Saint Nicholas’ Eve treat: make your very own pepernoten

It’s an exciting time for Dutch people. Saint Nicholas’ Eve is approaching. Unfortunately, there are some things horribly wrong with the Dutch celebration of this great feast (and I’m not talking about the Eurotrash music here). But on a happier note, it’s also a time of delicious candy and chocolate letters. For those who want a piece of traditional Dutch Saint Nicholas celebration, here below follows my very own (tailored for American grocery stores) recipe for “pepernoten:”

Marc’s Pepernoten
2 cups self-rising flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup of brown sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 stick unsalted butter
2 Pinches of salt
2 tablespoons of maple syrup

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground aniseeds

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Mix the spices together. If you bought any of the spices whole, in my case coriander and aniseeds, make sure to grind them. Mix the spice mixture with the flour and baking powder.
• Pour the milk, maple syrup, brown sugar and stick of butter into a small pan. Place on a very low heat (just enough for the butter to melt) and stir until it becomes a smooth mix.
• Pour this blend into the mix of flour, baking powder and spices and knead until it forms a firm and smooth dough. Add pinches of salt during kneading.
• Create small round balls of dough (approximately the diameter of a penny) from the big block of dough and place them on a buttered baking sheet. Make sure to leave enough room between the small balls, so that the pepernoten do not melt together into a big block.
• Leave the pepernoten in the oven for approximately 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• After 15 minutes, remove the pepernoten from the oven and let them cool down and harden for about 1½ hour. Enjoy!