What would the arrival of Sinterklaas be without pepernoten and kruidnoten? We wanted to find out what’s so special about the little, dry brown cookies that everybody gets so crazy about.
I don’t know about you (that is the people living within the reign of Sinterklaas), but by the time today’s intocht came around and Sint’s pieten lined the streets with pepernootjes and sweets, I was already stuffed and fed up with with it.
In Austria I would spot the first Lebkuchen in the supermarket end of September, but in the Netherlands it seems that as soon as everybody is back at school after summer, the supermarket shelves are filled with kruidnoten, gigantic chocolat letters (stuffing for the boots) and every sort of pepernoten you can imagine.
So, this being our first winter, first Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, I wanted to get to the root of this phenomenon and spent an afternoon with the kids baking kruidnoten.
We went for the healthies choice possible under these circumstances 🙂 With spelt, brown sugar, almond milk and lots of real spices. And the girls loved it!
I have tasted a lot of other kruidnoten in the meantime and I must confess my affection for the ones with hazelnut and chocolate chunks. But next year, I will definitely make my own again. You can taste the love and the fun we put into the baking process 🙂
So Happy Sintertime to my friends in the Netherlands! Be strong, in a few weeks the craze is over and we can all get stressed out about Christmas 😀
