Kerstkransjes

Kerstkransjes, or cookie Christmas wreaths, are a typical sight in Dutch Christmas trees. Sprinkled with sugar, decorated with slivered almonds, round, scalloped, chocolate,...they come in a variety of shapes and flavors, but always with a little hole in the middle so you can tie it to a branch of the tree.

Most often they are part of the initial decorations in the tree as soon as it´s set up, but will be eaten slowly and sneakily by the kids, the husband or the family dog, who then feign utter dismay and surprise when the whole tree is empty and all you find is naked ribbons on the branches. It's all part of the tradition, and it's best to be prepared! Smart moms usually have several packages at hand to replace the empty spots in the tree, but ever smarter moms (or dads, or anybody else for that matter) bake their own!

The recipe is as simple as can be, and would be a fun project to do with kids or friends on these cold, blistery days. I´m posting a simple, straightforward recipe but you may consider making it your own. Sprinkle with colored sugar, add some chocolate or cinnamon to the recipe, or you might even dip the cookies in chocolate before hanging them in the tree. Just make sure you hang the chocolate ones higher up in the tree so Fido can´t get a nibble, since chocolate is not good for dogs...

Kerstkransjes
1 cup (125 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup (65 grams) sugar

3 tablespoons (40 grams) butter, cold and diced
1 sachet vanilla sugar (or 2 teaspoons vanilla essence)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons milk

For toppings:
1 egg, beaten

Optional: cinnamon sugar, coarse sugar, edible glitter

Mix the flour with the salt, the sugar and the baking powder. Carefully knead in the cold butter, then add in the vanilla, lemon zest and milk. If the mixture is too dry, add in one tablespoon of cold milk at a time. Knead everything into a pliable dough, wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for an hour, to let the flavors blend.

Roll the dough out on a lightly flour dusted counter, to about a quarter inch, or half a centimeter thick, thicker if you like chewy, thinner if you like crisp cookies. Preheat the oven to 350F. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Use a drinking glass, or a cookie cutter of any shape, to cut out the cookies. Use the end of an apple corer or a large straw to poke a hole in the middle of the dough. When all cookies are cut and cored, place them on the parchment paper, brush them with egg and sprinkle sugar, cinnamon, sliced almonds or colored sugar on top. Bake on the middle rack until golden, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Cool on a rack. Cut 10 inch ribbons and thread through the hole, then put a knot in it and decorate your tree as you see fit.

Makes about 20 cookies.

I wish you all a wonderful, magical Christmas time!

Foeksandijvie

I look for it right around this time of year: the endive. Not the Belgian one, witlof, although that one has plenty of flavorful applications, but the regular, green curly endive, or chicory. Nothing says "Dutch" like a good old-fashioned stamppot, a pan full of mashed potatoes and a vegetable, and this time of year it's the perfect weather for it, and andijvie, endive, is just about the best vegetable. Oh, I do love kale, boerenkool, stamppot. And zuurkool, and hutspot. But the andijvie stamppot has a special place in my heart. Maybe it's the bacon. Or the fact that the mashed potatoes are warm and creamy, soft and pillowy, and the endive is raw and has a crunch to it. It creates this perfect mouthfool of food: soft, warm, crunchy, salty... Definitely one of my favorite, favorite foods!

Most earlier stamppotten consist only of potatoes and veg, and hardly contain any butter or milk. The potatoes are usually creamy enough to make up for the lack of dairy, and the vegetables release enough juices to make the dish moist but not rich. Save some of the water that you pour off the potatoes to add back when you mash them, or heat up a little bit of milk to add to the spuds: it does make it creamier. But because of the lack of butter, this may be a good dish if you want to watch your weight a little bit, eat healthy and still feel like you have a dish full of comfort food! If you are not worried about your weight, feel free to add a tablespoon or two of butter in with the potatoes when mashing.

"Foeksandijvie" is a stamppot made with curly endive, a vegetable easy to grow and readily accessible at your local grocery store. The lettuce-type greens are washed and cut into strips, and mixed ("foeksen" in the Veluwe dialect of the province of Gelderland where this dish is traditionally from) in with the potatoes after they have been mashed. The combination of warm, fluffy mashed potatoes with the crispy, slightly tart vegetables is a winner and will be a new favorite at your family's table.

The dish can be served with or without the added " karnemelksaus", a gravy made with buttermilk and salt pork. If you go without the sauce, fry the salt pork, bacon or pancetta in small strips or dice, and fold them in with the mashed potatoes. You can also leave the meat out altogether and stir in some small dice of aged Gouda or Cheddar, or serve the mashed potatoes with braadworst, fresh sausage, gehaktballen (Dutch meatballs), or a gebakken kaasplak, country-fried cheese patties.


Foeksandijvie met karnemelksaus

6 - 8 large potatoes (about 1 kg)

1 large head of escarole endive
1 teaspoon salt

Milk and butter, optional

Nutmeg, optional

Peel the potatoes and cut into regular sized chunks. Bring to a boil in a pan of water, barely covering the potatoes, add the salt and lower the heat to medium and boil for about twenty minutes. When the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, pour off the remainder of the water saving about half a cup (125 ml). Mash and add some potato water, or a little bit of warm milk and a tablespoon of butter, if you want a richer dish.

Wash the escarole, rinse and cut into half inch strips, leaving out the bottom part of the leaves: the white vein is sometimes too hard and bitter. Mix in with the mashed potatoes right before serving. Taste and adjust salt, and add a pinch of pepper or nutmeg if desired.


For the sauce
6 slices salted pork or bacon, diced
1 cup (250 ml) buttermilk
1/2 tablespoon of flour

Slowly render the fat out of the pork. Remove the meat, stir the flour into the fat and add the buttermilk. Stir until the sauce thickens, then add the pork back in. Serve separately, or pour it over the foeksandijvie on a family-style plate.

 

Worstenbroodjes

Sometimes, a smell will trigger memories or initiate thoughts of a particular season: the air will smell like "fall" or "summer", a plate of steaming mussels may remind you of a holiday at the coast, and the aroma of roast turkey will take you back to Thanksgiving.

The smell of worstenbroodjes, baking in the oven, remind me of Christmas. My grandparents would always serve worstenbroodjes on Christmas Eve, and it's a smell and a taste that I will forever associate with that particular holiday.

You can eat these meat-filled rolls all year, but they seem to be favored during the colder months. They are perfect to hold you over from dinner to midnight on New Year's Eve, to give you a little something to eat after First Christmas Day's hefty lunch if you are too full for dinner but still want to eat something....And they're traditionally served on Koppermaandag, the Monday after Three Kings Day on January 6th, which was the day that the guilds celebrated. They would go door to door to visit their customers and bid them a happy new year. Often, they were welcomed with worstenbroodjes and beer (or coffee) to warm up, and given a small monetary contribution that the guild members would then spend at the end of the day, at the local drinking establishments.

Traditionally, worstenbroodjes are typical from Brabant, a southern province in the Netherlands. Both Brabant and Limburg are the more gastronomically exciting provinces in Holland. Brabant is proud of its koffietafel, a lunch or brunch served with a large variety of rolls, breads, toppings, meats, cheeses and jams and copious amounts of coffee, and the Limburgers can boast about their many pies, the so called vlaaien. Brabant is from old also the province that excelled in raising large amounts of pork, hence anything made with pork often received the adjective Brabants, meaning "from Brabant", even if the product was not traditionally from that region.

In this case, Brabantse worstenbroodjes are indeed traditional from the area. In other parts of the country, the saucijzenbroodje is favored, but worstenbroodjes fit in perfectly with the koffietafel and aren't as rich. Makes ten worstenbroodjes.

Worstenbroodjes
For the rolls
1 teaspoon active dry yeast

3/4 cup (175 ml) warm milk

2 cups (250 gr.) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons (30 grams) butter
1 egg

For the filling
1 lb (500 grams) ground beef (preferably half-om-half i.e. half beef, half pork)
1/2 cup (25 grams) panko or dried breadcrumbs
1 egg
4 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon chopped parsley (optional)

For egg-wash
1 egg
2 tablespoons water

Activate the yeast by stirring it into the warm milk. In the meantime, mix the flour with the salt and the sugar. When the yeast has proofed which takes about five minutes (it's now all bubbly and smells great), add it to the flour and mix it in. Drizzle the melted butter on top, continue to mix and finally add in the egg. Mix briefly until it all comes together, then take it out of the bowl, and knead for about five to ten minutes by hand. Grease the bowl, add the dough, turn it over so it's coated, and cover. Let rise for approximately thirty minutes or until 2/3s larger in size.

In the meantime, mix the ground meat with the spices, the breadcrumbs, the egg and the milk. Cut off 2 oz (55 gr) portions and roll into a small ball. Set aside while you do the rest. When they're all divided into portions, carefully roll each ball out into a sausage shape, about five inches long. Cover.

Carefully punch down the dough. Divide into 2 oz (55 gr) pieces and also roll each piece into a ball. While you work on the rest, keep each one covered underneath a tea towel or plastic wrap, you don't want them to dry out.

Now, with a rolling pin, roll the dough into an elongated oval, slightly larger than five inches long. Place one sausage on top, fold over the short edges, pull over the long edge and carefully roll the sausage into the dough, pinching the seam.

Place each sausage roll on parchment paper or a silicone mat on a baking sheet. Cover and let them rise, at room temperature, for about thirty minutes until they're nice and puffy, and the dough doesn't spring back when you poke it.

Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Brush the sausage rolls with the egg wash and bake for approximately twenty to thirty minutes, or until golden.

Don't stick with just the traditional salt, pepper, nutmeg combo. Have fun with it and add some paprika, some all-spice, you may even add some small chopped onion or garlic. As with everything, recipes are just a guideline!

Stoofpeertjes

Stoofpeertjes, or stewed pears,  are one of those dishes that show up on the table when game such as rabbit, hare or pheasant is being served, or the richer meat dishes such as hazenpeper. Stoofpeertjes can also be served with "draadjesvlees", braised beef, in combination with boiled potatoes, and will take the place of a vegetable.

The first time I ate stewed pears was at a friend's house, I must have been six or seven years old. They served ratatouille and as dessert, stoofpeertjes. Ratatouille sounds much like "rat-something" and the chunks of eggplant were HUGE, something I was not necessarily fond of when I was younger, but I was raised right so ate without complaining. I felt so rewarded for my good behavior when we had stoofpeertjes for dessert....Once I bit into one of these soft, tender, sweet pears, all eggplant misery was forgotten and I was in food-heaven.

Stoofpeertjes can be served as a side-dish to a beef or pork entrée, or as dessert with some yogurt or hangop. It is easy to make and, if you have any leftover cranberry sauce or red currant jelly and a bottle of red wine from Thanksgiving, I'd be sure to give it a try. These pears will be a beautiful addition to your Christmas dinner table.

In the Netherlands we have pears that are specifically for cooking as they improve from stewing and turn red, like the Gieser Wildeman. As they are not available in the US, pick Bosc or Anjou pears as they hold their shape fairly well. Bartletts are okay too as long as they are slightly unripe - they will fall to pieces otherwise. Remember to use two spoons to turn the pears over in their liquid, if you have to, and handle them carefully so as not to cause any nicks or cuts. 

It's traditional to use red wine or juice for these pears, but don't let that stop you. Sweet white wine also works well, especially if you expand the flavors with star anise and/or ginger. 

Stoofpeertjes

4 pears

3 cups (750 ml) sweet wine or juice 

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 strip lemon peel, no pith

1/3 cup (65 grams) sugar

1 teaspoon corn starch

Peel the pears but leave the stem on. Warm the wine or juice in a sauce pan. Stir in the sugar, add the cinnamon stick and place the pears in the warm liquid. Bring to a boil, then turn to a slow simmer and cover.

Simmer for about forty minutes, turning the pears over occasionally, but don't simmer them past their point as you want the fruit to remain whole. Remove the pears carefully as the fruit will be soft. If you used berry jam, strain and discard the seeds out of the liquid, then reduce it or thicken with some cornstarch (mix corn starch with a little bit of cold water to make a slurry, and stir into hot juice, bring up to boil for a minute while stirring). Pour the sauce over the pears. This dish can be served warm or cold.

Amazon Prime Shopping Suggestions: 

• Crock-Pot 6 Quart Cook & Carry 
• Pears to Compare Deluxe Fruit Gift
• Tiptree Red Currant Jelly
• OXO Good Grips 7-Piece Nesting Measuring Beaker Set
• Digital kitchen scale (weighs both grams and ounces)
• Jumbo Nessie Soup Ladle - Big Ladles for Cooking (oh my, so cute!!)

Disclaimer: if you buy through any of the links in the Amazon Prime Shopping Suggestions section, the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program will pay us a small commission on qualifying purchases. It does not increase your cost or price, and it will help us keep the website running. Your support is very much appreciated! 

Don't have Amazon Prime but want to give it a try? This link offers a 30 day trial. 

Taaitaai

Taaitaai is an age-old typical delicacy that's eaten during the Sinterklaas days. Taai (rhymes with "I" and means "tough") may well refer to the chewiness of the sweet dough. It is similar to speculaas, with the added flavor of aniseed, but misses the typical speculaas crunch: instead its dough is taai: tough and chewy.

Saint Nicholas grew out to be the protector of small children: in one story he brought back to life three young boys that had been killed. In another, he prevented three poor sisters from having to go into prostitution by throwing three bags with money into their home, one bag for each girl for her dowry. This may have sparked his status as protector of marriages, or matchmaker, and might have started the tradition of giving a taaitaai doll, a "vrijer", to an unmarried girl.

Taaitaai is usually baked in human shapes: often it's an image of Sinterklaas himself. The smaller versions are eaten as a treat or a cookie with a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. The larger size taaitaais are called "taaipop", i.e. taai doll. But in older days, as I learned by reading Dutch writer and poet Jan Ter Gouw (1814-1894), "Taaitaai, sweet as syrup, tough as leather and as brown as old sealing wax, was baked in a variety of shapes". Male and female dolls for the young people, shaped as a church for the religous folks, large hogs for grandpas and cat-shaped for grandmas, all richly decorated and sometimes even covered in gold leaf. Young men would gift a decorated taai-taai doll to a girl they were interested in marrying. The doll would be carved in the dough before baking and outfitted with elements and symbols referring to the pursuer's trade. These dolls were called "vrijers" or "lovers". The young man would return the next day: if the "vrijer" had been eaten, the girl accepted the proposal. If not....well, move on to the next one!

Most children that celebrate Sinterklaas are too young to be bothered with vrijers, but as adults it might be a fun tradition to continue.

Prepare the dough preferably a couple of days beforehand: the spices will be able to blend and provide a wonderful flavor. As with so many Dutch recipes, the ingredients are few so top quality is key!

Taai-taai
2 cups of self-rising flour
1/3 cup of honey

2 tablespoons of pancake syrup
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground aniseed
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 egg

Warm the honey and the pancake syrup until they are easily pourable. Add all the spices and the salt to the flour, pour in the honey/syrup mix and knead into a flexible, non-sticky dough. (You may have to add some water, one tablespoon at a time, to achieve this.) Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for several hours or, preferably, a day or two.

Lightly dust the counter with flour. Roll out the dough about half an inch high and cut out the shapes. I used gingerbread men. Heat the oven to 350F, place a silicone mat or parchment paper on a baking sheet and transfer your cookies. Brush with beaten egg and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Taaitaai dolls, the Dutch "Chewy Louies"