Ontbijtkoek

Originated from Netherlands, this well known Dutch spice bread/cake, with rye as one of the main ingredients and uses many kind of spices, mainly cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. It's known that it's a breakfast menu and people have it with a spread of butter. It's stated too that different parts of Netherlands have their own version
Being under Dutch for the longest time, this treat is quite popular in Indonesia
I have never tried the original version from Netherlands, but back in Indonesia, what mostly sold is the moist sponge cake type with the usage of butter nowadays. During my parent's generation and older, the recipe is not using butter, hence the drier texture, even though it's still soft

This cake brings memories about my mom, as this is one of her favorite. She always baked this cake from time to time. I myself like it but never made an attempt to bake it myself. What I remember is her version is using butter resulting in soft spongy cake

I was browsing through many recipes and I was overwhelmed with so many different kinds I didn't know which one to choose. Some use rye flour, some don't. Some use honey, molasses, oil, milk, etc etc

Since this is my first trial, I decided to try the first recipe I found, which is the Indonesian version, the older time recipe with no butter (well, the truth is, I had no butter in the fridge on the day I baked this cake, hence the choice of recipe haha..)
Very easy and fast to prepare, but true enough, as expected, the cake is rather dry, but still soft, and it's pretty tall. Taste delicious and really fragrant. I still enjoy having it with a cup of tea and it turned slightly more moist the next day

Here's the recipe... Source from Yasa Boga

 

What you need:

 

125g palm sugar (I used the powder kind)

5 egg yolks

3 egg whites

125g plain flour

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground clove (I skipped)

50g chopped almond / walnut for topping (I skipped)

 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170degC. Butter a loaf pan, line and spread another layer of butter
2. In a bowl, mix plain flour with cinnamon and nutmeg, sieve and set aside
3. In another mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar til thick and fluffy
4. Reduce speed to the lowest and add in sifted flour mixture until just combined
5. Pour batter into the prepared pan, sprinkle chopped nuts if using and bake for about 35-40mins til skewer test comes out clean
6. Remove from oven and transfer to cooling rack

 



After sorting out, I have two more versions of recipe waiting to try out. One is the Indonesian version with butter, and the other one is the one using rye flour, supposedly to be the original kind since I found it in one of Dutch food blog LOL
When I have the craving for this cake, I will give them a try and will let you know which one is my favorite :)