Couque de Dinant

Couque de Dinant are traditional Belgian cookies, famous for their extra-hard texture, so much that they are traditionally given to babies to suck on while they are teething. Their tooth-cracking texture is achieved by baking the cookies at extremely high temperatures (300 °C). These sweet biscuits consist of only two ingredients - wheat flour and honey in equal amounts. The honey caramelizes and hardens as the biscuits cool down, so it is not recommended to bite into them - they should be broken into pieces and allowed to melt in the mouth. The history of couque de Dinant goes back to a Roman savory cake called placenta. Over time, the savory parts of the cake were left out of the recipe, leaving the consumers with a hard, sweet cookie that we know today. Couque de Dinant cookies are also characterized by incredibly detailed, complex, and antique imprints made using a cookie board, so they are not only meant to be consumed, but can also be brought home as souvenirs, or even used as Christmas tree ornaments.