Suikerbeestjes

"Er was er eens een suikerbeest" starts a sweet poem by famous Dutch author Annie M.G. Schmidt, about an animal made of sugar, a suikerbeest. "Suikerbeestjes", small sugar animals, are an old-fashioned Dutch confectionary, particularly associated with the celebration of Sinterklaas. These sweets are made in various shapes and colors, resembling small animals, and are crafted from sugar. 

Historically, suikerbeestjes were quite expensive due to the high cost of sugar, which had to be imported into the Netherlands. However, with the discovery and cultivation of sugar beets in the country, the cost of sugar and subsequently suikerbeestjes decreased significantly. Nowadays, they have lost against factory made sugary candy, and only a few professionals and home cooks will engage in the tradition. 

And it's not an easy feat either: the boiling sugar is poured into traditional wooden molds that are held together with clamps, and left to cool. As you can imagine, these sugar creatures can be quite fragile. In Schmidt's poem, the suikerbeestje's mom warns him and says "Pas dus maar op dat je niet breekt", be careful that you don't break.  

Well, I don't have the wooden molds, but I did want to make something sugary for Valentine's Day, especially since "suikerbeestje" can also be a romantic name for a lover. Valentine's Day is celebrated in the Netherlands, but it's a relatively new tradition that only gained popularity in the mid-1990s, influenced by the spread of American culture. 

I picked two types of sugary confections, both associated with Sinterklaas: suikerbeestjes and borstplaat - and decided to try both. I used a heart-shaped silicone, heat resistant mold. The suikerbeestjes turned out to be hard as a rock, which is the intention I guess, and were just too big of a lump of sugar - they would do great with a smaller silicone mold, and in the shape of an animal to honor its name. The borstplaat was softer, more tender to the palate, and was perfect for nibbling on while drinking a cup of coffee - and ultimately won out. Borstplaat can be described as similar to fudge but differs in its consistency, being flatter and more brittle. The main ingredients in borstplaat are sugar and cream. 

The sugar can be enhanced with flavoring and food coloring. Be careful when pouring the sugar as it is incredibly hot, and allow the candy to sit overnight before removing it from the molds. If you live in a humid environment, it is probably of the essence to consume these as soon as possible, as the sugar will attract moisture. Makes 6 hearts.

Suikerbeestjes

For suikerbeestjes 

1/2 cup (100 grams) white sugar

1/2 cup (50 grams) powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence or extract

3 tablespoons water

For borstplaat

1 cup (200 grams) white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence or extract
3 tablespoons milk, water or heavy cream

Optional: edible glitter or sprinkles

Place the silicone mold on a solid surface, for example, a cutting board, so that you can easily move it out of the way while the sugar sets up. If you want to  use edible glitter or sprinkles, add a pinch to the bottom of each shape. 

Use a pan with a thick bottom, and make sure that the pan is tall enough to allow for the volume to double or triple. Mix the sugars with the vanilla and the liquid in the pan, and bring to a boil on a medium hot stove.  Stir frequently, until the sugar has dissolved. Continue to stir as the sugary syrup starts to bubble up and become "woolly", displaying a white, bubbly surface (see picture). 

Stir for three or four minutes, and then dip a fork in the hot sugar. Lift the fork up. If the syrup coats the tines of the fork without dripping off, it's ready to be taken off the stove. In the photo on the right, you can still see sugar crystals so it needs a few more minutes. 

Once off the heat, stir down the sugary mixture, until all the big bubbles have gone - this will ensure a nice, solid candy. Stir in a drop or two of food coloring if you wish, and stir until you have the desired color. Carefully pour the hot sugary mess into the molds. 

The sugar will set pretty quickly on the outside, but the inside will still be scalding hot, so don't be fooled. Allow it to sit in a safe place for several hours or overnight to set up. 

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Rozijnenbrood

Breakfast is always a little bit of a feast in the Netherlands, especially on the weekends, when there is a bit more time to prepare something special. Our breakfasts are certainly not for the indecisive. Are you going to go for white soft rolls or crunchy ones? Beschuit, toast, or knäckebrot? White, brown or volkoren bread? Not to mention having to choose between the vast amount of toppings, sweet or savory, cold cuts, cheeses, eggs.....or are you skipping bread altogether and prefer a big bowl of pap, porridge? The breakfast table holds a dazzling array of choices, and is such a treasure trove of delights - worth taking time for.

The only thing I think we can all agree on is that savory comes first, and sweet comes last - but even that unwritten rule is sometimes hazy: where does a slice of bread with cheese and jam, or peanut butter and hagelslag fall? Is it all-in-one, or does it come after the savory and before the sweet? And is three slices of bread too much for our Calvinistic genes? Interesting things to ponder while enjoying a cup of coffee or tea, and another slice of something good :-)

One of the breads that always makes the breakfast table a little bit more festive and special is a pillowy loaf of raisin bread, rozijnenbrood. A sweet dough, flavored with just a hint of cinnamon, and juicy, sweet raisins all throughout the loaf. This bread is good with just a lick of butter, or topped with a slice of aged cheese. It can also be used as a base for wentelteefjes, or broodschoteltjes. 

Don't be alarmed by the large amount of raisins that go in the bread: they will all fit! For this recipe, I rinse the raisins in warm water, let them sit in the warm water for a few minutes, then set them out to air dry for a couple of hours. I want them somewhat plump-ish on the inside but not overly saturated, and dry on the outside. 

Rozijnenbrood

2 cups (250 grams) raisins

1 3/4 cup (250 grams) all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons (25 grams) sugar

1/2 teaspoon (4 grams) salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup (125 ml) water or milk, lukewarm

2 teaspoons (8 grams) active dry yeast

3 tablespoons (40 grams) butter, softened

1 egg, beaten

Rinse the raisins in lukewarm water, and set them out to air dry. 

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the lukewarm water or
milk and let it stand for five minutes, or until it's frothy, then mix it in with the dry ingredients. Knead, either in a machine or by hand, until the dough more or less comes together, then add the butter and most of the egg (keep two teaspoons behind for brushing the top). Continue to knead the dough until you have  cohesive whole, about three to four minutes. Pat the dough into a ball, cover and let it rise for a good thirty minutes, or until about not quite doubled in size. 

Dust the counter with a little bit of flour, pat the air out of the dough, and put a handful of raisins on top. With the use of a scraper, or a floured hand, fold the dough over itself, incorporating the raisins. Repeat this until all the raisins have found a spot in the dough. 

Shape the dough into an oval loaf, grease a 8 x 4 inch (20 x 10 cm) loaf tin, and place the dough inside. Cover and let rise at room temperature until the dough peeks over the top: about an hour, but depending on the actual temperature of the room, this may take less - just keep an eye on it. When ready, brush the top with the remaining egg.

Heat the oven to 350F/175C and bake the loaf, in the middle, for about fifteen minutes, then place aluminum foil over the top to keep it from browning too fast. Bake for another twenty minutes, or until golden brown*. The internal temperature should measure 185F/85F and rising (meaning that the digital thermometer reaches the temperature pretty quickly and continues to rise beyond that). 

Pull the bread, let it cool in the tin, and remove it when it's lukewarm. Let it cool down on a rack before cutting. 

 * I don't follow the "bread is done when it sounds hollow when you tap it" because I don't know what "hollow" sounds like to anybody else, so I temp the bread with a digital thermometer. 

Soepballetjes

"Geef mij maar soep, soep, soep met balletjes" sang Rita Corita already in the 50's, and for those of you who listen to the Groeten Uit Het Zuiden podcast from Jordy Graat and Rob Kemps, may remember that last season's soup component started with the "Soep met Ballen" song by Leo van Helmond. 

Even the sheep Veronica, a fantastic poem by Annie M.G. Schmidt, brings up "soep met ballen", soup with meatballs, as a delightful, delicious, start of a dinner. It is truly an engrained and traditional addition to our kitchen, to our many soups, and delights many, young and old. 

So what are these soepballetjes? That's an easy answer: small meatballs that are added to traditionally tomato or vegetable soup, but they can also be added to other soups. Beyond that there is a vast choice of flavors, combinations, and options.  Commercially, soepballetjes can be bought pre-made and blanched in jars with bouillon, in cans with salted water, and in the meat section at the grocery store or at the butchers you can also buy them pre-seasoned and raw. 

We have soepballetjes made with beef, with half-om-half (half beef, half pork), made with chicken, turkey, or vegan. They come with different seasonings and in different variations. I've seen people use, outside of salt and white or black pepper, any combination of onion powder, nutmeg, coriander, ginger, mace, cardamom, chili powder, paprika, bay leaf, and a whole host of dried spices: parsley, thyme, oregano....

And then of course there are the soepballetjes made at home, where those who do make them, have their own family recipe or preferences. Some make them fresh while making the soup, others make a big batch every now and then (a fun family affair!), blanch and freeze them, still others fry them first so that they get some color. Some make them small, others make them bigger. Some only use meat, others add breadcrumbs or egg. All this to say that there is no "official", one way to make soepballetjes. But if you've never made them before and would like to give it a try, here's a very basic recipe. 

I make mine ahead of time by cooking them in bouillon and storing them in a container in the freezer. That way, when I make soup, I just grab a handful and add them last minute. The following recipe makes about 90 soepballetjes (I portion mine out at 5 grams, 0.2 oz). 

Soepballetjes

8 oz (225 grams) ground beef

8 oz (225 grams) ground pork

2 tablespoons bread crumbs

Salt

Pepper

Optional: nutmeg

1 bouillon cube of choice

Mix the two meats together with the breadcrumbs, and season with salt and pepper. Put a pot on the stove with 4 - 6 cups (1 - 1.5 liter) of water, add the bouillon cube (I use vegetable bouillon), and bring up to a low simmer (do not boil). Use a small ice cream scoop (mine is 1 teaspoon sized) to portion the meat and roll one or two mini marbles, as a tester. Add to the simmering bouillon. They will sink to the bottom first, and as they cook, float to the top. Remove the tester and taste. Adjust the seasonings to your liking, but remember that the flavor should not overpower the soup they're going to be in. 

Continue to portion out the meatballs. I make them fairly small, at 5 grams each (0.2 oz) but that is purely a personal preference, so go with what you feel is the right size for you. Simmer them in the bouillon, and remove them a few minutes after they float. Spread out on a baking sheet, cool, and then freeze them. Once frozen they can be kept in a container in the freezer. 

The bouillon can be used as a base for soup, so if you are doing that today, keep some of the soepballetjes behind - about four or five per person. As pork has quite a bit of fat, you may want to degrease it first, but again: that's a personal preference. 

Rondo's

Rondo's....that's not a typo, by the way. There are clear rules in Dutch for the endings s and 's. If a word ends in -e, -el, -en, -er, -em, -ie or -eau then you write s in the plural. If a word ends in -i, -a, -o, -u, -y then you make it plural with 's. If there is a vowel before y, you write s next to it. Anyway, just thought you'd like to know!

Enough of grammar and language though, let's get back to what's important: our food! Or in this case, our vast amount of cakes, cookies, and pastries. As you can tell from the table of contents on the right side of this website, there are so many already featured...and there are still so many more to talk about. We have an amazing array of options, so I'll just keep plugging away at it!

This recipe has been requested several times, and rightfully so. If you've been around Dutch baked goods, you know we have a love for anything almond paste filled: gevulde koeken, amandelbroodjes, kerststol, gevulde speculaas...you name it. Today's treat is no different: an individual koek (a large cookie) portion filled with sweet almond paste. They come in two shapes: round called rondo, and elongated, called kano, but they're both the same baked good. I don't have that much more information about them, oddly enough. They start appearing in bakery advertisements around the middle of last century with apparently no previous or historical reference. I will do some more digging! 

The kano and rondo require a dedicated ring or elongated bottomless baking form, which would be hard to come by for those of us abroad, but I made do with a muffin pan like this one, one that has 12 holes, each one about 3 inches (7.5 cm) wide and about 1 inch (2.5 inch) deep. It changes the shape a bit but not the flavor - yay! If you don't have any almond paste left over from our holiday baking, see if you can make the almond paste a day or two ahead of time. It is not mandatory, but will improve the flavor. However....don't let it keep you from making these. Any rondo is better than no rondo ;-)

This makes approximately 10 rondo's. 

Rondo's

For the dough

2 sticks (225 grams) butter

1 cup (150 grams) sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups (300 grams) all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Zest of 1/2 lemon

1 egg, beaten

Filling

1 cup (250 grams) almond paste

1/2 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon almond extract or flavoring

Topping

1/2 egg, beaten

10 plain, skinless almonds

Cut the butter in with the sugar, the baking powder, the flour, the salt and the lemon zest, until it resembles wet sand, then add the egg, and knead until the dough comes together. Wrap and chill. Mix the almond paste with half a beaten egg and a teaspoon of almond flavoring until it's well absorbed. Chill until use.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and roll out to 0.1 inch (3mm) thick. The diameter of the muffin cups is 3 inches, so you will need a cutter that measures 3.5 inches (8.8 cm) wide. I use an English muffin mold but a large jar lid will work as well. Spray each cup lightly and then carefully position a dough circle inside each cup, lining the sides almost to the top (see picture). 

Divide the almond paste between the rondos. Roll out the dough again and now cut out 10 circles, 3 inches wide, and place each circle on top of the almond paste. Carefully tap the sides of the circle with your finger so that it makes contact with the rest of the dough. Brush with the egg, and decorate with an almond piece. 

Bake in a 375F/190C oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. 

Bloemkool

I was reading through a stack of older housekeeping magazines looking for vegetable recipes, and I kept coming across cauliflower. We used to eat a lot of cauliflower! Not surprising really, because bloemkool has always been an affordable and available vegetable in the Netherlands. It's mostly grown around West-Friesland, in North Holland, on the islands and near Venlo in Limburg. 

Bloemkool is also a very versatile vegetable: it's easy and quick to prepare, and is fairly neutral in taste. Nowadays, bloemkool is eaten both raw (in salads or with a dip) and cooked, as a substitute for rice and mashed potatoes in low-carb recipes, or in au gratin casseroles, cheesy soups or as the main vegetable in the traditional Dutch AGV (potatoes, vegetables, and meat) menu. 

The other reason why cauliflower kept coming up so much is that it was so easy to use up if you had leftovers. The menu said to serve cauliflower boiled like today's recipe one day, and then make soup or an oven casserole out of the leftovers the next day. Nothing like Dutch frugality/practicality to create new dishes out of what was not used the previous day! I am quite appreciative of that creativity, to tell you the truth. 

Looking up to see how much we consume nowadays I thought it was interesting to read that, according to a Dutch magazine survey from 2021, people under 40 years old do not include cauliflower at all in their top 10 of vegetables, and those over 60 only as their 8th most purchased one. Surprising, because cauliflower is low-cal, has plenty of fiber and anti-oxidants and contains choline and sulforaphane, important for eh...all kinds of things. It's just not a very instagram-able vegetable, I guess? 

The cauliflower I prepared today is served oma-style, the old-fashioned way, which is boiled and with a "papje", a white sauce. Traditionally, this is accompanied by boiled potatoes, and a choice of meat, most often a gehaktbal, a meatball, but it goes well with almost any kind of protein. Colorwise, it's all very beige on your plate, I can't even make it look good in the picture, but it is such a comforting dish! Big, soft lumps of cauliflower, covered in a silky, creamy sauce seasoned with salt and pepper, and a sprinkling of nutmeg on top....you can't go wrong. IF you like cauliflower, that is. This is one of those dishes that you either love or hate - there is little in between! 

I prefer to make the sauce with the cooking liquid, and a splash of cream at the end, to get more of that cauliflower flavor, and any possible nutrients that may have survived the boil, so I keep an eye on the cooking time, and try to not overcook it. I save the rest of the cooking liquid to purée the leftovers with the next day and make a cheesy bloemkoolsoep for lunch, but if you don't care for leftovers or cauliflower soup, feel free to use milk only.

For this recipe I used fresh cauliflower, but frozen works just as well. 

Bloemkool met een papje

2 lbs (1 kg) cauliflower, rinsed and broken into florets

5 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

For the sauce

4 tablespoons (50 grams) butter

1/3 cup (50 grams) flour*

2 cups (500 ml) milk or cooking liquid

Salt, white pepper, nutmeg

Bring the water to a boil, salt, and add the cauliflower. Boil at medium heat for about fifteen minutes, then check to see if the texture is to your liking: the longer you cook it, the softer it gets. 

When it's the right texture, drain the cauliflower but save the water, and measure out two cups (500 ml). (Don't discard the rest of the cooking water if you are planning on making soup with the leftovers). Put the empty cooking pot back on the stove, and in it, melt the butter (do not brown). With a wooden spoon, stir in the flour until the two have come together as a paste, and slowly add the two cups of milk or cooking liquid, while stirring. Keep stirring until the lumps are gone and the sauce has thickened and is hot. Bring up to taste with salt and pepper. 

Add the cauliflower back into the pot with the sauce, stir once or twice so that the vegetable is covered with the sauce, or serve the sauce on the side. Right before serving, sprinkle a pinch of nutmeg over the cauliflower. Serve with boiled potatoes.   

*If you would rather not use flour, use cornstarch to make a slurry and bind the sauce.