Kruidnoten are typical Dutch cookies/sweets. Normally you will eat in November until the 5 of December (Sinterklaas) but lately you can find them in the supermarkets earlier in the year. I have to say I am not really a fan of Kruidnoten, but my husband and daughter are, so I decided that it was time to try to make them myself, that way I would know what are the ingredients. This recipe from “Het Nederlands Bakboek” is absolutely fantastic, I have to say I even like them now.
The tricky starts already with the lists of ingredients, you need a lot of spices (kruiden is spices in Dutch), with a bit of luck you have them all or is a good search. You need butter, very dark muscovado sugar, plain flour, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cardamon, ground mace (in Dutch is foelie), ground clove, syrup and milk.
First you mix until very smooth the sugar and butter, adding later all the other ingredients, only the milk you have to be careful, because you don’t want a runny dough. Well I had a miscalculation I had just to little milk add, so later I had to pour some more, but it did work out well. After making a nice ball with all the dough, just be patience and let it rest in the refrigerator for about an hour.
Well now is when starts the real work, this is something fun to do with children, or whoever is at home. We did it as family, the three of us, just making small balls, the size of a marble. My husband did a different techniek but still we all got the same result. I just had to bake a bit shorter, they were a bit hard, next time (coming weekend) I am planning to make them again and then they will be mastered!
