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Behind the Aegis

(53,831 posts)
Thu Aug 6, 2020, 05:56 AM Aug 2020

Icelandic Jewish cookies: A dessert with a fascinating story to tell

You’ve heard of the wandering Jew, but have you heard of the wandering Jewish cookie?

As Jews move from country to country, they pick up recipes, spices and dishes along the way. Sometimes, even after a Jewish community is no more, their food remains, an echo of a world that once was. Such is the case of the “Jewish cookie” from Iceland.

Recently I learned of a cookbook, “The Culinary Saga of New Iceland, Recipes From the Shores of Lake Winnipeg,” compiled by Kristin Olafson Jenkyns, a writer with forbearers from Iceland. Her book documents the history and culinary traditions of immigrants from Iceland who settled in North America at the end of the 19th century. Many of them moved to Manitoba, Canada, on Lake Winnipeg, where they formed a community that came to be known as “New Iceland.” In the section of the book titled “Cakes and Cookies,” following classic Icelandic foods like skyr, smoked fish, and brown bread, are recipes for cookies traditionally eaten on Christmas. Their name in Icelandic is gyðingakökur, which translates to “Jewish cookie.”

How did “Jewish” cookies end up in a cookbook filled with the food of Icelandic immigrants to the New World? You can be sure that there weren’t many, if any, Jews among those settlers 150 years ago. Yet there are three recipes for Jewish cookies nestled between other traditional sweets like Vinarterta and ginger cookies.

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Icelandic Jewish cookies: A dessert with a fascinating story to tell (Original Post) Behind the Aegis Aug 2020 OP
Thank you for posting. madaboutharry Aug 2020 #1
I want to try the recipe! Kali Aug 2020 #2
"This recipe originally appeared on The Nosher." Ha! Great name! eppur_se_muova Aug 2020 #3
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