Christmas was never a commercial blow-out in our house.
A real Christmas tree, midnight mass, dressing up in our Sunday best for cake and tea at 4 O’clock, perhaps a cheeky sherry, vermouth or Babycham with a few canapes, followed by a festive dinner.
Always grandma’s wild rabbit recipe, as dad adored it. But that’s another story for another time
No Christmas presents.
Please don’t feel sorry for me. Because I got my presents 20 days earlier!
In many European countries with a history in Christianity, the annual day for the giving and receiving of gifts is Sinterklaas, the feast of Saint Nicholas.
Sinterklaas is a mythical figure with legendary, historic and folkloric connections to Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children. He was introduced to the US by Dutch settlers arriving in New York (New Amsterdam). Combined with a few other folkloric legends introduced by other European settlers, Santa Claus was born.
Some Eastern European countries celebrate Saint Nicholas on 19th of December. He is also celebrated in Germany and territories of the former Dutch empire such as Suriname, Bonaire, Aruba and Curaçao.
In my native country of the Netherlands, it is celebrated on the 5th of December. In Belgium, the country where I grew up, it’s on the 6th of December.
Dutch families open their presents in the evening of the 6th of December, called “Sinterklaasavond” or “pakjes avond” (Sinterklaas evening or prezzie evening).
Presents magically appear after a loud knock on the front door, traditionally in a large burlap sack (well, a yellow plastic washing basket in our case, belated thanks and appreciation go to our neighbours, and the acting skills of my parents, looking as “surprised” and “scared” as we did).
The goodies are often accompanied by a short cryptic rhyme about the present beneath the wrapping. Or there could be a rhyme of many verses that sends you on a magical mystery tour around the house solving clues to find your present(s) Anika Rice- style.
Other children miraculously find their presents on the morning of 6th of December after Sinterklaas obviously somehow managed to get himself through the non-existent chimney.
Sinterklaas, Santa Claus… Their names sound similar, they both dress in red, sport a long white beard and deliver presents through the chimney. That’s where most similarities end.
Santa Claus lives on the North Pole, Sinterklaas lives in Spain. Wise move, Sinterklaas. Much nicer climate.
Santa Claus flies in on a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Sinterklaas arrives on a steam boat and travels onwards on his glorious white horse Amerigo.
The annual arrival and parade of Sinterklaas is a big deal in the Netherlands, so much so that it is televised live, and thousands of local arrivals are staged in cities, towns and villages across the land.
Around the world, children hang a Christmas stocking on Christmas eve. On the eve of Sinterklaas, excited Belgian and Dutch children “set a shoe” (originally a clog for the Dutch) by the hearth or the back door with a carrot or an apple for the horse, and a glass of milk for the man himself.
Thousands of Dutch and Belgian expats across the globe, including my dear Belgian friends in South Africa, keep the tradition alive with their children and grandchildren.
If you’ve been good all year, the next morning, you’ll find presents. But if you’ve been naughty, you might only get a lump of coal. Not so good.
Santa Claus has elves to help him. Sinterklaas has Zwarte Piet (“Black Pete”). Hundreds of merry black helpers. Uhm. Hang on. That’s not very PC, is it!?
Every year disputes and campaigns to ban Zwarte Piet are rife. But Zwarte Piet is so loved, there’s also a huge counter campaign to save him.
In my humble opinion and not wishing to cause offence, these colourful guys are pretty harmless in the grand scheme of things. They are part of our national history, folklore and traditions. Cheerful, singing, dancing and fooling around, they play a major role in the festivities.
I appreciate there are notions of slavery or racism in modern day moral terms, and indeed their association with Sinterklaas stems from Moorish servants in Spain at the time of Saint Nicholas The Original.
However Saint Nicholas The original came from Turkey and helped free many coloured child slaves and gave them paid work as his helpers.
Anyway, how PC is it in this day and age that small children are bribed with sweets and presents to sit on the knee of an old man with a fake beard?
Just as well this is not a blog about politics, but a blog about food. Because, just like Christmas, there are lots of sweet goodies associated with the feast of Sinterklaas.
“Breast Plate” (Borstplaat) is one of them. Doesn’t sound appetizing, but it’s a delicious heart attack of pure sugar and water or cream, sometimes flavoured with vanilla or chocolate. Every household used to have a dedicated heart shaped “Breast Plate mould” for this seasonal sweet treat.
There’s also a gingerbread-like cookie called “Taai Taai” which translates to “Tough Tough”. What is it with these Dutch cookie names! But to be fair, this spiced cookie, usually shaped like the Holy Man himself, is tasty but also incredibly chewy. So the name is apt.
Then there’s anything and everything with marzipan or almond paste.
Marzipan is moulded into cute little animals (mainly mice, don’t ask!), fruit or vegetables. Bitter almond paste is wrapped in puff pastry and shaped either into a log shape (“banket staaf”) or into a letter from the alphabet (“banket letter”).
Letters of the child’s first name or an S for “Sinterklaas” in solid chocolate are popular too, dark, milk or with nuts.
Bringing me onto nuts. See what I did there? But not real nuts. Spiced cookies referred to as nuts called “pepernoten” (known as “Pfeffernuße” in Germany and “Pfeffernuts” in the US, probably due to the many German immigrants). These are bite-sized spiced cookies, made with rye flour, honey and the warming spices of cinnamon, cloves and aniseed.
Pepernoten have been baked in German abbeys since the 13th century. In some Northern provinces of the Netherlands they were a symbol of fertility. Bride and groom would throw them around with the sweeping motion of a farmer throwing seeds out onto the land, hoping to be blessed with many children.
It is with this same gesture that Zwarte Piet throws out thousands of pepernoten at Sinterklaas’ arrival. And before presents are delivered, there’s often a scary loud knock on the door and a (black-gloved) hand throws lots of pepernoten into the room full of expectant children.
To be honest, more often than not, what is being thrown around are not pepernoten, but a similar cookie called “kruidnoten” (spicenuts).
These have similar spices, but no honey or aniseed. They’re made with wheat flour and are shaped into little balls. Colloquially though, these spicenuts are referred to as peppernuts. Confused? I know I am!
Spicenuts are fun and easy to make at home. Kids love rolling the dough into little balls. Keep them plain or dip them in chocolate.
Although mostly eaten as they are by the handful from a large bowl throughout the day, the plain ones apparently work well in meaty stews, in soups, particularly onion soup, and sprinkled onto pasta too.
I haven’t tested that yet, but I might give it a go if there are any left over. Which I very much doubt.
THE RECIPE
Kruidnoten (Spicenuts – basic recipe – makes 25-30)
These make lovely seasonal gifts presented in a little bag with curly ribbons or in a kilner jar or a colourful cookie tin.
kids love help making these!
This recipe is for a fairly small quantity, so multiply as needed. Some of the pics show me making 3x the original quantity for Christmas gifts.
Ingredients
100 gr self-raising flour (I used Marriage’s light brown unrefined organic)
60 gr cold butter, cubed
50 gr light brown sugar (I used muscovado)
1-2 tbsp milk
1 small pinch of salt (unless you’re using lightly salted or salted butter)
1 tbsp Dutch Speculaas spices (Steenbergs sell a decent organic one in the UK, else make your own)
Speculaas spice mix (you only need 1 tbsp here, the rest keeps well in a screw top jar)
8 parts ground cinnamon
2 parts ground nutmeg
2 parts ground cloves
1 part ground ginger
1 part ground cardamom
1 part ground white pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 160 C.
Sieve the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the cubes of butter and cut it into tiny pieces with 2 knives. Then gently rub the butter into the dry ingredients until you have rough crumbs.
Add a little milk and knead with cold hands until the dough comes together. Don’t overwork it. You’re good to go as soon as you have a malleable dough that holds together.
Roll little balls of 1 ½ cm diameter, the size of a small marble. This seems tiny, but these cookies spread a little and are supposed to be small.
Place the balls on an oven tray lined with a baking mat or greaseproof paper.
Bake for 15-20 mins until golden. They will still be a little soft, but will harden as they cool.
Cool and store in an airtight cookie tin or kilner jar. Although in our family, we like them straight from the oven and not many from the first batch make it into the cookie tin.
For the optional chocolate covering:
100 gr quality chocolate (I used Callebaut N811 54% Belgian chocolate in the pic above. For the Xmas prezzies I used valrhona dulcey, valrhona caramelia and cote d’or dark chocolate orange), melted in a bain-marie (over a water bath) or in a medium microwave for a minute or 2 until oozing.
Be careful in the microwave. use shot bursts, stir, put it back in briefly etc. Even when not seeming fully melted, stir again and the residual heat will get you there. If overcooked the chocolate will seize up and not be useable.
Dip one half or the whole spicenut into chocolate and place on greaseproof paper or a baking mat to set.
