Living in the midwest now I rarely see these, but they were a familiar treat growing up in NJ outside NYC. Except... my parents called them "Amerikaner," having lived in Germany in the postwar years. So they had them in Germany back then. Has anyone else heard this name? My sense is that it was not racist at all, just part of the general admiration back then for all things American-- jazz, Hollywood, our casual style, our diversity. (Thanks, Mama & Papa, for admiring the US enough to forsake all and come here where I was born!) So I wonder when and where these cookies originated? Ursula, Amerikaner is indeed another common name for these cookies. Apparently, for one of two reasons: 1) these cookies were baked by American GIs in post-war Germany, or 2) it's a shortened version of a longer name: Ammoniumhydrogencarbonatikaner (or Ammoniakaner), which refers to the baker's ammonia with which they're sometimes leavened. Amazing what you can find out by Googling, eh? Thanks for connecting... PJH

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