Biscuit

A biscuit is a hard seared sweet product like a small flat cake which in North America may be called a "cookie" or "cracker". The term biscuit also applies to cram type biscuits, where a layer of 'cream' or icing is sandwiched between two biscuits. It should be noted, however, that it has become increasingly common within the UK for "cookie" to be used to differentiate between the softer, more chewy "cookie" and the harder, more fragile "biscuit." In this respect the British usage of the word biscuit was defined in the defence of a tax judgement found in favour of McVitie's and their product Jaffa Cakes which Her Majesty's Customs and Excise claimed was a biscuit and was therefore liable to value added tax. The successful defence rested on the fact that 'biscuits go soft when stale, whereas cakes go hard when stale.'

In Britain, the digestive biscuit has a strong cultural identity as the conventional supplement to a cup of tea, and is regularly eaten as such. Many tea drinkers "dunk" their biscuits in tea, allowing them to sop up liquid and soften slightly before expenditure.

Although there are many provincial varieties, both sweet and savoury, "biscuit" is generally used to describe the sweet version. Sweet biscuits are commonly eaten as a snack and may contain chocolate, fruit, jam, nuts or even be used to sandwich other fillings. Savoury biscuits are plainer and commonly eaten with cheese following a meal.

Generally, Australians and New Zealanders use the British meaning of "biscuit" for the sweet biscuit. Two famous Australasian biscuit varieties are the Anzac biscuit and the Tim Tam.

Despite the difference, this sense is at the root of the name of the United States' most famous maker of cookies and crackers, the National Biscuit Company.