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| Deventer koek is a company with a local service area. | |
A spiced cake of rye flour and honey, with no egg or butter. Deventer has baked it since the Middle Ages.
How old exactly
First records date from the fourteenth century. Deventer was a Hanseatic town trading in spices, and the two facts connect: the seasoning was to hand.
What goes in
Rye flour, honey or syrup, and a spice mix of cinnamon, clove, ginger and nutmeg. No egg, no butter, no milk, which is why it keeps.
It improves
Weeks, wrapped in foil. The cake gets better with time as it softens and the spices settle. Straight from the oven it is not yet at its best.
With butter
Sliced thin and spread with butter. Sweet cake against salted butter is the usual way.
The guild
Deventer had a cake bakers guild for centuries, with its own rules on recipe and quality. The guild is gone, the tradition is not.
Where to find it
Bakeries in Deventer, and supermarkets nationwide for the factory version.