While most of you are probably in Christmas mode already, over here in the Netherlands we first got to deal with the feast of Sinterklaas. On the evening of the 5th of December Sinterklaas brings presents to the Dutch children (and some German and Belgian kids too) much like Santa does a few weeks later! In the weeks before the 5th of December children can put their shoe in front of the fireplace (or in our case: the not quite so romantic central heating radiator) and during the night Sinterklaas and his helpers fill the shoe with a small gift and typical Sinterklaas sweets and snacks.
The tiny cookies you see pictured above are called Pepernoten (literally 'Pepper nuts'), well actually they are not called Pepernoten but that is what most people call them anyway. I made lots of them yesterday with the kids and these crunchy 'nuts' have a nice sweet ginger/cinnamon taste. It's a great December snack! If you would like to bake them you could try this recipe. It's not the recipe I used (I buy my spices ready mixed) but I'm sure the result will be equally tasty!
Those sound delicious! I bet they make the house smell great too.
ReplyDeleteThey do! Spicy and sweet :) Definitely a smell I associate with the last months of the year!
ReplyDeletehow fun! i love learning about Christmas traditions from all over the world.
ReplyDeleteStrangely they called (translated) the same in Germany, really dont know why, because no pepper in it. Never tried to bake them, but yours look delicious so maybe I will try your recipe.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes I think in most of the parts here in Germany "Nikolaus" puts sweets and presents in the shoes in the night from 5th to 6th December too. Greets Martina
Thanks for the recipe. My parents are from Holland and we did this as kids growing up in Canada. We even sang a little song and I still know it! I can't wait to try to make these as we got them in our shoes :)
ReplyDelete@Kelly well this isn't exactly a Christmas tradition because we do Christmas as well. A busy month for us December!
ReplyDelete@Martina I heard the Danish have them too and I know (because I lived there) in Norway you have 'Pepperkake' which taste very similar to my Pepernoten. Must be a North European thing. :)
@Margaret I'm sure Sinterklaas 'emigrated' with many Dutch folks to Canada and Australia etc. I'm guessing the little song you mentioned was 'Sinterklaas kapoentje' :)
I made these and they were delicious! I am going to take them to my cookie exchange next week. I didn't have cloves or aniseeds so I made them without and they were still delicious. I am going to pick up those spices before I make them again. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSommige Belgische kinderen? Sommige??? Helaba, alle kinderen zijn braaf hier, de Sint komt bij ons in het ganse land!
ReplyDeleteOjee sorry, ik had het natuurlijk kunnen weten aan de hand van de eindeloze herhalingen van 'Dag Sinterklaas' met Bart Peeters op Ketnet... ;)
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