Ontbijtkoek is a Dutch breakfast cake made with rye or wholemeal flour, spices, and sweeteners like brown sugar or honey. It’s low in fat and often served with butter, cheese, or jam. Variations include adding fruits or nuts, and it’s also popular in Indonesia.
Ontbijtkoek literally means “breakfast cake” in Dutch. It is a type of spicebread or gingerbread that is similar to a coffee cake and made with very little fat. The cake is typically eaten in the Netherlands, Flanders and Indonesia.
The Dutch typically serve a breakfast breakfast topped with butter. It can also be eaten with cheese or jam. When eaten as a snack, tea or coffee is typically served as well. It is also sometimes considered a dessert.
A distinctive feature of ontbijtkoek is its lack of fat. The cake is made without butter or oil and usually without eggs. Milk is the only source of fat in this traditional breakfast pie.
Ontbijtkoek is usually made with rye flour, although there are also versions made with wholemeal flour. Cakes may contain a variety of spices, often including ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Sometimes cardamom and coriander are also included. The cake contains salt and a leavening agent, such as baking powder, as is typical for most cakes. This type of breakfast cake is also made with less refined sweeteners. You can use brown sugar, molasses, honey, or a combination. Palm sugar is also commonly used in Indonesian versions.
The cakes are traditionally cooked in a pan at a moderate oven temperature. It may take around 90 minutes for a cake to be fully cooked. The cake is usually allowed to cool completely before serving.
A variety of additional ingredients can be added to the traditional ontbijtkoek. Fruits such as raisins or apples are common additions. Nuts can also be added. Some cakes are topped with sugar or pearl sugar. Cakes with special ingredients are sometimes given different names, such as kandijkoek or Gemberkoek.
Different regions of the Netherlands have their own distinctive versions of ontbijtkoek. In the southern region of the Netherlands and in Flanders, the cake is called peperkoek, which means gingerbread. It’s called old women’s cake, or wief wal, in the northern Netherlands, and this version has an aniseed flavor and a lighter color than the other cakes. In western regions, it is simply called cake, or snijkoek for “cutting the cake”.
Ontbijtkoek is also popular in Indonesia which was settled by the Dutch. It is known there as bolu kampung, which means village cake. Indonesian versions of the breakfast may contain eggs. In this region, the cake is usually topped with margarine and served with coffee or tea.
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