shakkarpara from Punjab, the thekua from Bihar, the aarsa or anarsa from Maharashtra and roat from Sindhis, etc. Karachi Bakery has become popular with its cookie variants termed as wine, fruit and Osmania biscuits. And the most famous of all cookies, throughout the country is the unforgettable nankhatai!

If one takes a global look at this bakery product one finds that in Spain they are called as galletas while the Germans call them as keks or Plzchen and in Italy there are several names to identify various forms of cookies including amaretti and biscotti. In England and Australia they are just termed as biscuits.

Difference between Biscuits and Cookies

In most English speaking countries, except for the United States, crunchy cookies are called biscuits. Cookies contain many of the same ingredients as cakes except they have a lower proportion of liquid with higher proportion of sugar and fat to flour.

But what exactly is the difference between cookies and biscuits? How does one differentiate between them? Some believe that it's all about linguistics.

Mansi Manghani, head pastry chef and the owner of Pixie Dust says, "The main difference between the two is the number of ingredients. The basic composition of a biscuit is flour, sugar, butter whereas cookies require more complex ingredients. Biscuit dough is harder in texture while cookies have soft dough and are a little dense."