the thing with cookies vs. bread is the water..
flour and butter and water starts out as bread.. (yeast implied)
remove the yeast, and keep the flour, butter, water, (with some sort of leavening) and short bread... keep increasing the shortning, and reducing the water, cookies-- the less water, the crisper the cookie...

but high fat cookies, even when crisp, are 'tender" but plain flour and water, no fat at all, baked like a cookie becomes "hardtack".

crisp cookies are "tender" they are easy to bite into, and 'melt' in your mouth -- truly... the saliva starts to turn the flour (starch) into sugar, the sugar and butter melt...

'sandies' (a very high fat cookie) might feel sandy and gritty in hand, but they are not dry and sandy in you mouth!


my other obsession