Get busy baking! (I really should)

It's that time of the year -lovely speculaas smells should be wafting from my kitchen, trays and trays of cookies ought to be cooling down while I whip up frosting...but no such luck. Once again, the holiday season has snuck up on me. Every single year, when the first day of December hits, I have great plans to show off my culinary prowess: this year, I tell myself, I am going to do it all. For the Sinterklaas celebration I will bake gevulde speculaas, speculaasbrokken and kruidnoten.

And then, I seriously mean it, between then and Christmas, I will bake a Kerststol for every weekend breakfast, make borstplaat to set out on the living room table for guests, I am going to make kerstkransjes to hang in the tree, and while I am at it, I may give schuimpjes a go. Not because they are necessarily a part of the winter holidays, but because they're so nice and light to eat.

And I, every December, solemnly SWEAR that THIS year, I will fry enough oliebollen, appelbeignets and sneeuwballen to share with friends so that we can all enjoy a great celebration and ending of the year.

But what happens e-v-e-r-y single time? That's right, life interferes with my carefully planned baking schedule! See, it's December 17 now, and what have I accomplished so far? Of all the amazing and lekkere plans, so far I've only tested a new oliebollen recipe (I decided to stick with my own) and made a small batch of gevulde speculaas. But I promptly forgot to take it out of the oven after baking, so it was harder than a rock (I still ate it because nobody else was going to make one!).

Today, I am finally baking a Kerststol (yay me!) for the first time this season. This year, again, nobody has seen (or will see, for that matter) any kruidnoten or speculaasbrokken emerge from my kitchen, unless I buy them from a Dutch store, and you can forget about the borstplaat altogether - it's not going to happen this year!!! Geef mijn portie maar aan Fikkie, like my mug says!

On one hand it bothers me that I can't get everything done that I wanted to - but I also realize that, while I am not in the kitchen, I am tending to work, school, pets, students, family members, friends and life in general. And that's okay, too. This holiday season will still happen, whether I bake or not!

Perhaps you are a kitchen goddess with all the time in the world, or maybe you are a bit like me, happy when life takes a step back so I can bake some of our heritage recipes that remind me of home, family or loved ones. Regardless of where you are in the baking spectrum, enjoy the upcoming holidays, don't be too hard on yourself and do the best you can! There is always next year :-)

What's baking in your kitchen this week?

No time to pout


You may have noticed that I don't place advertisements on this page. There are some affiliate links in the gardening section, but otherwise I make sure these pages are being kept clean of ads. However...our family is expanding and we've gained a naughty little nephew, Niet Mokken!, that I would like to introduce you to!

Niet Mokken! designs mugs that are perfect for expressing your inner Dutch person, with a sense of humor and a tongue-in-cheek approach. If you've ever felt like saying something, or making your position clear but without wanting to offend, a cheeky Niet Mokken! mug might be just the thing for you! My favorite one is this one, but I also love the Worst one from the picture. And the Boerenkool one had me rethinking my dinner plans for tonight. It's hard to pick just one!

If you are in the US and order soon, you may still have the mugs in time for Christmas. Which one do you like best? There are six more on the website - clicking the image will take you there. Go take a peek and let me know what you think!

Dutch stamps of traditional Dutch treats

If you receive mail from the Netherlands, you may soon see some tasty postage stamps on the envelope. The Dutch mail service, PostNL, has recently released a new sheet of stamps called "Nederlandse Lekkernijen", or Dutch treats. The stamps have pictures of Bossche bollen, kersenvlaai, stroopwafels, and Zeeuwse bolus, as well as other regional specialties.

What a great way to promote regional products!

What is your favorite lekkernij?

Kruisbessenschuimvlaai

"Ouch!" I sucked the drop of blood off my finger. Sharp thorns dug into my flesh every time I reached for the fruit I wanted to pick. A less determined person would have given up already, but a distant childhood memory of a sweet and tangy vlaai fueled my stubbornness. I had only enjoyed kruisbessenschuimvlaai once but it left such an impression that I was willing to sustain a couple of painful punctures to taste it again!

Kruisbessenschuimvlaai (what a great word for hangman!) is a traditional Limburg pie, with a mixture of slightly sour kruisbessen, or gooseberries, and a topping of meringue. A popular name for kruisbessen can also be stekelbes (prickle berry), knoeper or kroesel, which explains the Limburg name for this pie: "krosjele vlaai". It is possible that the English name for this berry, gooseberry, may  have been a derivative of the Dutch word kruisbes. Who knows!?


Kruisbessen do grow in the wild in the Netherlands, but are also grown commercially, albeit in small quantities. The fact that they are not easy to pick may have something to do with it, but it's also a rather old-fashioned, almost forgotten fruit. Nevertheless, it is fairly easy to plant a small bush or two in your own garden, and they provide generous gatherings, enough for a couple of pies per plant!

Now, typically the meringue will be soft and baked with the pie, but I prefer a crunchy meringue topping, so I baked the top separately. I've posted instructions for both variations. I hope you enjoy this lovely vlaai - it was worthy every pinch, scratch and drop of blood!

Kruisbessensschuimvlaai
For the vlaai dough:
1/3 cup milk and 2 Tbsp (100 ml), lukewarm
1 1/2 teaspoons (5 grams) active dry yeast
1 3/4 cup (250 gr) all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons (30 grams) sugar
1/2 teaspoon (4 grams) salt
1 egg
1/2 stick butter (55 gr), soft at room temperature
1/2 cup panko (30 grams) or breadcrumbs (45 grams)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the filling
2 lbs (1 kg) of gooseberries, washed
4 tablespoons (60 grams) sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch

For the meringue
4 egg whites
1 cup (200 grams) sugar

Knead a dough from the flour, yeast, milk, butter, sugar, egg and salt. Place it in an oiled bowl, cover it and let it rise at room temperature. In the meantime, mix the cinnamon with the breadcrumbs and set it aside.

Remove the stems and the blossom ends of the gooseberries. Place the berries in a saucepan, with just enough water to cover the bottom layer, and slowly bring to a simmer. Carefully stir in the sugar, making sure not to break too many berries. You may want to taste and see if it's not too tangy - if it is, add a bit more sugar. After all, it should be fun to eat this pie, not a punishment!

When the berries are warm and juicy, add a little bit of cold water to the cornstarch and make a slurry. Stir that into the berries and bring the pan back up to a boil, give it a couple of stirs until the whiteness of the cornstarch has disappeared, then turn it off. The cornstarch will thicken the juice and make it easier to use as a pie filling.

Heat your oven up to 400F/200C. Knead the air out of the pie dough, roll it into a circle and line a greased pie pan with it. For this recipe I used a 11 inch (28 cm) wide, one inch high, scalloped pie dish. If your dish is slightly smaller and higher, the recipe will accommodate easily. Dock the dough (use a fork to punch little holes in it) and cover it again for its second rise.

When the dough is puffy and risen, spread the panko mix over the bottom of the dough, and then fill it with the berries. Place it in the oven and bake.

Beat the egg whites and the sugar into a shiny stiff meringue. If you want to have a soft meringue, pull the vlaai out of the oven after 15 minutes, lower the temperature to 300F/150C, spread the meringue over the filling and put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the meringue as it colors fast! Pull the vlaai and let it cool.

If you prefer a crunchy meringue like I do, you will need to take one additional step. Let the pie bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 400F/200C, then pull it out of the oven. Lower the temperature of the oven to 175F/80C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper where you've drawn a circle that matches the circumference of the pie pan. Spread the meringue within the circle on the paper, making sure to make it slightly lower in the center. Bake the meringue at 175F/80C for at least an hour, checking toward the end to make sure it has fully dried. If not, leave it in the oven for another 15 minutes, then turn the oven off and let the meringue dry.

When the meringue has cooled and dried, place the disk on top of the pie, cut into slices and serve! Depending on how you generous you cut your slices, this pie will give you 8 to 10 slices.