The Jodenkoeken most people are aware of come in a large yellow can made by Davelaar. Joden is the Dutch word for Jews (plural as if in a group; a single Jewish person would be a Jood, and to be Jewish is to be Joodse), and Koek is the word for biscuit/cookie (koeken is cookies). The picture on the front has two men carrying the cookies on what appears to be a stretcher in front of some ornate building and says Sinds 1883 (since 1883). Inside you will find 20 Jodenkoeken; large, thin shortbread cookies. These cookies come from an extremely simple recipe, so if you can't get to the Netherlands to buy a can, you can make them at home quite easily. First a little Jodenkoeken history. Jodenkoeken is the "new" name for the cookie. The original name was Jodekoeken. The Dutch language is reviewed yearly and changes are instituted in order to introduce new words, change spellings of old words, and to further separate Dutch from German (I'm not sure this is in the official policy anywhere, but this was a policy post WWII when German-Dutch relations were not very good). In 1996, Jode was changed to Joden, and hence the name of the cookie changed. However some bakeries still use the old name when selling the cookies. The Since 1883 is a bit of a marketing ploy. The first instance of the term Jodenkoek can be found in an advertisement placed by confectioner C. Strunck in the Java Bode in 1872. In 1883, a bakery in Alkmaar was founded. This had absolutely nothing to do with the famous can of Jodenkoeken, until 1924 when a man named Dirk Davelaar bought this bakery. Davelaar had a recipe for Jodenkoeken and began producing them out of this bakery. So
The Jodenkoeken most people are aware of come in a large yellow can made by Davelaar. Joden is the Dutch word for Jews (plural as if in a group; a single Jewish person would be a Jood, and to be Jewish is to be Joodse), and Koek is the word for biscuit/cookie (koeken is cookies). The picture on the front has two men carrying the cookies on what appears to be a stretcher in front of some ornate building and says Sinds 1883 (since 1883). Inside you will find 20 Jodenkoeken; large, thin shortbread cookies. These cookies come from an
