"Zeeuwse bolus": a Dutch pastry with Portuguese origins

In the last entry, I shared with you the recipe of "Bolo Rei", our traditional Portuguese Christmas, New Year's Day and Kings Day cake.

Yesterday, I received a very nice email from Jacoba, with the most amazing tip:
" Something that strikes me is that in Zeeland we have a specialty of dough, rolled up, sugared with cinnamon and it is called a 'bolus'. I wonder whether the name is derived from your pastry?"

Zeeland is the lovely and beautiful Dutch province located in the south-west of the country and consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg.

I became so curious, I went to Wikipedia searching for information...and look what I found!!:

"The bolus was first created in Zeeland in the first half of the 17th century by Sephardi Jew bakers. There are signs of the Portuguese Jewish community that inhabited Zeeland at the Jewish cemetery in Middelburg. These Jewish bakers created the predecessor of the Zeeuwse bolus. Later bakers from Zeeland perfected the art of the bolus, sometimes using steam ovens to keep the cinnamon pastry tender."



When I looked at this photo, I thought " I've already eaten this in Lisbon!!".

I was so glad with this discovery! Thank you, dear Jacoba, :-)

According to Wikipedia, there is a competition on the Tuesday of the 12th week of the year called the "Bolusbaking Championships Zeeland"! I need to see this, definitively! It's organised by the Dutch Bakery Centre. The winner receives the Bolus Trophy and becomes the "Best Bolus Baker" for a year.
The jury - two bakers and two Zeelandia employees-chooses the best ten products and the winner is chosen from these by the audience.
I will go there to help to choose the winner!! :-)) I don't mind it at all ;-))
Definitively!