An Ontbijtkoek is a Dutch

Dutch cuisine

Dutch cuisine is shaped by the practice of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for raising crops and the raising of domesticated animals, and the history of the Netherlands.-History:...

 spiced cake

Cake

Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape...

. Rye

Rye

Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...

 is its most important ingredient, coloring the cake a light brown. It is often spiced with cloves, cinnamon

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...

, ginger

Ginger

Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....

, succade

Succade

Succade is the candied peel of any of the citrus species, especially from the citron or Citrus medica which is distinct with its extra thick peel; in addition, the taste of the inner rind of the citron is less bitter than those of the other citrus...

 and nutmeg

Nutmeg

The nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia...

. Several parts of The Netherlands have their own local recipe, of which the most famous is "Oudewijvenkoek" (old hags' cake) which is mostly eaten in the northern regions, and is flavored with aniseed. Ontbijtkoek is originally served at breakfast with a thick layer of butter

Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...

 on top, as a replacement for bread

Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...

. However due to its sweet taste it is also served as a snack.

Origin

Originally called 'peperkoek' is made from breadcrums and other rest bakery product stored on an attick. Periodically collected and pressed to create 'peperkoek', augmented with Black pepper

Black pepper

Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...

 to conceal age of the resulting thick break, hence it's name. Pepper being one of it's most valuable Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

trading products, pepper is used in many of dutch food products.