In French the word bis means twice and the word cuit means cooked. Thus, biscuit literally means twice-cooked, which is how biscuits were originally made. By baking them, letting them cool, and then heating them again, the biscuits were made drier and harder and this improved their keeping qualities. The process had its disadvantages, too, as is suggested by what the French soldiers under Louis XTV sometimes called the flat little cakes: pain de pierre, meaning stone bread. In Italian the name biscotti parallels the origin of biscuit, as does the German word zwieback: zwie, meaning two, and backen, meaning to bake. In Spanish and Portuguese the food is called rosca, meaning twisted or coiled, because the dough was braided before baking. In the sixteenth century, the exotic sounding rosca gave rise to an English word that now seems quite plain and simple—rusk, a kind of a sweetened biscuit. Biscuit, on the other hand, is a somewhat older word, having entered English in the fourteenth century.
This is a description of a form of leavened bread that is typically created by using baking powder or soda to raise the dough. The bread is commonly shaped into a small, round cake-like form.
Biscuits, the diminutive yet delectable quick bread, are a staple in many culinary traditions around the world. These petite pastries are typically served piping hot from the oven, bursting with the tantalizing aroma of freshly baked dough. While biscuits are usually unsweetened, they serve as an excellent base for a wide variety of creamed mixtures, including chipped beef, and can be imbued with a range of flavors such as herbs or grated cheese. When served as a dessert, these small treats are often referred to as “shortcakes,” adding an extra layer of indulgence to their already decadent profile.