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The ''Couque de Dinant'' ( en, Cake of Dinant) is an extremely hard, sweet
Due to their extreme hardness and fairly large size, ''couques de Dinant'' are not intended to be bitten into directly. They are instead broken into fragments and can then be bitten, sucked, left to melt in the mouth or be soaked in coffee. ''Couques de Dinant'' have been traditionally given to babies during teething.
While Dinant bakeries see large sales over the summer season due to tourists, consumption of ''couques'' is highest near Saint Nicholas Day in December. At that time of year, they are sold and eaten all over Belgium.
The ''Couque de Dinant'' ( en, Cake of Dinant) is an extremely hard, sweet biscuit
A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be ...
native to the southern Belgian city of Dinant
Dinant () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Namur Province, province of Namur, Belgium. On the shores of river Meuse, in the Ardennes, it lies south-east of Brussels, south ...
in Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
.
Preparation
''Couques'' are made with only two ingredients:wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
flour
Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...
and honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
, in equal amounts by weight, and nothing else at all: not even water or yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constitut ...
. The dough
Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening ag ...
is put in a wooden mould
A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. No ...
made from wood from the pear
Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the p ...
tree, walnut tree or beech tree. The moulds have a wide variety of shapes, which include animals, floral motifs, people or landscapes.
The biscuit is cooked in an oven preheated to around for 15 minutes, which allows the honey to caramelize. On cooling, the biscuit becomes very hard, and can be preserved indefinitely. Due to this property, ''couques'' can be displayed as decoration, used as Christmas tree
A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern ...
ornaments, or used to commemorate special occasions.
A variant, the ''couque de Rins'' also adds sugar to the dough. It is sweeter and softer as a result.
Consumption
Due to their extreme hardness and fairly large size, ''couques de Dinant'' are not intended to be bitten into directly. They are instead broken into fragments and can then be bitten, sucked, left to melt in the mouth or be soaked in coffee. ''Couques de Dinant'' have been traditionally given to babies during teething.
While Dinant bakeries see large sales over the summer season due to tourists, consumption of ''couques'' is highest near Saint Nicholas Day in December. At that time of year, they are sold and eaten all over Belgium.
Origins
A popular though unlikely legend holds that the couques arose from the sacking of Dinant in 1466 by Charles the Bold in the Liège Wars. The citizens were supposedly desperate and had little to eat but flour and honey, so they conceived of making a dough out of the two mixed together. As the dough was so firm, they had the idea of printing it in the negative in ''dinanderie
Dinant () is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. On the shores of river Meuse, in the Ardennes, it lies south-east of Brussels, south-east of Charleroi and south of the city of Namur. Dinant is situa ...
'' (local ornate brasswork), and thereby began the tradition of giving them patterns.
Much more certain is that the ''couque'' began to appear some time in the 18th century, though the exact circumstances of its invention are unclear.
See also
* Belgian cuisine *List of crackers
This is a list of crackers. A cracker is a baked good typically made from a grain-and-flour dough and usually manufactured in large quantities. Crackers (roughly equivalent to savory biscuits in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man) are usuall ...
References
{{reflist Dinant Biscuits Christmas food Belgian cuisine