Cookies of The World Article - Specialty Foods Magazine
Cookies of the World
By Nicole Potenza Denis
By Nicole Potenza Denis
Cookies such as Toll House’s Chocolate Chip and Nabisco’s Oreo have historically been staples in American households. But the mix in the cookie jar is gradually changing.
Cookies from other parts of the world are becoming part of the U.S. cookiescape. Foreign but familiar treats such as Scottish shortbread, Italian biscotti, Jewish rugulach, and French madeleines are perfect examples. Twenty years ago, these cookies with hard-to-pronounce names and distinct tastes challenged American palates. Today, they have made their way out of ethnic bakeries into specialty food stores and even supermarkets.
“The international cookie category has momentum,” says Paul Fischesser, international buyer for Fairfield, Ohio-based Jungle Jim’s. According to Fischesser, cookies, which occupy an entire aisle alone plus at least four feet of space within each country set in the international section, are the second biggest shopper purchase, trailing only confections.
Known in different countries by different names, (in England and Australia they are called biscuits, in Spain galletas, the Germans know them as keks and to the Italians they are just plain biscotti), the word cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekjes, meaning little cakes. Before baking larger cakes, Dutch cooks used a small amount of batter to test the oven temperature, creating little test cakes that evolved into koekjes—or what we know today as cookie.
Shortbread: The Original Butter CookieThe first cookies introduced to the U.S. were brought by English, Scotch and Dutch immigrants. These cookies, made with simple ingredients which often included some kind of shortening, had a lasting impression on the American butter cookie, which strongly resemble English tea cakes and Scottish shortbread.
“We have approximately 40 feet devoted to international cookies,” says Robert Stokes, store manager, Foods of All Nations, Charlottesville, Va. “Shortbread, particularly Walkers, is by far our most popular—it practically sells itself.”
Widely recognized for its tartan packaging, Walkers manufactures small shortbread rounds, triangular wedges (a derivative of its larger rounds called Petticoat Tails, a name hailing from an Anglicized version of the phrase “petit gautelles” spoken by Mary Queen of Scots’ French cooks) and rectangular fingers, its top seller.
“Every culture has a butter cookie and shortbread is the standard of identity in the U.K.,” says Norman Barnes, president and CEO of Walkers’ Shortbread, Hauppage, N.Y. Now a year-round treat, shortbread originated at Hogmanay, Scottish New Year, when people entering a Scottish home were welcomed with a tot of whisky and a piece of shortbread. Shortbreads’ original classic shapes of triangle wedges and rounds are said to come from the ancient Yule Bannock, which was notched around the edges to signify the sun’s rays. After baking, the cookie was turned out of its mold and cut into wedges.
To Be or Not to Be Biscotti “When it comes to international cookies, people identify with and recognize biscotti the most,” says Tracy Chesman, vice president of sales for Igourmet.com, a N.Y.-based specialty retailer. The online retailer sells imported biscotti from Corsini, a well-known Tuscan bakery. According to Chesman, biscotti are the company’s most widely searched cookies year-round along with ladyfingers, used for recipe-building in desserts such as Italian Tiramisu or English Trifle. Paul Ferrari, president of A.G. Ferrari Foods, which operates 13 stores in northern California, agrees, “We are pleased to see the biscotti category growing. We sell to places I would have never thought of, from Oklahoma to Louisiana.” A.G. Ferrari Foods both imports Italian biscotti from several regions in Italy and bakes a strict traditional Italian recipe in-house. But not all biscotti are created equal.
More akin to bread than to what Americans know as cookies, authentic Italian biscotti gets its characteristic dryness from not just being twice-cooked, but from its 13th-century Tuscan origins in the city of Prato. Often accompanying cheese or dunked in sweet wine such as a vino Santo, this original Tuscan recipe produces extra-crisp, finger-sized biscotti.
Wayne, N.J.-based Italian food importer Lazzaroni USA Corp. imports Cantucci, authentic Italian traditional almond biscotti. The company will soon be replacing its orange-flavored with chocolate chip, a flavor profile fueled by U.S. demand. “Italian biscotti are not like what you see made in the U.S.,” says Theresa Strunck, vice president of operations, Lazzaroni“They are drier, smaller and made to be bite-sized.”
DiCamillo Bakery in Niagara Falls, N.Y. replicates traditional biscotti from Prato. The secret, according to Owner Michael DiCamillo, is the lack of shortening. “Many of the first biscuits started out without any shortening as a way of preserving them,” says DiCamillo. His traditional almond-studded Biscotti di Prato, a concept foreign to many Americans some 25 years ago, is now the company’s best seller.
Biscotti’s Italian roots may have translated over to appeal to the American masses. Domestic manufacturers often produce larger, sweeter, chewier cookies dressed with more than traditional almonds or hazelnuts.
Yet affection for the real thing is growing. “The category is catching on,” says Ferrari. “Although Americans like their sweets, Italian biscotti have a truer flavor; they are not so sweet and are more satisfying, especially with a glass of red wine or some mascarpone cheese.” But is bigger and sweeter better?
Manufacturers and retailers agree that the addition of chocolate, coupled with the popularity of coffee houses in the U.S., has helped propel biscotti into mainstream America. Sharon Friedlander, owner of Denver, Colo.-based Wally Biscotti, bakes a more chewy biscotti in flavors such as Wally Specials, white chocolate cranberry almond, The Lemon Sisters, a tangy lemon biscotti with lemon chips that is most popular in the South and soon-to-come 3 Alarm Hot Chocolate, fudge with chipotle peppers. “Mainstream Americans do not like traditional biscotti,” says Friedlander.
The French ConnectionAnother dunking cookie somewhat similar to biscotti in texture, but not as well-known in the U.S., are Pink Champagne biscuits made in the Champagne region of France. A dry biscuit with the texture of twice-cooked angel food cake dusted with powdered sugar, these cookies are popular throughout France accompanying a glass of Champagne.
Another popular non-American-born sweet is the madeleine, a French tea cake well-recognized by its scalloped shape. This small buttery sponge cake, often eaten as a cookie with tea, can also be paired with Port or soft cheese. Although best consumed bakery fresh, companies such as Emeryville, Calif.-based DonSuMor has created authentic madeleines, sold through coffee houses and specialty retailers nationwide. Like biscotti, dipping the madeleines in chocolate or coffee spurred consumer demand and increased popularity.
Palmiers, better known as elephant ears both in France and the U.S., are another French native. “Almost everyone has a childhood memory of palmiers,” remarks Francoise Bureau Crook, owner of Crossings, a Worcester, Mass.-based specialty food importer.
LU Biscuits’ Le Petit Ecolier, an indulgent butter biscuit topped with chocolate, is another French import steadily gaining momentum in the U.S. “The Extra Dark grew at rate of 42 percent in a 52-week period,” says Elio Pacheco, vice president of Tarrytown, N.Y. LU Biscuits, NA/Great Brands of Europe.
Sweets from the Middle EastIn Middle Eastern countries, flavorings such as vanilla often take a back seat to local favorites such as rosewater and orange blossom. Dates and pistachios, along with sesame seeds and flour made from farina, are often used in baking.
Mammoul, a Middle Eastern cookie made with farina flour and filled with fruit or nuts, is especially popular during springtime religious holidays. “It is a very distinctive butter cookie,” says Margarita Abijaoude, co-owner of Austin, Tex.-based Phoenicia Bakery. “The farina flour gives it a sand dollar texture.” Phoenicia bakes three types of mammoul—walnut, date and pistachio—each shaped differently to distinguish what is inside. Another popular Middle Eastern cookie is barazeh, a flat, crunchy sesame cookie with a touch of honey and pistachios.
Yiddish for “little rolled things,” rugulach has been around for centuries. Originating in Eastern Europe, it was once a bakery product mainly served in Jewish households. “Fifteen years ago, people did not know how to pronounce it and were reluctant to even try it,” says Ahmad Paksima, owner, Chewys Rugulach, San Diego. Chewy’s now makes approximately 5,000 pounds a day of the specialty flaky rolled dough, filled with fruits, nuts and spices.
According to Paksima, traditional rugulach was either filled with poppy seeds or cinnamon raisin. Today, Chewys has taken the delicacy mainstream, with best-selling flavors of cinnamon walnut, chocolate and raspberry part of its 22-flavor repertoire. Paksima suggests rugulach be merchandised in the bakery case and encourages retailers to sample whenever possible.
South American Favorites Generic for “stuffed cookies,” alfajores is a popular South American cookie with many flavor and texture variations. The most popular hail from Peru and Argentina and are filled with a caramel cream better known as dulce de leche. Split Bean Coffee, a Southern Calif.-based online coffee distributor that once sold only Nicaraguan coffees, has been baking a Peruvian variety of alfajores, filled with classic caramel, guava or raspberry, for about one year. According to Owner and Baker Roger Navas, the company now ships more cookies than coffee—from 20 to 30 one-dozen boxes a day. Navas’ Peruvian recipe calls for a round shortbread-like cookie with a powdered sugar dusting, compared to Argentinean alfajores that use a cornstarch batter.
A Nicaraguan version also exists and is made out of cornmeal and molasses but is not traditionally stuffed. Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Yohay Baking Co. private labels a version of alfajores that are square, powdered sugar-dusted lemon-lime wafers filled with a caramel cream. According to Owner Mike Solomon, the cookies are sweet and delicate.
European Favorites Why should consumers bake traditional German or Dutch cookies when they have popular brands such as Bahlsen, Hans Freitag, and Coppenrath to choose from? “Bahlsen has been known in the U.S. for more than 30 years—people associate it with German butter cookies,” says Joel Solon, marketing manager, World Finer Foods.
German food importer Carl Brandt imports two lines of German cookies: Hans Freitag and Coppenrath. Ranging from cream-filled wafers to Christmas specialties such as ginger-spiced lebkuchen and rectangular, windmill-shaped spiced spekulatius, a version of the Dutch and Belgium buttery speculaas, these cookies aren’t just ethnic anymore. “People are well-traveled and they get excited when they see these cookies in the marketplace,” says Susanne Settineri, president, Carl Brandt, Fairfield, Conn.
The Dutch stroopwaffle, originally a syrup-filled waffle cookie that got its start in the region of Gouda, is now replicated in many places in Europe and the U.S. Meant to accompany a cup of tea—some say laying it on top of a steaming beverage is the best way to melt the inside filling—stroopwaffles are known around the world as filled wafer cookies and range in flavors from caramel to chocolate. Dallas, Tex.-based Lady Walton’s Cookies uses a family Dutch recipe and sells eight flavors, including White Chocolate Amaretto and Creamy Dark Chocolate. Not just for tea, the company suggests scooping ice cream in between two for a gourmet ice cream sandwich.
Specialty cookies of the world, whether imported or an adaptation of an international recipe more appealing to the masses, can carry a higher price tag. Says Igourmets’ Chesman, “Higher priced cookies often sell as a hostess gift or a gift basket component, especially during the holidays.”
Foods of All Nations’ Stokes has a contrary opinion. “Most cookies are reasonably priced and our customers purchase them mainly for self-consumption. The big draw is the attractive packaging and labeling.” And those higher prices shouldn’t scare customers away.
“Most imported cookies are more expensive,’ says Carl Brandt’s Settineri. “Yet many specialty food consumers are willing to pay $2 - $3 for one cookie at the bakery. Why not buy a whole bag for a couple dollars more?”
Cookies from other parts of the world are becoming part of the U.S. cookiescape. Foreign but familiar treats such as Scottish shortbread, Italian biscotti, Jewish rugulach, and French madeleines are perfect examples. Twenty years ago, these cookies with hard-to-pronounce names and distinct tastes challenged American palates. Today, they have made their way out of ethnic bakeries into specialty food stores and even supermarkets.
“The international cookie category has momentum,” says Paul Fischesser, international buyer for Fairfield, Ohio-based Jungle Jim’s. According to Fischesser, cookies, which occupy an entire aisle alone plus at least four feet of space within each country set in the international section, are the second biggest shopper purchase, trailing only confections.
Known in different countries by different names, (in England and Australia they are called biscuits, in Spain galletas, the Germans know them as keks and to the Italians they are just plain biscotti), the word cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekjes, meaning little cakes. Before baking larger cakes, Dutch cooks used a small amount of batter to test the oven temperature, creating little test cakes that evolved into koekjes—or what we know today as cookie.
Shortbread: The Original Butter CookieThe first cookies introduced to the U.S. were brought by English, Scotch and Dutch immigrants. These cookies, made with simple ingredients which often included some kind of shortening, had a lasting impression on the American butter cookie, which strongly resemble English tea cakes and Scottish shortbread.
“We have approximately 40 feet devoted to international cookies,” says Robert Stokes, store manager, Foods of All Nations, Charlottesville, Va. “Shortbread, particularly Walkers, is by far our most popular—it practically sells itself.”
Widely recognized for its tartan packaging, Walkers manufactures small shortbread rounds, triangular wedges (a derivative of its larger rounds called Petticoat Tails, a name hailing from an Anglicized version of the phrase “petit gautelles” spoken by Mary Queen of Scots’ French cooks) and rectangular fingers, its top seller.
“Every culture has a butter cookie and shortbread is the standard of identity in the U.K.,” says Norman Barnes, president and CEO of Walkers’ Shortbread, Hauppage, N.Y. Now a year-round treat, shortbread originated at Hogmanay, Scottish New Year, when people entering a Scottish home were welcomed with a tot of whisky and a piece of shortbread. Shortbreads’ original classic shapes of triangle wedges and rounds are said to come from the ancient Yule Bannock, which was notched around the edges to signify the sun’s rays. After baking, the cookie was turned out of its mold and cut into wedges.
To Be or Not to Be Biscotti “When it comes to international cookies, people identify with and recognize biscotti the most,” says Tracy Chesman, vice president of sales for Igourmet.com, a N.Y.-based specialty retailer. The online retailer sells imported biscotti from Corsini, a well-known Tuscan bakery. According to Chesman, biscotti are the company’s most widely searched cookies year-round along with ladyfingers, used for recipe-building in desserts such as Italian Tiramisu or English Trifle. Paul Ferrari, president of A.G. Ferrari Foods, which operates 13 stores in northern California, agrees, “We are pleased to see the biscotti category growing. We sell to places I would have never thought of, from Oklahoma to Louisiana.” A.G. Ferrari Foods both imports Italian biscotti from several regions in Italy and bakes a strict traditional Italian recipe in-house. But not all biscotti are created equal.
More akin to bread than to what Americans know as cookies, authentic Italian biscotti gets its characteristic dryness from not just being twice-cooked, but from its 13th-century Tuscan origins in the city of Prato. Often accompanying cheese or dunked in sweet wine such as a vino Santo, this original Tuscan recipe produces extra-crisp, finger-sized biscotti.
Wayne, N.J.-based Italian food importer Lazzaroni USA Corp. imports Cantucci, authentic Italian traditional almond biscotti. The company will soon be replacing its orange-flavored with chocolate chip, a flavor profile fueled by U.S. demand. “Italian biscotti are not like what you see made in the U.S.,” says Theresa Strunck, vice president of operations, Lazzaroni“They are drier, smaller and made to be bite-sized.”
DiCamillo Bakery in Niagara Falls, N.Y. replicates traditional biscotti from Prato. The secret, according to Owner Michael DiCamillo, is the lack of shortening. “Many of the first biscuits started out without any shortening as a way of preserving them,” says DiCamillo. His traditional almond-studded Biscotti di Prato, a concept foreign to many Americans some 25 years ago, is now the company’s best seller.
Biscotti’s Italian roots may have translated over to appeal to the American masses. Domestic manufacturers often produce larger, sweeter, chewier cookies dressed with more than traditional almonds or hazelnuts.
Yet affection for the real thing is growing. “The category is catching on,” says Ferrari. “Although Americans like their sweets, Italian biscotti have a truer flavor; they are not so sweet and are more satisfying, especially with a glass of red wine or some mascarpone cheese.” But is bigger and sweeter better?
Manufacturers and retailers agree that the addition of chocolate, coupled with the popularity of coffee houses in the U.S., has helped propel biscotti into mainstream America. Sharon Friedlander, owner of Denver, Colo.-based Wally Biscotti, bakes a more chewy biscotti in flavors such as Wally Specials, white chocolate cranberry almond, The Lemon Sisters, a tangy lemon biscotti with lemon chips that is most popular in the South and soon-to-come 3 Alarm Hot Chocolate, fudge with chipotle peppers. “Mainstream Americans do not like traditional biscotti,” says Friedlander.
The French ConnectionAnother dunking cookie somewhat similar to biscotti in texture, but not as well-known in the U.S., are Pink Champagne biscuits made in the Champagne region of France. A dry biscuit with the texture of twice-cooked angel food cake dusted with powdered sugar, these cookies are popular throughout France accompanying a glass of Champagne.
Another popular non-American-born sweet is the madeleine, a French tea cake well-recognized by its scalloped shape. This small buttery sponge cake, often eaten as a cookie with tea, can also be paired with Port or soft cheese. Although best consumed bakery fresh, companies such as Emeryville, Calif.-based DonSuMor has created authentic madeleines, sold through coffee houses and specialty retailers nationwide. Like biscotti, dipping the madeleines in chocolate or coffee spurred consumer demand and increased popularity.
Palmiers, better known as elephant ears both in France and the U.S., are another French native. “Almost everyone has a childhood memory of palmiers,” remarks Francoise Bureau Crook, owner of Crossings, a Worcester, Mass.-based specialty food importer.
LU Biscuits’ Le Petit Ecolier, an indulgent butter biscuit topped with chocolate, is another French import steadily gaining momentum in the U.S. “The Extra Dark grew at rate of 42 percent in a 52-week period,” says Elio Pacheco, vice president of Tarrytown, N.Y. LU Biscuits, NA/Great Brands of Europe.
Sweets from the Middle EastIn Middle Eastern countries, flavorings such as vanilla often take a back seat to local favorites such as rosewater and orange blossom. Dates and pistachios, along with sesame seeds and flour made from farina, are often used in baking.
Mammoul, a Middle Eastern cookie made with farina flour and filled with fruit or nuts, is especially popular during springtime religious holidays. “It is a very distinctive butter cookie,” says Margarita Abijaoude, co-owner of Austin, Tex.-based Phoenicia Bakery. “The farina flour gives it a sand dollar texture.” Phoenicia bakes three types of mammoul—walnut, date and pistachio—each shaped differently to distinguish what is inside. Another popular Middle Eastern cookie is barazeh, a flat, crunchy sesame cookie with a touch of honey and pistachios.
Yiddish for “little rolled things,” rugulach has been around for centuries. Originating in Eastern Europe, it was once a bakery product mainly served in Jewish households. “Fifteen years ago, people did not know how to pronounce it and were reluctant to even try it,” says Ahmad Paksima, owner, Chewys Rugulach, San Diego. Chewy’s now makes approximately 5,000 pounds a day of the specialty flaky rolled dough, filled with fruits, nuts and spices.
According to Paksima, traditional rugulach was either filled with poppy seeds or cinnamon raisin. Today, Chewys has taken the delicacy mainstream, with best-selling flavors of cinnamon walnut, chocolate and raspberry part of its 22-flavor repertoire. Paksima suggests rugulach be merchandised in the bakery case and encourages retailers to sample whenever possible.
South American Favorites Generic for “stuffed cookies,” alfajores is a popular South American cookie with many flavor and texture variations. The most popular hail from Peru and Argentina and are filled with a caramel cream better known as dulce de leche. Split Bean Coffee, a Southern Calif.-based online coffee distributor that once sold only Nicaraguan coffees, has been baking a Peruvian variety of alfajores, filled with classic caramel, guava or raspberry, for about one year. According to Owner and Baker Roger Navas, the company now ships more cookies than coffee—from 20 to 30 one-dozen boxes a day. Navas’ Peruvian recipe calls for a round shortbread-like cookie with a powdered sugar dusting, compared to Argentinean alfajores that use a cornstarch batter.
A Nicaraguan version also exists and is made out of cornmeal and molasses but is not traditionally stuffed. Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Yohay Baking Co. private labels a version of alfajores that are square, powdered sugar-dusted lemon-lime wafers filled with a caramel cream. According to Owner Mike Solomon, the cookies are sweet and delicate.
European Favorites Why should consumers bake traditional German or Dutch cookies when they have popular brands such as Bahlsen, Hans Freitag, and Coppenrath to choose from? “Bahlsen has been known in the U.S. for more than 30 years—people associate it with German butter cookies,” says Joel Solon, marketing manager, World Finer Foods.
German food importer Carl Brandt imports two lines of German cookies: Hans Freitag and Coppenrath. Ranging from cream-filled wafers to Christmas specialties such as ginger-spiced lebkuchen and rectangular, windmill-shaped spiced spekulatius, a version of the Dutch and Belgium buttery speculaas, these cookies aren’t just ethnic anymore. “People are well-traveled and they get excited when they see these cookies in the marketplace,” says Susanne Settineri, president, Carl Brandt, Fairfield, Conn.
The Dutch stroopwaffle, originally a syrup-filled waffle cookie that got its start in the region of Gouda, is now replicated in many places in Europe and the U.S. Meant to accompany a cup of tea—some say laying it on top of a steaming beverage is the best way to melt the inside filling—stroopwaffles are known around the world as filled wafer cookies and range in flavors from caramel to chocolate. Dallas, Tex.-based Lady Walton’s Cookies uses a family Dutch recipe and sells eight flavors, including White Chocolate Amaretto and Creamy Dark Chocolate. Not just for tea, the company suggests scooping ice cream in between two for a gourmet ice cream sandwich.
Specialty cookies of the world, whether imported or an adaptation of an international recipe more appealing to the masses, can carry a higher price tag. Says Igourmets’ Chesman, “Higher priced cookies often sell as a hostess gift or a gift basket component, especially during the holidays.”
Foods of All Nations’ Stokes has a contrary opinion. “Most cookies are reasonably priced and our customers purchase them mainly for self-consumption. The big draw is the attractive packaging and labeling.” And those higher prices shouldn’t scare customers away.
“Most imported cookies are more expensive,’ says Carl Brandt’s Settineri. “Yet many specialty food consumers are willing to pay $2 - $3 for one cookie at the bakery. Why not buy a whole bag for a couple dollars more?”
Nicole Potenza Denis is associate editor of Specialty Food Magazine.
(This Article Originally appeared in the May 2004 Edition of Specialty Foods Magazine)
posted by Split Bean Coffee at 10:19 AM
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