Navigate to News section

Kosher Cookies Leave the Bronx

With Stella D’oro’s move to Ohio, will Breakfast Treats taste the same?

by
Allison Hoffman
October 12, 2009

Last week, Stella D’oro—the Italian cookie maker that’s been keeping Orthodox Jews in dairy-free chocolate desserts for decades—shut down its 79-year-old factory in the Bronx, after negotiations with the local bakers’ union failed. Legendary New York foodie Gael Greene called the move “tragic.” Stella D’oro’s move, however, isn’t prompting the screaming from kosher circles that erupted after then-owner Kraft Foods announced in 2003 that it would start making the company’s Swiss Fudge cookies—known affectionately in some quarters as shtreimels, after the round fur hats worn by some ultra-Orthodox sects, which they (sort of) resemble—with milk-based chocolate. That’s because the company isn’t changing the recipe, merely transferring baking operations—and 136 jobs—to a plant in Ohio. But, still, who knows if the move will also mean changes for the company’s product lines. We won’t be surprised if people start stockpiling the biscotti and Breakfast Treats, just in case.

Allison Hoffman is a senior editor at Tablet Magazine. Her Twitter feed is @allisont_dc.