Earlier this week was the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas, when Sint Nicolas and his helper Piet come and bring presents (traditionally put into shoes) to children. Sinterklaas visited our house too, putting chocolate letters into our boots, along with a little note for my son.
Other treats that I fell in love with on my first ever visit to the Netherlands (which was at Christmas time), are speculaas cookies and pepernoten or kruidnoten. Speculaas has become quite popular in the U.S. although we know it with the Belgian name: speculoos. It is this combination of spices that has become something of a viral food sensation with products like cookie butter from Trader Joe’s, and Ben and Jerry’s “Spectacular Speculoos” ice cream.
There is a difference between pepernoten and kruidnoten. Pepernoten are generally a little larger, soft, and are strongly flavored with anise (a licorice flavor), while kruidnoten are smaller, hard, and spiced with the same spices as speculaas cookies. I generally favor kruidnoten over pepernoten, because I am not a big fan of licorice flavored things. In our house, kruidnoten don’t last very long after a package is opened – EVERYONE loves them!
I hope this year Sint and Piet visited with many yummy treats for you and your family, we certainly got our fair share! Now I am off to enjoy a few kruidnoten while putting up more ornaments on the tree.
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