The Dutch "sand cookies" may not be the best known Dutch cookies, but we always bought them at the market when I was young and they are very easy and quick to make.
Needed
1 1/2 cup flour (I mix equal amounts of white and whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 stick and 2 tsp margerine
bit of salt
Instructions
Knead and roll little balls of about 1.5 inch or 4 cm diameter, press them
flat and put them on a cookie sheet.
Put the sheet in the oven at 325 F for 15 minutes.
You can turn the cookies into "Krentenkoekjes" if you mix the dough
with raisons and currants.
The Dutch are famous for their dairy: they drink lots of milk and eat (and make) lots of cheese, with different flavors. The cheese that everybody knows abroad is the mild Gouda or Edam cheese (named after the towns Gouda and Edam, where they still have traditional cheese markets). This cheese has the advantage that you can buy it relatively cheap at some stores, such at Sam's Club, and cut it into cubes which make great and healthy snacks. It will be decorative too, if you give each cube a small Dutch flag!
Needed
Dutch Gouda or Edam cheese, cut into small cubes of circa 1 inch/3 cm wide cubes
Wooden tooth picks
Paper, scissors, red and blue colored pencils or markers and a glue stick
Instructions
Color paper strips of circa 2x1 inches (5x2.5 cm) like the Dutch flag (red,
white and blue, with red on top). Fold and glue them around the tooth pickes
and stick them in the cheese cubes.
The Dutch drop is available in over fifty different flavors, shapes, and textures, from sweet, soft and chewy to hard and salty. You can buy regular liquorice in your drug store, but you may be able to find real Dutch liquorice in a deli store, or buy it online.
One of the better known and more decorative Dutch cookies is "speculaas", thin spiced cookies with nutmeg and cinnamon, often in the shape of a wind mill or people. Click here for a recipe with or without the special (old fashioned) Dutch molds. You may also find speculaas as "windmill cookies" in your deli store. I have also found windmill cookies that look and almost taste the same at Shoprite.
Please email me at heleen@hvanrossum.com if you have any
comments or suggestions!
More information
about Dutch food and eating habits
Go to Heleen's home page