Classic British biscuit recipes (2024)

FAQs

What are traditional British biscuits? ›

In Britain, what Americans refer to as “biscuits” are known as “scones.” British biscuits are actually what Americans call “cookies.” The term “biscuits” in the United Kingdom typically refers to sweet, crumbly, and sometimes buttery bakes treats, distinct from the soft, bread-like biscuits found in the United States.

Unlike a chewier cookie, biscuits are made with a dough, they can be cut into any shape and their firmer, snappier and flatter constitution provides the perfect blank canvas for icing and decorating. In North America you might know our British biscuits as a cookie or cracker!

Aberffraw biscuits are said to be Britain's oldest biscuit! The Welsh shortbread is pressed with the shape of a scallop shell and are made with high quality ingredients to create a rich, buttery shortbread.

It's official: shortbread is the nation's favourite biscuit.

Biscuit vs Cookie

In the U.S., biscuits are buttery, flaky bread pastries often served as a side or sandwich at breakfast. American cookies are baked desserts, often sweet, that range in texture and density. Hard or crisp cookies are called biscuits in the U.K.

Magazine, private chef to the Queen for 11 years, Darren McGrady revealed the late Queen's favourite biscuits: "When I was there… Chocolate Bath Olivers." He also revealed: "She is absolutely a chocoholic. Anything we put on the menu that had chocolate on, she would choose, especially chocolate perfection pie."

Scones and Gravy: The English Equivalent

In England, the closest counterpart to biscuits and gravy would be scones and gravy.

A Biscuit (U.S.) Is a Scone (U.K.)

A British biscuit is not remotely similar to the fluffy and filling American biscuits made famous in Southern American cuisine. The closest British equivalent to those buttery miracles is a scone, which ain't too bad either.

In British English, crackers are sometimes called water biscuits, or savoury biscuits.

This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried out in a slow oven. This term was then adapted into English in the 14th century during the Middle Ages, in the Middle English word bisquite, to represent a hard, twice-baked product (see the German Zwieback).

What are British biscuits called in America? ›

Biscuits, along with cornbread and soda bread, are known as “quick bread,” because you use baking soda instead of yeast to make them. Biscuits in the UK are what we Americans call cookies.

Some Greek collector with money to burn and a thing for aged snacks has thrown down $23,000 for the “world's most expensive biscuit,” a lone, piece-of-toast-size Spillers & Bakers Pilot cracker that survived the sinking of the Titanic.

Brits are the world's biggest biccy eaters - scoffing an average of three tasty treats a day. Brits eat more biscuits than anywhere else on earth, a study has revealed.

British scones are tender and lightly sweet, biscuits are flaky and without any real sweetness to them. You can tell the difference when talking about you would serve them.

The term biscuit comes to English from the French biscuit (bis-qui), which itself has a Latin root: panis biscotus refers to bread twice-cooked. The Romans certainly had a form of biscuit, what we'd now call a rusk and, as the name suggests, it was essentially bread which was re-baked to make it crisp.