Polydish city guide
Best Moravian spice cookies in New York
“Paper-thin molasses cookies with a spice blend traced back to 17th-century German roots.”
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What the real thing tastes like
Moravian spice cookies are a traditional kind of cookie that originated in the Colonial American communities of the Moravian Church. The blend of spices and molasses, rolled paper thin, has a reputation as the "World's Thinnest Cookie". They are related to German Lebkuchen; original recipes can be traced back to the 17th century. The cookie is especially popular around, and usually associated with, Christmas in communities with a strong Moravian background such as Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which still maintain the two largest Moravian communities in the United States. Although there are a few bakeries that still roll and cut the cookies by hand, some now use a mechanized process for making the cookies in order to meet the demand. While this does not affect the taste, the machine-made cookies have been criticized for not being as thin as their handmade counterparts. While the spice recipe is the most traditional and well-known of the Moravian cookies, o
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Moravian spice cookies arrive paper-thin, crackling with molasses and centuries of spice tradition. Born in Colonial communities of the Moravian Church and still beloved in Winston-Salem and Bethlehem, these cookies hold their reputation through meticulous rolling—some bakers still do it by hand, though machines now meet modern demand. The spice version remains the anchor, though lemon, chocolate, and black walnut variations have emerged over generations.
Order it here when it has
- legendary thinness
- centuries-old recipe lineage
- Christmas tradition
- multiple flavor variations
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