Jodenkoek
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| Place of origin | Netherlands |
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A jodenkoek (in Dutch, literally "Jew cookie", plural jodenkoeken) is a big, flat, round shortbread cookie with a diameter of about 10 centimeters.
Claimed to have been first baked in the 17th century, these cookies were advertised by bakeries as early as 1872. Jodenkoeken were made famous by a baker called Davelaar, in Alkmaar, Netherlands. The Stam bakery in Alkmaar started selling jodenkoeken in 1883, and Dirk Davelaar took over this bakery in 1924. By advertising in local newspapers and by offering the cookies through other stores, his jodenkoeken became a popular product. The company continues to bake them to this day. Similar products with the same name are produced by Lotus Bakeries and O'Lacy.
Some producers still use the old spelling, jodekoek, while others have changed the name of the product to jodenkoek, after the new orthography of the Netherlands from 1996.
There are four different stories about the name of the cookies:
In the 1970s the name was thought to be discriminatory by some, and the manufacturer considered changing it, but ultimately decided against it. The name has received little to no controversy since then, and prominent Jewish rights activist Wim Kortenoeven, while critical of the naming of the Dutch sweet jodenvet "Jew fat" (now borsthoning "breast honey"), said he saw nothing wrong with the name. Jodenkoeken are exported to England and China, but, because of the difficulty of the name explanation, the export product is called Dutch Cookies.
In the beginning the cookies were sold in iron tin-plates with a yellow wrapper. Now jodenkoeken can also be bought in plastic tins with a purple wrapper. Because the cookies are in a tin-plate, they are packed air-tight so they remain fresh and crunchy.
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Wikipedia