Kruidnoten, the most eaten cookie.

Here it is.... brown sugar. This sugar is not colored but not 'cleaned'. Still, it costs twice as much as the common white sugar. Its taste is different and it is mainly eaten with rice porridge and used in recipes for 'speculaas' (spiced cookies) and 'kruidnoten' (spiced nuts)

Brown sugar is not always a great substitute. If you use it with the apples for your apple pie or with certain doughs and leave it rest you will find a pool of 'water' in your bowl.

Kruidnoten (spiced nuts)

It is a traditional treat in the Netherlands at the end of the year. It's the treat Sint Nicholaas and his helpers (all sharing the same name which is Piet) give to the children. You find it in your shoe (put in front of the chimney from the moment the Saint arrived, which was on Saturday, November 14, 2020, and broadcasted on tv) and it is the most eaten cookie in the Netherlands.

The ones showed in the photo are homemade and brown sugar and cornflour are two of the ingredients needed. The brown sugar (syrup can be used too) cause the dark-colored dough together with the spices used.

This dough can be used to make kruidnoten or speculate (spiced cookies).

Ingredients are

• 75 grams of butter

• 100 grams of brown sugar

• 1 egg (medium)

• 250 grams of flour

• Salt

• 2 tablespoons of mixed spiced (for recipe see underneath)

• Baking powder

The most eaten cookie 'kruidnoten' is a small one! It has a diameter of about 1 centimeter. People consume large bags of it.

Instead of flour, I used: 200 grams of cornflour and a bit spelled flour to make it less sticky.

Chocolate-kruidnoten

For a few years, the ordinary 'kruidnoot' (literally translated in herb nut) comes in different flavors. Dark chocolate, white chocolate, etc. The ones shown in the photo are made by my child.

A hundred grams of chocolate (melted au-bain-marie) is good for about 50 percent of the kruidnoten you can bake (two trays) with the recipe above. Dip them into the melted chocolate and take them out with a fork.

Speculaas

If you like to bake your own speculate (spiced cookie) you need a wooden mold to give them the familiar shape and leave the baking powder out of the recipe. Press the dough into the mold and take it out.

We use potato starch (the white stuff) to avoid the dough sticks to the mold.

How to make the spice mix?

Needed:

• 6 teaspoons cinnamon (powder)

• 2 teaspoons cloves (powder)

• 2 teaspoons nutmeg (powder)

• 1 teaspoon white pepper (powder)

• 1 teaspoon vanished (powder)

• 1 teaspoon coriander (powder)

If the cloves are spicy use 1 teaspoon instead (mine are, different brand).

Mix the spices well and add 2 tablespoons to the dough.

Pepernoten?

Many call kruidnoten pepernoten but these are not the same. Pepernoten are hardly eaten (sold) these days. The dough is different and this treat has way more in common with the 'cookie' we call 'taai-taai'.

The main spice is anise and honey. The parts of dough cut in pieces are covered with oil and placed in a baking mold. Once in the oven, they rise and because they press against each other they are shaped differently. Homemade pepernoten taste completely different and way better than the sold ones. Instead of honey, I use syrup.

The treats in the photo are made of kruidnoten dough (see the recipe above). It took me too much time to make little balls out of the dough.

Oven: 160 - 175 ° C

Baking time

• Kruidnoten:

  20 - 25 minutes (they need to get hard and will after they cooled off).

• Speculaas (spiced cookies)

  12-15 minutes

The baking time depends on your oven. Mine only has a heath at the bottom.

#kittywu #recipe #kruidnoten #pepernoten #glutenfree