A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. Types of biscuit include sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, biscotti, and speculaas. 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. Variations in meaning of biscuit In most of the world, a "biscuit" is a small, hard baked product that would be called either a "cookie" or a "cracker" in the United States and sometimes in Canada. "Biscuits" in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and Ireland are usually hard and may be savoury or sweet, such as chocolate biscuits, digestives, hobnobs, ginger nuts, rich tea, shortbread, bourbons, and custard creams. The term "cookie" typically refers to only one type of biscuit (the sweeter baked dough typically containing chocolate chips or raisins); however, it may also locally refer to specific types of biscuits or breads. In the United States and some parts of Canada, a "biscuit" is a quick bread, somewhat similar to a scone, and usually unsweetened. Biscuits may be referred to as either "baking powder biscuits" or "buttermilk biscuits" if buttermilk is used rather than milk as a liquid. A Southern regional variation using the term "beaten biscuit" (or in New England "sea biscuit") is closer to hardtack than soft dough biscuits. In Canada, the term "biscuit" can simultaneously refer to what is commonly identified as a biscuit in either the United Kingdom or the United States. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary describes each word in reference to the other; "biscuit" can mean "Brit. a cookie", whilst "cookie" can mean "N. Amer. a small sweet biscuit". "Tea biscuit" is also a standard Canadianism for the "North American" biscuit. Etymology The modern-day difference in the English language regarding the word "biscuit" is remarked on by British cookery writer Elizabeth David in English Bread and Yeast Cookery, in the chapter "Yeast Buns and Small Tea Cakes" and section "Soft Biscuits". She writes, It is interesting that these soft biscuits (such as scones) are common to Scotland and Guernsey, and that