Now these are kruidnoten. Don’t ask me to literally translate that because, well, for the life of me I couldn’t. It would sound kinda strange. Kruidnootjes are tiny (gingerbread) cookies that are thrown around so our kids can eat them off the floor. Most of them scooping the lot in their tiny mouths with both hands. I so wish I could see the gaze of pure horror and shock in your eyes now.
It’s actually semi-true. Let me explain: kruidnoten are a big part of ‘Sinterklaas‘, a Dutch children’s holiday celebrated on Dec 5th. To the best of my knowledge Santa, Father Christmas or Kris Kringle—whatever you want to name the guy—is derived from this St. Nicholas. Anyway, these tiny cookies are inextricably connected to Sinterklaas. They’re thrown around by his helpers, zwarte pieten (Black Pete’s), along with other small candy. It’s called strooigoed, which translates to “throw-around goodies“.
They’re addictive. Highly addictive. And because they’re small, crunchy and delicious you’ll be tempted to eat way more than you should. There’s just no stopping until you’ve emptied the bag. Or bowl. Especially not when they’re dipped in chocolate.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Ingredients:
2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 tbsp speculaas spice
1/2 a tsp salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
4 oz soft butter
4 tbsp milk
Optional: chocolate
Directions:
As soon as I grabbed my camera, the kid was jumping up and down behind me yelling: “Can I help, mom? Can I? Please?”. Now you have to be smart about these things, if you’re too eager they’ll figure you out. So I played the game well and as a result I ended up with a great, yet slightly messy help in the kitchen. He’s a good kid. Maybe I’ll let him eat the cookies from a bowl this time. But only this time!
Sieve 2 cups self-rising flour over a big bowl.
Add 2/3 cup brown sugar to the flour.
And in with the speculaas spice and salt.
Combine the ingredients.
Add 4 oz soft butter and 4 tbsp milk.
Start kneading. If the dough is too dry, add more milk until you have a supple dough.
If you’re lucky you won’t have to deal with this.
I could have rapped his knuckles, but I figured it was probably easier friendlier to just keep those tiny hands as busy as possible.
We rolled the dough into tiny balls and flattened them just a little. Mine were bigger than official kruidnoten are. Usually they’re 5 gr per piece or so, I made mine 10gr each. Strictly for chocolate dipping purposes.
Bake them in a preheated oven at 320F (160C) for 15 to 20 minutes.
You can eat them like this and they’ll be great, but ‘like this’ just isn’t good enough for us. We dip them in chocolate and that raises them to an even higher level. You can dip them in any kind of (melted) chocolate you like. We nuked some white chocolate and added food coloring, just for the heck of it.
You’ll be needing lots of ice cold milk with this. Oh, and you’ll need to renew your gym membership. Just so you know…
Traditionally kruidnootjes are served with hot cocoa. Try my Winter Wonderland version some time! It’s heavenly.
Kay’s Recipe Note:
Click here for printable size.
Tags: butter, chocolate, food coloring, gingerbread cookies, Kruidnoten, milk, salt, self rising flour, Speculaas spice
November 5th, 2009 at
Your son’s little hands are so precious!!!!!!!! These cookies look great. Are they crunchy or soft? Also, that is best-looking brown sugar I’ve ever seen. Wow.
November 5th, 2009 at
@Memoria:
I adore the postings where he helps me. I love seeing those hands in my photos.
They’re supposed to be really crunchy!
November 5th, 2009 at
cute little treats from cute little hands!
Thankyou!
November 5th, 2009 at
I remember these! They were were really good.
November 5th, 2009 at
They look so pretty dipped into the pastel coloured chocolate.
November 5th, 2009 at
What a pleasant boy! Interesting cookies!
November 5th, 2009 at
Oh my goodness, Kay. The cookies look great and the hot chocolate: heavenly indeed!
November 5th, 2009 at
Kay, this recipe reminds me of how I make my gingernut cookies. Like heaps! Except I use golden syrup (or treacle) to bind it together and not milk. So mine spread out a lot more, unless I don’t quite use enough syrup. They are the best spice cookies EVER. I am just going to have to try these :)
November 5th, 2009 at
@LizzieBee:
Okay, I’m convinced. Hand me the recipe and I’m off to buy golden syrup :)
Once it stops raining.
November 5th, 2009 at
Oh, I like the idea of dipping them in chocolate! Lekker!
November 5th, 2009 at
I am going to have to try making these sometime this year and bring them to work. They make for nice guinea pigs so I don’t have to eat recipes all myself. I can’t believe that the cookies you made are double the size of a normal kruidnoten since the version you made is already the smallest homemade cookies I have ever seen.
November 5th, 2009 at
LOVE :
Those hands
And those pics – the contrasting colours in the bowl are gorgeous.
And those cookies!!
Top job, Kay!
November 5th, 2009 at
Ik heb zo gelachen om het stuk ‘cookies that are thrown around so our kids can eat them off the floor’, bedoel de gezichten van mensen die Sinterklaas niet kennen, kan het heel raar over komen…hahahahaha he he ik was een beetje dipperig vandaag, je hebt me opgevrolijkt :). Ik ga me trouwens begin december wagen aan een Gingerbread house ^^
November 5th, 2009 at
@Bar:
Ik zat het al keihard lachend te schrijven. Stelde me zo eens die gezichten voor.
Whew, hele onderneming. Wens je veel succes, ik waag me er niet aan :)
November 5th, 2009 at
I will have to make these using your own speculaas recipe.
This had nothing to do with your post, but on The Amazing Race, a US TV show, a portion of the show was filmed in The Netherlands and I think particularly in Gouda. One of the tasks was to eat raw herring with onions. Most of the contestants choose to take the alternte task, but I said to my husband, both of us would eat the herring in a heart beat! Hmmmm…so good.!
November 5th, 2009 at
@deb:
The raw herring with onions is something I don’t eat. I just can’t eat it. So salty and slippery. Yuck. But then again I don’t eat sushi either. Anything that either looks back at me from my plate, or that I can still perform CPR on it not my thing.
November 5th, 2009 at
OH! A neighbor introduced me to these when we were living in Amsterdam. I was pregnant and I kind of LIVED ON THESE, and I don’t even really LIKE gingerbread that much, but oh….these little suckers were addicitve. 3 years later and I literally salivated when I saw this post. I think TheGirl and I have a new recipe to try this week! thanks!
and people say Dutch Food is unremarkable! whatever, people!!!!!
November 5th, 2009 at
@Kay: well, I remember having fresh herring and onion on a soft bun in the middle of Amsterdam! Oh, so good!
November 5th, 2009 at
@deb:
I do have to admit that when my guy eats one, it looks so incredibly tasty that I actually wish I liked them. But every time I try a little bite, I cringe.
November 5th, 2009 at
Oh I am printing this off right now and putting it in my Christmas cookie section of my binder of recipes! Yummy!
http://sprucehill.typepad.com/
November 5th, 2009 at
Just about every time you post a new recipe, I KNOW i have to make it. You should definitely publish a cook book of delicious dutch food!
November 5th, 2009 at
just found your blog. so great loved reading and can’t wait to keep up with it!
November 6th, 2009 at
Oh my! When I read about you throwing them on the floor I burst out laughing. I could just picture my mother throwing cookies on the floor, it would have been a race to see if we were faster than the dog. lol
These look like something Dad would have liked. I’ll have to try them.
November 6th, 2009 at
I fall more in love with your blog each and ever day. I stumbled across you on foodgawker and am so glad. I come from a Dutch family and I everything you post makes me think of my family and our fun traditions, even if we do live in the States.
I want to give these cookies a try!
November 6th, 2009 at
These cookies look great. You take such amazing pictures. Thanks for the “cookie history”. It’s neat to hear the tradition behind the food.
November 6th, 2009 at
Kay, What you didn’t mention to all these non-Dutchies is that they aren’t even thrown on the floor by complete strangers dressed as black people (Zwarte Piet)and Sinterklaas. I have fond memories of this as a 5 year old in Holland. I would love to share this part of my heritage with my 4 boys! Thanks! Is it much different to make “pepernoten” as I prefer them to Kruidnoten.
A literal translation would be “herb” “nuts”
November 6th, 2009 at
If I make this using the regular speculaas spice do I use the same amount?
November 6th, 2009 at
@Sonya:
Yes, just use the same amount.
November 6th, 2009 at
another Dutchie recipe!!! Yea!
Thanks Kay. I’ve not heard of these cookies before. I’ll have to double-check my Dutch cookbooks and see if they’re in them….
November 7th, 2009 at
I remember those and still sometimes make them at Christmas time! As a child, I remember celebrating St. Nicholas Day (Sinter Klaas) at our church (many members being of Dutch heritage), with a black-faced Zwarte Piet and all… and these little cookies were literally scooped out of a bag and thrown to the kids! We called them ‘papernotjes’ (not sure of the spelling). Oh, the sweet memories! Thanks for the walk down memory lane :)
November 7th, 2009 at
I’m so glad you posted this recipe. My husband is Dutch and he’ll love eating these again. I would also be thrilled if you have a recipe for that Dutch apple pie that is more like a cake. We always bought the mix when we lived in Holland, but now I’d love to find a recipe to make it from scratch.
November 7th, 2009 at
They also call them “pepernoten”, and they come in crunchy and chewy varieties. The chewy ones are called “taai-taai noten” and are kind of like gingerbread, very tasty. They only have them at Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas, so the legend goes, was a bishop in Mira, Spain, and he saved little children, that were going to be boiled in a big pot. Sinterklaas has been around ever since. Riding his white horse over the rooftops and bringing presents to all children, with his helpers “Zwarte Pieten”.
November 8th, 2009 at
Mmm, thank you for the recipe. I only dipped half the cookie in white chocolate and that’s enough for us. They’re pretty addictive even though they’re very different from anything my husband and I have ever had here in Canada. I don’t know what it is about them, but they’re really good. Although mine didn’t turn out very crunchy… maybe I need to add less milk and bake them slightly longer. I will be trying again :) Thanks!
November 8th, 2009 at
Thanks for article. Everytime like to read you.
Have a nice day
November 9th, 2009 at
Hi Kay,
I love your blog and the food photography! But I have one complaint/suggestion :) …. Sometimes when I want to look up a recipe on your site, not having a list to look at becomes a problem. I might be looking for a chicken recipe and when I search for that keyword I have to go through a number of pages looking for the one I want…
Could you add a list of all your recipes somewhere. Or maybe the categories that are already there could lead to a list instead.
Regards,
Arunima
November 10th, 2009 at
These were delicious! I had to more than double the milk to get the consistency of the dough that you described. These were fabulous dipped in coffee.
November 10th, 2009 at
The Speculaas Spice Mix sounds wonderful. I like the combination of spices and especially the addition of anise / coriander seeds….sounds simply divine can almost taste it before hand!! I must give Kruidnootjes a whirl though with some alterations in the flour to make it Gluten Free for my husband.
Love it when you share your Dutch food heritage with some history added in.
November 10th, 2009 at
I can’t wait to go back to Holland and eat the herring. Specially going to the market and standing there, holding the fish by it’s tail and eating it. Also try the dutch shrimp. They are small, but very tasty!!! And the the eal (paling), it is to die for!!! I really miss that, living in the US
November 10th, 2009 at
@Kay: The herring isn’t really raw!!!!!!!!
November 10th, 2009 at
@Ingrid Hohn:
To the best of my knowledge it’s raw. They use salt to preserve it, but it’s raw alright.
November 10th, 2009 at
You are right. I had the wrong fish in front of me!!!!! I was thinking about mackerel.
November 10th, 2009 at
@Ingrid Hohn:
That would make an awesome posting! It’s been ages since I last ate mackerel.
November 10th, 2009 at
I do not think, you can get that kind of mackerel here in the US. It is smoked and it tastes awesome. I used to eat a “broodje makreel” every friday on the market in Laren. Since it has been ages since you ate it, get out right now and go get one. Another one would be “gebakken scholletjes”.
November 13th, 2009 at
Thank you for posting this recipe! I can’t wait to make them.
November 14th, 2009 at
Kaye,
Approx how many cookies in each batch? I mam in a big cookie exchange and would like to try these.
Thanks
Sue
November 17th, 2009 at
Kay.. I need an advice.. I made this cookies but they were quiet bland.. what went wrong???
November 17th, 2009 at
@Barbara:
I have no idea. They’re not supposed to be bland at all.
November 20th, 2009 at
I made these cookies but they did not taste good at all, rather bland. I also used brown sugar but my dough was not a rick brown like in your pictures. :(
November 20th, 2009 at
@May:
Did you make your own spice mix as well?
November 20th, 2009 at
I did make my own spice mix. I found that I should have used more spice and milk.