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In "American" cuisine, there is a baked good called a brownie, which is peculiar because it exists at a kind of intersection of cookies (biscuits), cake, and fudge. Brownies often have a cookie-crunchy exterior, and the moist interior of a fudge cake. It's an in-between confection.

Does any other cuisine have this kind of liminal baked item, that crosses over cookies and cake? We couldn't think of any, so turning it over to Seasoned Advice to find one.

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    American exceptionalism! BROWNIES RULE!
    – Willk
    Nov 28, 2022 at 0:30
  • I'm sure I've had an Indian one or perhaps it was Middle Eastern, but I can't recall the name at the moment. May not have been baked either.
    – bob1
    Nov 28, 2022 at 2:27
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    I was thinking of Lian Gao - baked glutinous rice cake - would that suit?
    – bob1
    Nov 28, 2022 at 2:33
  • Potentially? I haven't had one, so it's up to your powers of description.
    – FuzzyChef
    Nov 28, 2022 at 4:49
  • Don't some baked puddings have a similar, slightly crunchy exterior and moist interior?
    – gidds
    Nov 28, 2022 at 18:04

2 Answers 2

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The Swedish kladdkaka is pretty similar to the brownie, even though it's mostly classified as a cake, rather than a cookie. (It's typically served as a segment of a round cake, often with either icing sugar or whipped cream on top.)

And if you're looking for border-crossing items in general, there are lots of things on the border between 'bread' and 'cake' or 'cookie'. Panettone, donut and taralli all straddle this border at different places.

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  • accepting answer for Kladdkaka, which honestly might even be the ancestor of the brownie, looking at it. Don't quite agree about pannetone/donuts/taralli, although you could make the argument that taralli cross the border between "cookies" and "breadsticks".
    – FuzzyChef
    Dec 5, 2022 at 0:46
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If you’re looking for something between cake and cookies, there are plenty, but they’re not necessarily brownie-like.

“Cookie” comes from the Dutch “koekje” which means “small cake”, and there are plenty of cookie recipes that come out more cake-like or even a fudge-like or brownie-like texture.

It’s been too long since I lived there, so can’t remember the specific names of the koekje that I’m thinking of, but if you make American cookie recipes with a larger sized scoop of dough than the recipe called for, you’ll often get a more cake-like texture as they set differently.

(The British “biscuit” comes from a Romance language, like the Italian “biscotti”, which means “twice cooked”, so would tend to be a firmer, crispy item)

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    Britain makes legal distinction between biscuits (American cookies and crackers) and cakes which are taxed differently. One of the crucial differences is whether the item gets hard (cake) or soft (biscuit) when it goes stale. Jan 10 at 19:25

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