Dutch Cooking (2005-2006)

[markemorse]

and now I am torn, b/c this post of course makes me need a piece of banket, but i have no good bakery with non-disruptive walking/cycling distance. OK, there's one that's 5 minutes away by bike but I am having morning coffee and it is nas-ty outside and I would really prefer to dash downstairs and get one. but all i have downstairs is the grocery-store version (Dirk). which would probably not be good enough at the moment.

it's my fault...should not read this thread until i'm actually prepared to leave the house!

mem

[Cadbury]

Klary, it was an internet search for banket that first drew me to this thread last year. I can remember my Oma making it for many a Christmas. I made it for her last Christmas (and more for her birthday in March). I did cheat however and used bought puff pastry. I find the filling hard to resist, I could happily eat it by the spoonful.

It's great to see this fabulous thread reappearing at intervals, especially with your photos.

[IlCuoco]

So, at a dinner party last night, I decided to give two of Chufi's recipes a try, stoofperen and advocaat.

To set the scene: dinner guests were a mix of expats and Dutch and all good friends so I decided it would be a good night to experiment (the Dutch would know if I got the taste "right" rather than just good and everyone was close enough that if I really messed something up, no biggie).

The main dish on the menu was a daube of beef (yeah, I've become a bit too addicted to egullet. What's your point?) and the pears were served as a side dish.

I've poached fruit before so I wasn't very worried about technique here, the difference seemed to be in those lovely Dutch pears that Chufi recommended. I was able to find them pretty easily; gave them the peel and slice then gave them about 5 hours on the stove with sugar, cinnamon water and wine. Keep things to a low simmer. I did switch it up a bit by adding some brown sugar about 3 hour in. I also took care to drain all the liquid off the pears then reduced that down to a thick syrup which I poured back over the fruit.

I have to say, they were fantastic. The fruit took on a nice color and kept it's shape very well. They were soft but still had the tiniest bit of toothiness to them. The flavor was outstanding. These will definitely become part of my winter table. Easy to make and very tasty. I might even try and make a stoofperen tarte.

The Advocaat was different and more interesting. First, finding the brandywijn was a bit of a challenge; when I went to my local, small liquor store, they didn't stock it. I was able to find it at Gall and Gall. The clerk was curious as to why I wanted it and when I told him, was quite surprised - he assumed I didn't know any better and told me that I could buy it pre-made. When I further explained that I WANTED to make it myself he sort of shook his head ("those crazy buitenlander") and told me that the last person he knew who made it was his grandmother.

So, the custard came together great and I had none of the seizing that Chufi faced. I took it off heat when it was the consistency of a thin creme anglais and it set up just fine. Served it after dinner in small, wide-bowled glasses with whipped cream.

As to the taste....well; to be honest, when I took it off the heat it tasted like a nice custard cut with paint thinner and the resting time did very little to mellow it. I was really worried and almost didn't serve it. However, when it hit the table, the Dutch folks really seemed to enjoy it (a couple of rounds each and one person asked to take some extra home, we gave them all of it). They all said it tasted both good and like advocaat (comments included "oh, my mother would really like this...." and "is there more?"). Expats (myself included) thought it tasted like custard with paint thinner. Therefore, I'm willing to say I made a good batch of advocaat but I don't like advocaat

I think I'll try to make it again, but reduce the amount of brandywijn (I may also switch it out for rum). I also wonder if Chufi's seizing and unseizing kept it on heat long enough to burn some of the booze off and thus mellow it. Still, the guests lapped it up so I'm happy.

Thanks again to Chufi for the recipes and inspiration!

[Chufi]

The Advocaat was different and more interesting. (...)

Expats (myself included) thought it tasted like custard with paint thinner. Therefore, I'm willing to say I made a good batch of advocaat but I don't like advocaat

I think I'll try to make it again, but reduce the amount of brandywijn (I may also switch it out for rum). I also wonder if Chufi's seizing and unseizing kept it on heat long enough to burn some of the booze off and thus mellow it. Still, the guests lapped it up so I'm happy.

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IC you are too funny! I can just see you at the Gall & Gall talking to the salesperson. Even I have conversations like that with salespeople all the time ("you want to make that yourself? Why?" ) so I can imagine what it felt like for you! They must have thought you were doing your very best to integrate

As for the taste, yes, paint thinner, that does ring a bell. Did you try and taste the brandewijn straight? it's not really good stuff. Although my elderly aunts drink it straight as an aperitiv, they usually mix it with a teaspoonful of sugar. I do think that maybe you did not cook it enough. While the endversion should be boozy, it should not really taste of paint-thinner.

Using rum, or wodka, instead might be a good option.

Anyway, I'm glad the pears were a success!

[apronstrings]

These are the gevulde koeke I made for Thanksgiving. They were flying off the table and into everyone's goody bags for enjoying again the next day. Thanks for sharing the recipe with all of us. Wonderful!

[Chufi]

Those are really beautiful!

I'm going to make a speculaas version of those next week for our office Sinterklaas party. I'll be baking 150 of them .. I must be mad But I'm already looking forward to the heavenly smell that will fill my house!

[Pan]

Those are really beautiful!

I'm going to make a speculaas version of those next week for our office Sinterklaas party. I'll be baking 150 of them .. I must be mad 

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We already know that.

But we're so glad that we get to experience the delicious results vicariously!

[Pat W]

These are the gevulde koeke I made for Thanksgiving. They were flying off the table and into everyone's goody bags for enjoying again the next day. Thanks for sharing the recipe with all of us. Wonderful!

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Hello Chufi & greetings from Nebraska.

I found this thread late in the game. (You can imagine how long it took me to read through it from the beginning) It's a wonderful thread! I knew very little about Dutch cooking and I see that I was much the poorer for it.

Apronstrings, your gorgeous picture has me dreaming about the gevulde koeke. Could you tell me what kind of sugar you used? The "soft sugar" still has me confused.

pat w.

[Jensen]

I've finally got around to trying some of the Dutch sweets, thanks especially to Lori in PA's comment about pearl sugar being available at Ikea. So, today's project was suikerbrood. I'm not a very good baker so I refrained from trying to change the recipe, except where I absolutely had to.

I used Lori's flour amount (3 cups) and one packet of yeast; all other ingredients were measured or weighed as per Chufi's original. I not only couldn't find ginger in syrup at my local grocery store but I also couldn't find any ginger jam or marmalade. So, I chopped an ounce of candied ginger very finely, added a few tablespoons of sugar and about 1/4 cup or so of water. I heated it on the stove until the sugar was completely dissolved and it had thickened a bit. It tasted like ginger syrup to me!

The big self-control item for me was not adding in the little ginger chunks. It was quite a decision. I didn't want to muck up the recipe but, since the others in my house don't like ginger as much as I do, I knew if I added it in, there would be more bread for me. Despite the promise of more bread, I held off on the ginger chunks.

When I checked out my loaf pans, I found that I had two 2.2 L pans and two pans that were considerably smaller (probably around 1.5 L). So, rather than risk having a single bread escape from the larger pan, I opted to split the dough and make two smaller loaves.

As per Lori's discovery, I let the dough rise for an hour the second time around.

For baking times and temps, I went with the higher temp of 390F/200C and baked the loaves for 25 minutes. I haven't cut all the way into the bread yet but, about two inches from the end, it's cooked all the way through. If not, then it's only going to take another 5 minutes or so.

And the photos!

[Jensen]

The Spouse and the Spawn have just got home and so I've made it to the middle of one of the loaves. It is a wee bit doughy so 30 minutes in the oven probably would have been better.

[Lori in PA]

It looks good, Jen -- glad my adjustments worked for you. My youngest ds asked me the other day if I was going to make more of that good sugar bread.

[Chihiran]

The pictures of all of the pastries are so wonderful, I'm trying to bake all of them.

They're supposed to be speculaas. The taste is great, the picture is not

[achevres]

Klary, I have a question about the gevulde koeken.  I see that in Recipe Gullet it calls for "soft white sugar."  Does that mean powdered sugar (icing, or confectioners sugar) as opposed to regular sugar?

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Abra, in Holland we have 3 different kinds of soft sugar ('basterdsuiker"); dark, lightbrown, and white.

You can see the lightbrown here, also with a description, maybe that helps. The white soft sugar looks the same as the brown, sort of sandy and sticking together (i.e. NOT the same as icing sugar). I've seen it described as ' crushed granular sugar with molasses and caramel added'.

If you can't find it, I'd substitute any kind of fine white sugar you would normally use for baking pastry. A dark muscovado sugar would be too strong flavoured for this pastry.

Hope this helps!

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I did some research and "witte basterdsuiker," the white soft sugar, appears to be white granulated sugar with invert syrup (aka trimoline) added, so it would pack and stick together like American brown sugar, but still be all white. Chufi, correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm hoping to make the gevulde koeke soon.

[Chufi]

Jen, your sugarbread looks lovely!

Chihiran, your speculaas looks beautiful. Did you use ready made speculaas-spices, or did you make your own?

Achevres, yes, I think you are right. I don't think the soft white sugar exists in the US though? And I wouldn't use the dark brown sugar for the gevulde koeken. The pastry is too delicate for that. Just use regular, fine sugar instead.

(Basterdsuiker is very finely ground and the fact that it sticks together, adds moistness to the pastry. A real pastryperson should chime in and tell us how to achieve that with regular sugar!)

[apronstrings]

I used Plain old granulated sugar for my koeken.

[miladyinsanity]

Jen, your sugarbread looks lovely!

Chihiran, your speculaas looks beautiful. Did you use ready made speculaas-spices, or did you make your own?

Achevres, yes, I think you are right. I don't think the soft white sugar exists in the US though? And I wouldn't use the dark brown sugar for the gevulde koeken. The pastry is too delicate for that. Just use regular, fine sugar instead.

(Basterdsuiker is very finely ground and the fact that it sticks together, adds moistness to the pastry. A real pastryperson should chime in and tell us how to achieve that with regular sugar!)

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I'm not a real pastry person but you know how some people put a piece of apple inside the cookie box to keep the cookies soft and moist? Maybe we could try that.

[Chufi]

Oh, no! The finished cookie is not supposed to be soft but crisp.

I think I should just change the soft white sugar in the recipe to regular sugar. Obviously that works, just look at apronstring's beautiful cookies....

[Abra]

Klary, can you give directions for your speculaas version? Now that I have the right spices (thank you very much!) I'd like to try these, only I'm not making 150 of them, that's for sure!

[Chufi]

Klary, can you give directions for your speculaas version?  Now that I have the right spices (thank you very much!) I'd like to try these, only I'm not making 150 of them, that's for sure!

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just use the recipe as it is, but add 2 tablespoons of the spicemix to the dough.

btw I did not make 150 of those.. I took the easy way out and just made 8 or so big logs of the gevulde speculaas, and cut them into squares. They were a big hit anyway...

[Chihiran]

Thanks Chufi! I made my own spice mix in accordance with the proportions that you gave I actually just sliced some off this time and froze the rest, but they're so crisp, I love the texture!

[Chufi]

Koggetjes

According to the writers of Koekje, a recently published book about Dutch cookies of past and present (written by 2 well-known Amsterdam patissiers, Kees Raat from Unlimited Delicious and Cees Holtkamp from Holtkamp patisserie), this cookie was invented in 1935. It was the winner of a bakery contest to invent a truly 'Amsterdam' cookie. Koggetjes were named after the large Dutch medieval ships, 'koggen'.

I don't know what's particularly Amsterdam about these cookies, but they sure are delicious. Only the members of a certain bakery society were allowed to sell these under the name koggetjes - other bakeries sold them as 'nougatines', maybe a more appropriate name because of the nougat!

This is adapted from the recipe in Koekje

Preheat oven to 160 C.

First, make your nougat. Heat 75 grams sugar with 25 grams water until you have a nice, golden brown caramel. Pour on a baking sheet lined with paper and leave to harden and cool. When cold, crush with a rolling pin into small pieces.

Make the dough by mixing together 200 grams butter, melted and cooled, and 150 grams sugar, and 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar. Add 2 tablespoons of milk, a pinch of salt, and mix well. Then mix in 200 grams flour and finally, mix in the pieces of nougat.

On baking sheets lined with baking parchment, place walnut sized balls of the dough. I just rolled them by hand, but for a more professional finish, pipe them on the baking sheet with a plain nozzled pipingbag. Make sure to place them well apart because they will spread!

Bake for 10-12 minutes. They should be golden brown. When out of the oven, they will still be quite soft. If they have spread too much (the edges should not be too lacy) you can nudge them into shape a bit, but work fast, because they crisp up fast.

These are really delicious cookies. Very rich and buttery, with the unexpected chewy crunch of the nougat. Enjoy!

[markemorse]

Wow beautiful smashed caramel photo, looks like the front door of our apartment building as of this morning. Is there anywhere in Amsterdam to buy these beauties freshly made? I don't think I've seen them at either Holtkamp or Unlimited Delicious....

mem

[miladyinsanity]

Oh, no! The finished cookie is not supposed to be soft but crisp.

I think I should just change the soft white sugar in the recipe to regular sugar. Obviously that works, just look at apronstring's beautiful cookies....

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I meant to put the apple inside the sugar container, not in with the cookies.

But you know, if you add some corn syrup to white sugar.. Hm...

Which cookie are we talking about now?

[Chufi]

Hachee

Now, I realized that I've got this old, but excellent encyclopedia of cooking, and I decided to look up Dutch cooking, and came across something called Hâché. It is a little more complex than Draadjesvlees, but it does use both bayleaves and cloves -- in addition to onions, flour, vinegar and Worchestershire sauce. That sounds like a promising set of ingredients to me.

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I'm planning to make hachee somewhere in January

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well, it took me until now, but I finally made hachee!

the word probably comes from the french hâché (cut in little pieces). The Dutch spelling is hachee. The meat for this beef & onion stew is diced into 1.5 inch cubes.

Ingredients:

1 pound lean stewing beef, diced

3 medium onions, cut up

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons winevinegar + 1 teaspoon to add right before serving

3 bayleaves

4 cloves

salt, pepper

3/4 cup of light beef stock (not pictured)

1 slice of soft gingerbread such as this This will thicken, sweeten and spice up the sauce. If you don't have it, sprinkle the meat with a bit of flour before frying to help thicken the juices, and add a pinch of cinnamon, ground ginger and nutmeg to the stew when you add the liquid.

Season the meat with salt and pepper and brown the meat in the butter. You don't have to be too thorough about the browning process. When the meat is browned add the onions. Fry over high heat. They won't brown much but they should soften and cook down.

Add the cloves, bayleaves, stock and vinegar. Bring to a simmer and cook over low heat, at a very lazy simmer, with the lid very slightly ajar, for about 3 hours. the onions should have cooked to a mush. Lift the meat from the sauce with a slotted spoon and set aside. (Take out the bayleaves and cloves, if you can find them, and discard). Crumble the gingerbread into the sauce, stir until it has 'melted', and cook the sauce over high heat until it is nice and thick. Put the meat back in and correct the seasoning.

If possible, leave until the next day before you serve it - it will taste even better! When you reheat it, sprinkle with a tiny bit of vinegar. This is optional, but I like the way the vinegar cuts through the rich sweetness of the spices and onions.

This is traditionally served with mashed or boiled potatoes and braised red cabbage. But because I braise my red cabbage with bayleaves, cloves and red wine, I feel the flavors of the 2 dishes are too similar. So I serve it with another vegetable, sprouts are good, as are green beans or simply cooked green cabbage. Yesterday we had it with carrots tossed with parsley, tarragon and lemon juice, and a nice buttery mustard mash.

and a close up, because it looks so good!

[rooftop1000]

This is like "instant" sauerbratten stew.

I even use gingersnaps for the gravy for my sauerbratten.

tracey