Marcel

I don´t have any Dutch stroop in the house right now, but I think this might be what you had: stroop Ontbijtkoek can have a little ginger in it, but if it has a lot of ginger it will be called gemberkoek. My recipe is here: Kruidkoek (called Kruidkoek - spice cake because it has a lot of spices!) There´s a big difference between the factory produced sausages (I´m assuming that that´s what you can order online) and ´real´ rookworst from a butcher who makes his own. (btw wurst is German for sausage, worst is Dutch). A rookworst from a good butcher should look something like this picture on my Dutch blog). Definitely a lot coarser than the mass-produced ones, but not with huge chunks of fat. Hope this helps! ←

Thank you, Cadbury, for your ONTBIJTKOEK recipe. I am having difficulty navigating this forum and simply wanted to acknowledge your time and trouble. I finally found this screen for Reply at the very top and don't know if that is where I needed to go. The bottom line is that the cake I'm thinking of may be a dense Gemberkoek? It definitely has the flavor of ginger, is a deep brown in color and is quite a common commercially available cake in International Deli. shops. It's usually wrapped in cellophane. Marcel

I have two recipes for ontbijtkoek and both only have almonds and sucade as flavourings, aside from the spices. Here is the easiest to follow: 250g flour, 200g dark brown sugar, 4 eggs, 50g sucade (finely chopped), 50g almonds (peeled and roughly chopped) 2 small teaspoons (tsp) baking powder, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 small tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 5g salt. Butter and flour a loaf tin. Sift flour and baking powder. Beat eggs and sugar until thick. Mix together all other ingredients, fold into egg mixture. Spoon into tin and bake in a moderate oven approx 1 1/4 hours, until brown. Hope this works for you. ← ←

I have two recipes for ontbijtkoek and both only have almonds and sucade as flavourings, aside from the spices. Here is the easiest to follow: 250g flour, 200g dark brown sugar, 4 eggs, 50g sucade (finely chopped), 50g almonds (peeled and roughly chopped) 2 small teaspoons (tsp) baking powder, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 small tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 5g salt. Butter and flour a loaf tin. Sift flour and baking powder. Beat eggs and sugar until thick. Mix together all other ingredients, fold into egg mixture. Spoon into tin and bake in a moderate oven approx 1 1/4 hours, until brown. Hope this works for you. ←

============================================= Hi, Chufi, I wanted to make sure that you are still contributing to this forum so I went to your last page. I have several questions that are not all related so I hope you'll excuse the broken protocol. FYI I, too was born in Amsterdam but in 1935!! I spoke Dutch until the age of 3 so I still can pick up a few phrases if I know the context. Here come my disjointed questions: 1- STROOP. When I visited a Pannekoeken house in Duisberg some 12 years ago, the syrup was unlike any I had tasted in the U.S. I bought both Barley Malt syrup, and Sorghum in the hope of finding it. I found that the Barley Malt was closest to my memory of the Dutch syrup but what I had in Holland also had a slight touch of sourness mixed with the sweet. I suspect that because the Dutch use Sugar Beets as a sweetener that perhaps that was the base for the syrup? ___ Any idea what I may have had? ____ 2- ONTBIJTKOEK I have a craving for Ontbijtkoek and hope to try to bake my own. My memory of it is that it is quite dense and not overly sweet, with even a touch of sharpness probably because of the ginger. Is it possible that the dark brown, dense cake I had also contained chopped crystaline ginger pieces? Is ontbijtkoek a totally different animal from Gemberkoek as the Dutch know it? ___ 3- ROOKWURST I live in Oregon and have been unable to find a true Rookwurst as I tasted it in my youth. The sausage I find at the on-line Dutch food stores looks like baloney. The sausage I had was stuffed in real animal casings, was speckled with chunks of fat, was almost a purple color, looked more like a fatty Italian salami, and was very densely smoked. Have you ever tasted a Rookwurst as I describe it? ____ Thanks for any help you can send my way. Marcel

(M) Thanks to ALL who have posted replies to my quest. I don't name you all since more replies may be forthcoming. Suffice to say I read all replies with interest and appreciation. (M) "Swisskaese" offered a link to Google's Recipes, a site I didn't know existed. I followed the link and sent the contributor the following reply: ================ "(M) Sorry that I can't address you by name but please know that I appreciate your posting on Google of your Broetchen - Semmel - Schrippe recipe. http://base.google.com/base/a/1193572/D13869106986588446050 I have been trying to replicate the real roll, as shown by your excellent photo, for some time. I suspected that a "sponge" was used first and will continue to explore the Internet looking for such a recipe. In the meantime I'll try your simpler recipe. I've used the King Arthur recipe for Kaiser Rolls but left out the egg. I've baked great tasting rolls with a good crust but the inside was too forgiving. I'm looking for more chewiness in the center which perhaps is only possible with a previously introduced "sponge". Would you be willing to tell me how you know that the commercial bakeries use a "sponge" ? I've spent quite a bit of time in both Germany and Austria and was married for 18 years to Eine Berlinerin so I had a chance to sample quite a few superb German and Austrian baked goods. I live not far from Eugene Oregon so I'm able to get other great artisan breads but the real Broetchen has yet to be found. :-( Thanks again for your time and trouble. Guten Appetit Marcel"

(M) Thanks to both Melissa, and Alan? for their help. (M) Alan, you wanted me to be more specific so let me say that I'm not looking for darker rolls such as "Schusterjunge". The rolls I seek are nearly ubiquitous in Germany and Austria. They do vary in shape somewhat, from a circular to an oblong footprint. Their individual weight is probably between 2.5 and 2.75 Oz. I'm virtually sure that they are made with unbleached, unbromated "white" bread flower. Their interior consistency is not unlike that of a French Baguette but with smaller holes. (M) Melissa, thanks for both recipes. I'm leaning toward the 2nd as Susan Freeman doesn't specify the kind of yeast, nor the type of flour. (M) Your 2nd reference: SOURCE: Gabi's Küche (http://gabiscott.com/pages/gabi.html) reads as though it were offered from a German, Swiss, or Austrian source so I'm more inclined to follow it. Gabi also specifies the type of yeast and flour. I'll visit her site. (M) The German sites I've visited do not seem to show much standardization. I've found recipes with and without egg; and many with great variability in the resting periods, etc. (M) What I want is the plain everyday variety of Broetchen that is available everywhere I've visited in Germany and Austria. I've not been to Switzerland so I'm only making assumptions there. (M) "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is an adage that I think works here. It seems that many home bakers are trying to improve on a roll that is essentially a pedestrian creation. (M) I read all 4 pages of fairly heated debate, from 2004, on whether the French make the best baguette. It included input from the "top brass" of eGullet. It was interesting that I have no memory of a complete Baguette recipe in that debate. (M) Many pointed to the unavoidable differences in flour, yeast, bacteria, etc. It could be that I'm facing a similar problem, but it occurs to me that the combined areas of Germany and Austria are fairly large yet one can find the real Broetchen in Salzburg Austria as well as northern Bremen, Germany. That seems to shoot down the local environment as being a critical factor. M) Anyway, I shouldn't turn your reply into my monologue. Thanks again for your input. If anyone reading this can simply point me to the URL in this huge Forum where I can Copy-Paste this reply, I'd be most grateful. (M) I should point out that I am at best a virtual beginning baker. I've had some fairly good success in replicating the true Broetchen by using a modified Kaiser Roll recipe of King Arthur Flour and leaving out the egg. When the snow in Oregon melts I hope to try to bake Broetchen in my masonry outside oven. In the mean time, "Was auf dem tisch kommt, wert gegessen." Guten Appetite, Marcel

Hi, This "Newbie" sees so many Forums within eGullet he doesn't know where to start. I'm looking for a recipe for real German hard rolls, called variously: Broetchen, Semmel, Schrippen, ... They are crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. They have a great aroma and delicate flavor so they are great with just unsalted butter. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Marcel

I'm new here but lived 2 years in Wien (Vienna). There are many superb restaurants in Wien but the one I miss most is Alte Backstube It is in the 4th district, I believe and dates from 1697. Much of it is in the basement. Visit the site even if you don't go there. Backstube Foto Restaurant Alte Backstube Backstube Foto http://www.backstube.at/ Servus, Marcel