Teacup Café XXXII

[Mari]

Eärn! Are you kidding!?
I'm a purist when it comes to Sinterklaas, but pepernoten... those should be eaten BEFORE (i.e. whenever you can get them ).
Chocolate letters and speculaaspoppen however... not until the 5th

[BeardofPants]

Sane? Sis? Hope the campaigning's going well. It's awesome that you're both getting involved. Wish I could help.

[Coffeehouse]

I think edible rings are an excellent idea..

In Norway there are some things you just don't eat before Xmas, and we have this thing called syvbakst (or something similar) which means people bake 7 different kinds of cakes and pastries for the Xmas holidays *Drools unashamedly*

[Empress_Flynn]

Edible rings are a good idea!

*thinks about how we can market them*

And then there's American Christmases.... we just eat everything whenever we want

Stupid lack of tradition!

[Mari]

Empress, here the recipe. It's taken from http://www.thehollandring.com/sinterklaas.shtml, but I couldn't link to the recipe directly.
And I am the baker of cakes for birthdays here in my family, so I'd be glad to make you one for yours!

Saint Nicholas' helpers announce his arrival on
"Sinterklaasavond" by throwing "pepernoten" (and other sweets)
around the room for the children to pick up - the idea is that they
should pick up as many of these little round ginger nuts as they can.
"Pepernoten" should not be eaten straight from the oven.
Bake them well before 5 December and store them in a tin.
They will stay fresh for several weeks.

This recipe makes approx. 50 pepernoten:

100 grammes or 3 1/2 oz soft butter
125 grammes or 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons speculaas spices
a pinch of salt
250 grammes or 8 1/2 oz. self-rising (cake) flour
a few tablespoons milk
a tablespoon butter
Mix the butter, sugar, "speculaas" spices and salt in a bowl,
using a mixer if possible, until you have a smooth mixture.
Add the flour gradually and enough milk until you have an
elastic dough. Knead the dough into a ball, cover with a
plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for a few hours.
Grease a baking tray. Shape the dough into balls the size
of a hazelnut and put them on the baking tray, leaving a
little space between each. Bake at 150-175°C or 300-350°F
for approx. 15 minutes, or until they are golden brown

[Empress_Flynn]

Well the recipe looks doable but... what are "speculaas spices" lol... oh dear..

Yay I get a cake!

[Mari]

Right-y...
Apparently they are only sold in the Benelux, but you can buy them online if you'd like.
http://www.dutchtaste.com/silvo-koek...den-p-486.html
That's it.

[Empress_Flynn]

Thankies Mari ^^ I'll look into it!

My family are always wanting new confections from me at Christmas!

[Grey_Wolf]

*The Delicacy and Dessert Monster on hearing all the jummpy stuff being talked about comes out of the MQ to parlez about things delicious and delicate.*

[Empress_Flynn]

Maybe the D & D Monster can help with my birthday cake?

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Coffeehouse

Those cakes looked funny actually I'm guessing they're popular in Belgium too since Eärniel seems to know when they should be baked! Do them on December 3rd, cause that's my birthday, we can eat peper-whatchamacallit then

Pepernoten are traditionally made and given to children on the sixth of December, when the feast of Sinterklaas (Saint Nicolas). It's a shared tradition between the Netherlands and Belgium, but I don't know whether there are others that celebrate it too in that fashion. Though I suppose we might have some to spare on the 3rd providing Mari doesn't eat them all first.

Originally Posted by Mari

Eärn! Are you kidding!?
I'm a purist when it comes to Sinterklaas, but pepernoten... those should be eaten BEFORE (i.e. whenever you can get them ).
Chocolate letters and speculaaspoppen however... not until the 5th

Hahah, I'm not really a fan of pepernoten myself. But if you look the other way concerning the chocolate letters, I won't mention the real due date again.

Originally Posted by Empress_Flynn

Well the recipe looks doable but... what are "speculaas spices" lol... oh dear..

If I go to the Dutch wikipedia site and translate the speculaas spices from there it should be: cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, white pepper and cardamom. Exact quantities vary. Trust this at your responsibility, I've never tried making it myself and I'm not a cook.

[Grey_Wolf]

"Of course, my friend!" sayeth the D&D Monster, and immediately begins to bring out the ingrediences.

[Empress_Flynn]

Ooo thanks a lot Earn! I'll do some experimenting with the spice quantities... I'm pretty sure we have most of those in my kitchen... maybe not cardamom, but probably everything else...

Well hold on D & D Monster! The birthday isn't until Sunday! You have time to plan!

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Use pumpkin pie spice, Empress.

You guys are wrong about the US not having traditions. I just journey from culture to culture, eating my way through EVERYONE's traditions. My friends are from everywhere.

It's far the best way.

[Grey_Wolf]

"Oh, sorry, got carried away there." said the DDM."Planning is of course needed."

[Mari]

Earn, it's not tradition here to not eat pepernoten before the 6th. In fact, the Pieten hand it out when Sinterklaas comes in, which is at the beginning of November already I think.
So I guess there's a difference.

Sis, that's a very sensible thing to do ^_^

[Coffeehouse]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Pepernoten are traditionally made and given to children on the sixth of December, when the feast of Sinterklaas (Saint Nicolas). It's a shared tradition between the Netherlands and Belgium, but I don't know whether there are others that celebrate it too in that fashion.

Actually I remember that celebration was on the news here in Norway last year, they showed footage from Nederland and all, calling it like a 'second' Xmas

We don't have a celebration of pepernoten, or peppernøtter (I think that's the word for it here), but we do make it for Xmas, and they're usually very 'spicy', though I'm not the biggest fan of ginger in the world!

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Mari

Earn, it's not tradition here to not eat pepernoten before the 6th. In fact, the Pieten hand it out when Sinterklaas comes in, which is at the beginning of November already I think.
So I guess there's a difference.

To be honest, I forgot about that. Sinterklaas does arrive earlier by boat. In that case, no worries then! Eat away!

[Mari]

Yay! *does just that*
Sinterklaas time is a horror for my figure

Andreas, really? Why would they show it on TV? Probably didn't have more interesting things to report

[Coffeehouse]

Haha taking cheap shots at Norwegian television are we

I have no idea why. Prolly cause it's such a unique celebration. Norwegians are outward-looking! And your in Europe and it's not seldom that there are news reports from all over the continent about unique stories and such..