In the Netherlands, on the 5th of December, we celebrate ‘Sinterklaas’, an event with gift, surprises & poems for each other. ‘Sinterklaas’ is a story about Bishop Nicolaas, who is coming to the Netherlands each year to give the children presents. However when you have been a brutal or unkind kid, the presents are switched for bags of salt. Every evening, between Sinterklaas entering and leaving the Netherlands, the children will place a shoe in front of the door. The shoes are filled with food for his horse, and it is important to sing ‘Sinterklaas’ songs loud and clear. This tradition happens already since the 16th century in the Netherlands! So already a pretty long time!
Another tradition during the ‘Sinterklaas’ days is to throw around mini cookies ‘kruidnoten’. I really don’t know who came up with this since I love to just eat all of them.. Haha. Therefore a delicious recipe below of cookies you don’t want to throw around!
Dutch Kruidnoten & Chocolate
Equipment
- Oven
- Heat Resistant Bowl
- Saucepan
Ingredients
- 125 gram Self-Raising Flour
- 65 gram Dark Brown Sugar
- 50 ml Milk
- 50 gram Butter
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Ground Cardamom
- ¼ tsp Nutmeg
- ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
- ¼ tsp Ground Ginger
Decorations
- 100 gram Chocolate
- 50 gram Hazelnuts
Instructions
Preparations
- Preheat the oven on 160 degrees Celsius or 320 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Place a baking paper on the baking tray.
Mixing
- Mix all the ingredients until you have a smooth dough ball.
- Divide the dough in smaller pieces, and form the mini cookies. The cookies will run slightly so make sure there is enough space between the cookies on the baking sheet.
Baking
- Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes, or until brown and cooked in the preheated oven.
- In the meanwhile, you can chop the nuts in small pieces and melt the chocolate. You can melt the chocolate in the microwave or above a small saucepan with cooking water.
- Picked the microwave? Add the chocolate in small cubes to a bowl. Place the bowl in the microwave and turn it on for 20 seconds. Give it a stir, and place in microwave for 20 seconds again. Just repeat until all chocolate is melted.
- For melting the chocolate au bain-marie, you need to place the chocolate in a heat resistant bowl. Bring some water to a boil in the saucepan, and place the bowl on top of the pan. Keep stirring until the chocolate is melted.
- Take the cookies out of the oven, take them off the baking sheet and let them cool down.
Decorating
- Dip the cookies in the chocolate, and then sprinkle some chopped nuts on top. Continue until all cookies are done. 'Fijne Sinterklaas!'
