In Australia, "biscuits" are what Americans call "cookies," and these traditional treats date back to World War I.
What are biscuits in the USA? If you're in the USA, however, a 'biscuit' is what Australians and the English may refer to as a scone. American biscuits are usually enjoyed as part of a savoury meal, served with meat and gravy.
The Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit, popular in Australia and New Zealand, made using rolled oats, flour, sugar, butter (or margarine), golden syrup, baking soda, boiling water, and (optionally) desiccated coconut.
The American use is derived from Dutch koekje "little cake," which is a diminutive of "koek" ("cake"), which came from the Middle Dutch word "koke".
The use of the word 'Anzac' in the commercial production and sale of Anzac biscuits is usually approved, however the biscuits must not substantially deviate from the generally accepted recipe and shape, and must be referred to as 'Anzac Biscuits' or 'Anzac Slice' (not 'Anzac Cookies').
In Australia, "biscuits" are what Americans call "cookies," and these traditional treats date back to World War I. It's said that wives and mothers of soldiers in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps—abbreviated to "Anzac"—baked these treats to send to their men overseas.
Making Anzac biscuits is one tradition that Australians use to commemorate Anzac day. Everyone has their favourite recipe and there are countless arguments over whether they should be served crunchy or soft.
The word “cookie” comes from the Dutch koek, meaning “cake.” Dutch also has a diminutive: koekje, or “little cake.” With the major influence of the Dutch in New Amsterdam, it was the Dutch word that was Americanized into “cookie.”
Biscuit vs Cookie
Hard or crisp cookies are called biscuits in the U.K. while the chewier dessert can be identified as a cookie.
Biscuit (UK) / Cookie (US)
In the US, cookies are flat, round snacks made of sweet dough. In the UK, these are generally called biscuits, although people do call the bigger, softer kind cookies, too.
chook. A domestic fowl; a chicken. Chook comes from British dialect chuck(y) 'a chicken; a fowl' which is a variant of chick. Chook is the common term for the live bird, although chook raffles, held in Australian clubs and pubs, have ready-to-cook chooks as prizes.
The Australian term for sprinkles is also called “100's and 1000's” (pronounced hundreds and thousands). The bread is commonly served at children's parties and every single bakery in Australia and New Zealand.
Now that all seems fairly straight-forward, until we learn that lolly is actually the Australian word for sweets – i.e. British lollies but without the sticks.
Australians use a couple of other colloquial words for a hen's egg. The Australian English word googie or goog is an informal term that dates from the 1880s. It derives from British dialect goggy, a child's word for an egg. A closer parallel to the jocular bum nut, however, is the word cackleberry.
Bludger. (Noun) A lazy person. “I'm running around like a headless chook organising this bloody barbie, and Johnno's just sitting there like a bludger!”
A sandwich. Sanger is an alteration of the word sandwich. Sango appeared as a term for sandwich in the 1940s, but by the 1960s, sanger took over to describe this staple of Australian cuisine.
If you want a bag of what Americans call 'chips' in the UK, just ask for crisps.
Similarly, an eggplant is called an aubergine in the UK.
In most of North America, nearly all hard sweet biscuits are called "cookies", while the term "biscuit" is used for a soft, leavened quick bread similar to a less sweet version of a scone.
Informal. dear; sweetheart (a term of address, usually connoting affection).
1.”, OED). We have a clear picture, then: "cookie" and "biscuit" can refer to the same thing in Canada, but "cookie" is dominant for the sweet, flat item, and "biscuit" can also refer to the North American biscuit.
“Referring to these products as 'Anzac Cookies' is generally not approved, due to the non-Australian overtones,” the guidelines state. The Department says on its website: “No person may use the word Anzac, or any word resembling it in connection with any trade, business, calling or profession.”
The recipe for Anzacs is legally protected by the Australian and New Zealand governments, and Aussies and Kiwis alike seem to go up in arms (hopefully not literally) when their national recipe is tampered with, or when the biscuits are called 'cookies' (by pesky Americans, no doubt).
Under government regulations, a biscuit can't be sold as an 'Anzac biscuit' if it has additions like chocolate chips or almonds.