From my kitchen to yours :: Dutch Christmas Cookies

For those of you who don't know, I have a Dutch connection in the family. There's a whole celebration the Dutch have which culminates on the eve of the 5th December, which is the night Sinterklaas (the Dutch equivalent to Santa Claus) and his helper Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) leave presents and lollies for the children (If you're Dutch, please forgive my interpretation- it's a very short description).

 

I'm told that it's a huge celebration in the Netherlands, with Sinterklaas arriving by boat from Spain in mid November, to streets lined with people from the town come to welcome him and Zwarte Piet. 

 
The tradition varies between families, but I'm told that each night you leave your clogs at your door after Sinterklaas has arrived you will receive lollies in return along with traditional Dutch biscuits called "Pepernoten"...but you need to be singing traditional Sinterklaas songs. Which brings me to the point of this post. Today's recipe is for traditional Christmas Cookies, which I'm told by a reliable source (hopefully) that they taste quite like the Dutch biscuits-"Pepernoten."

These Christmas biscuits create the most delicious, Christmassy smell when baking. It really does make the house smell like wafts of Christmas. They taste a bit like gingerbread, but are softer and have a hint of extra spice :)

Today I'll share with you how to make these traditional Christmas biscuits, but I do have another use for this recipe which I'll share with you in a later post.

This will make (depending on the size of your cookie cutter) about 30-35 cookies.

What you'll need is a rolling pin and some miniature Christmas cookie cutters. You'll also need...

Ingredients:-

60g butter

160ml golden syrup

260g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cardamon

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/4 cup mixed peel, chopped

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 tablespoon milk

Method

Sift all dry ingredients together. Add peel.

Melt the butter and the golden syrup together. When melted remove from heat and leave to cool slightly.

 

Add the milk to the dry ingredients and the cooled butter mixture.

Stir until combined. Leave to stand for about 1 hr. To speed the process up a bit, you can chill the dough in the fridge for 30 mins.

Heat oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease oven trays.

Once dough is rested, knead slightly until dough looses its stickiness.
Roll out dough out on a floured surface until 8mm thick. Using your cookie cutter, cut out desired shape.

 

 Bake in a moderate oven for 10 mins, or until they are golden brown on the edges. Cool.

Once cool, dust with sifted icing sugar.

Voila! Traditional Dutch "Pepernoten" Christmas Biscuits. They would look great in one of my Christmas Goodie bags ;-) Now I don't know if they taste like they are supposed to, but there were none left at the end of the day and I got the thumbs up from the Dutchman!

Comments

[Says Annelies]

Nice to see pepernoten like that.
I am from The Netherlands and Sinterklaas is indeed a huge celebration, but Sinterklaas is not the same as Santa Claus.
A lot of people in The Netherlands celebrate them both.
And as for your Sinterklaas song: Zie ginds komt de stoomboot uit Spanje weer aan, hij brengt on Sint Nicolaas ik zie hem al staan........

[Says Miss Thimble]

Yum - they look delicious! I think they're going to end up on my cookie trays this December. Thanks! :)

[Says Birgitte]

I am from the Netherlands too. This weekend on Saturday Sinterklaas is arriving in the Netherlands. Children hardly can't wait.
It is a huge fest for them. And the adults too.

[Says Heleen Groot]

To add to the comments Annelies and Brigitte made..... Hoe huppelt zijn paardje het dek op en neer, hoe waaaaaaaien de wimpels al heen en al weeeer!Just to make sure you know the right lines to sing! The cookies are eaten in The Netherlands too (all year long) we call them Speculaas!

[Says BJ]

I'm just half Dutch, my mother's parents immigrated from Holland in the early 1900's. A nice heritage to have. I can almost smell those wonderful cookies you've made. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

[Says Conny]

Great story our our Dutch Sinterklaas tradition. You are quite accurate! And those cookies, I think too it is "speculaas", we eat it all year. When you make small marbles of your recipe you have "pepernoten"! If you want to know more: here I collected some sinterklaaslinks.

http://sinterklaasjournaal.ntr.nl/#/home for children we even have a special sinterklaas news at television and internet!

This is what wikipedia have in english for you : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

And when you would like to hear (and see some songs: look at this youtube link, and have fun!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sinterklaasliedjes&oq=sinterklaas&gs_l=youtube.1.2.0i3j0l9.1715.3801.0.6755.11.7.0.4.4.0.79.419.7.7.0...0.0...1ac.1.L2Ztbn7z_cU

bye, kind greetingf from the Netherlands

[Says Klara]

Ha nice , I love speculaas, the tradition says to put your shoe at the chimney, but not every night ( they wished) and you put something in the shoe for the horse of sinterklaas, like hay or a carrot. The children dont get always lollies, but can be a chocolate letter of the alphabeth, most of the time the first letter of your name , a chocolate mouse or little toys. Than on 5 december there is the celebration of the birthday of Sinterklaas, and the familys are gathered to give presents to eachother ( children believe they get them from Sinterklaas) the custom is to make a poem to go with the present

[Says Bronwyn...]

Thank you for all your lovely comments. Hearing about the tradition of Sinterklaas is wonderful. It sounds like a beautiful celebration. Please keep adding your comments so we all get to learn a little more about him :-) I've also been told that Zwarte Piet can be quite mischevious!

[Says Monique]

I'm dutch and live in Italy since a few years. Here they don't know Sinterklaas. But I'm lucky there is a supermarket that sells speculaas, chocolat sinterklaas dolls, chocolat coins in these months.
I remember when we were little we all went to our grandmother to celebrate with the whole family. After dinner my grandmother told us children to go upstairs and sing Sinterklaas songs. A few minutes later the doorbel rang and somebody knocked on the windows. For us it was the sign that Sinterklaas had passed and brought presents for everybody.

[Says Yvonne aka sommeke]

Hi,
I'm living in Belgium where we celebrate Sint Niklaas on the 6th of december. We know speculaas, eat it also the all year long. We learned to eat pepernoten from our neighbours The Netherlands.
And .... we sing the same song so I!ll finish :
Zijn knecht staat te lachen en roept ons reeds toe:
wie braaf is krijgt lekkers, wie stout is de roe.
Oh, lieve Sint Nicolaas, oh kom ook bij mij!
En rijd van den avond ons huis niet voorbij.

Be glad you can hear me! ;-)

[Says Anne Fraser]

Looks tasty. Will make this season for sure! Thanks lots! :)

[Says Reny Pattynama]

although my last name is Indonesian,I was born in the Netherlands. So I am familiar with Sinterklaas and zwarte piet.
When I was young girl, I was a little bit afraid of zwarte Piet. But when Sinterklaas gave me a present, and zwarte Piet gave me candy and pepernoten, he became my best friend. hahahaha.

[Says Frederika Carsouw]

Thanks for sharing. Its a nice tradition. Its fun making pepernoten with the children.
He is coming til the Netherlands today.
FUN

[Says simone]

How lovely of you to share our Dutch Sinterklaas tradition!
And today Sinterklaas is arriving on his boat from Spain in Roermond, this year near to where we live. It is always such an exciting time for the children. And exhausting for teachers ;o)

[Says Plumber in Seattle WA]

This looks amazingly beautiful and delicious. I loved this idea. I'll be making some for Christmas.