A cat tongue is a small biscuit (cookie) or
chocolate bar available in a number of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
n, and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
n countries.
They are known locally as "kočičí jazýčky" (
Czech), Kattentong (
Dutch),
"kocie języczki" (
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
), "langue de chat" (
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
), "Katzenzungen" (
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
), "lingua di gatto" (
Italian), "língua de gato" (
Portuguese), "macskanyelv" (
Hungarian), "lengua" or "lengua de gato" (
Spanish), "limbă de pisică" (
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
) or "lidah kucing" (
Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesian ...
). They are shaped somewhatlike a cat's tongue (long and flat).
Cookies (biscuits)
Cat's tongue cookies are sweet and crunchy.
The original recipe most likely comes from 17th century
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
They are produced from
egg white
Egg white is the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms arou ...
,
wheat flour
Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bread ...
,
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
,
butter
Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...
(sometimes) and
vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia'').
Pollination is required to make the p ...
. They are
baked
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferre ...
in the
oven
upA double oven
A ceramic oven
An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been us ...
until cooked.
[ Additional ingredients may include chocolate, citrus, and spices.]
In European cuisine they are prepared with a ganache, cream or jam filling, and sandwiched together. They are sometimes dipped in chocolate as part of their preparation. In France, the cookie is often served with sorbet or ice cream. In the Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
, cat's tongue cookies are served with bienmesabe, a dessert dish.
A cat's tongue mold pan may be used in their preparation, in which cookie dough is placed and then baked. In French, this pan is known as ''langue-de-chat''. This pan is also used in the preparation of ladyfingers and éclairs. The mold is also referred to as a cat's tongue plaque.
In Japan, a "langue de chat" is a square sandwich cookie, made of a layer of white chocolate between two square cookies. Shiroi Koibito
is a European-style cookie manufactured and sold by Japanese confectionery maker Ishiya Co., Ltd. in Sapporo, Hokkaido. It consists of chocolate sandwiched between langue de chat. There are two main types: Shiroi Koibito White with white chocol ...
is one famous manufacturer, but langues de chat can be found throughout Japan, including 白い針葉樹 in Nagano Nagano may refer to:
Places
* Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan
** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture
*** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics
*** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano
*** Nagano Universi ...
and まごころづつみ in Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...
.
Chocolate bars
They are produced from milk chocolate
Milk chocolate is a solid chocolate confectionery containing cocoa, sugar and milk. Chocolate was originally sold and consumed as a beverage in pre-Columbian times, and upon its introduction to Western Europe. Major milk chocolate producers incl ...
, dark chocolate and white chocolate.[Lebensmittel-Lexikon Dr. Oetker, 4. Aufl. 2004, Artikel ''Katzenzungen''.]
Chocolate cat tongues have been in production since before 1900; the Austrian company Küfferle (now owned by Lindt & Sprüngli) has been producing them since 1892. Elsewhere in Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, companies including Sarotti
Sarotti is a German chocolate brand owned by Stollwerck GmbH since 1998.
History
Berlin
In 1868 Hugo Hoffmann opened a company to produce sweets. The location of this shop was in Mohrenstraße 10 in Berlin. The industrial chocolate production t ...
, Hachez and Halloren make cat tongues. In Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, they are manufactured by Zermatt
Zermatt () is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is classified as a town by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO).
...
and Kopenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
. In Chile they are made by Costa under the name "Lengüitas de gato" (little cat tongues). Hungarians widely believe that the Swiss-born Hungarian patissier Emil Gerbeaud invented the delicacy in the late 1880s.[About Café Gerbaud]
Offbeat Budapest
retrieved on 28 October 2021
See also
* Ladyfingers - biscuits shaped like large fingers
* Kue lidah kucing
* Lengua de gato
Lenguas de gato are Filipino butter cookies. They are made from butter, flours, sugar, eggs, and milk. Their name means "cat's tongue" in Spanish, after their characteristic oval shape. They are very thin and crunchy.
See also
*Cat's tongue co ...
* List of cookies
* Milano (cookie)
The Milano cookie (marketed as the Monaco in Canada) is a trademarked cookie manufactured by Pepperidge Farm
Pepperidge Farm is an American commercial bakery founded in 1937 by Margaret Rudkin, who named the brand after her family's 123-acre ...
References
Chocolate confectionery
Cookies
Biscuits
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