Pepernoten or ‘Pepper Nuts’

(voor Nederlands scroll naar beneden)

Another traditional Dutch sweetness, but this time for the 5th of December. That date in Holland (and the 6th in Belgium) Sinterklaas gives the children loads of presents. He is the Dutch Santa Claus (I read on Wikipedia he is one of the sources for the American Santa Claus!), with some differences. Sinterklaas sails with a boat from Spain to Holland, about 3 weeks before the 5th of December. In the period between his arrival and his birthday (that is what we celebrate), children can place their empty shoe (or filled with an nice drawing and a carrot) near a fire place so the helpers of Sinterklaas can come inside through the chimney and place their presents and sweets in the shoes and take the drawing and carrot. The carrots are meant for the horse, Americo, that carries Sinterklaas across the roofs. I know it is a bit of strange tradition, but the story behind Santa Claus is also a bit weird, right? The only thing that causes resistance in foreign countries and even in Holland these days is the fact that the helpers of Sinterklaas, pieten, are black. They are black because they are sliding through chimneys every night, but I understand that it may offend people.
The sweets that come with this event are letters of chocolate and pepernoten (small cookies). Because we are not in Holland during the Sinterklaas festivities I baked the pepernoten myself. I share them here, because I wish everyone a good Sinterklaas evening! (recipe is based on this one)

What you need

– 195 grams flour
– 6 grams baking powder
– 50 grams vegetable butter
– 60 grams brown sugar
– a few grams of salt
– 4 tablespoons of (soy) milk
– 2 tablespoons molasses or honey
– 1 tablespoons of pumpkin spice mix

What you do

1. Sieve the flour, baking powder, spice mix and salt


2. Add the sugar
3. Cut the cold butter with two knives through the flour mix


4. Add the milk and molasses/honey and start kneading
5. The dough should form a ball, if it’s too dry add some more milk


6. Preheat the oven on 160 degrees Celcius/32o Fahrenheit
7. Make small balls (dice size) out of the dough and put them on a baking sheet


8. Bake the dough balls no longer than 15 minutes. The inside of the balls should still be soft
9. Place your shoe in front of the fireplace in the evening (or central heating, Sinterklaas is very modern) and put some pepernoten inside
10. Act surprised when you find your shoe with pepernoten the next morning and enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pepernoten recept

Als je in het buitenland bent als Sinterklaas aanmeert in Nederland is dat nog niet zo’n probleem. De intocht is live te volgen en zelfs terug te zien als je op uitzendinggemist als je zaterdagmiddag geen tijd hebt. Het Sinterklaasjournaal houd je op de hoogte van de actualiteiten rondom sinterklaas en op 5 december kun je ook in het buitenland een pakjesavond organiseren. Maar die chocoladeletters, pepernoten en schuimpjes maken het toch helemaal af. Gelukkig kun je chocoladerepen in de vorm van letters uitsnijden en pepernoten zijn zelf te bakken. Dat laatste heb ik alvast gedaan, gebaseerd op dit recept.

Dit heb je nodig

– 195 gram bloem
– 6 gram bakpoeder
– 50 gram plantaardige boter
– 60 gram bruine suiker
– een beetje zout
– eetlepels (soja) melk
– 2 eetlepels stroop of honing
– 1 eetlepel speculaaskruiden

Dit doe je

1. Zeef bloem, bakpoeder, speculaaskruiden en zout
2. Voeg suiker toe
3. Snij de koude boter met twee messen door het meelmengsel
4. Voeg melk en stroop toe en begin met kneden
5. Het deeg moet een bal vormen, als het te droog is kun je meer melk toevoegen
6. Verwarm de oven voor op 160 graden Celcius
7. Maak kleine balletjes van het deeg en leg ze op een bakblik met bakpapier
8. Bak de pepernoten niet langer dan 15 minuten, de binnenkant van de noten moet nog zacht zijn
9. Geniet!

6 Comments on “Pepernoten or ‘Pepper Nuts’

  1. Love it, my Dutch BF is all about the peppernoten. So it’s pretty cool to know that I will be able to make them myself. Will definitely try this out this weekend!. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. I didn’t even know ‘pepernoten’ until I bought some in Utrecht a couple of weeks ago (we were there for VegfestNL). Love them!
    Thanks for the recipe :-

    • Thanks! Don’t they sell pepernoten in Belgium? Oh well, it is even better to bake them yourself 🙂 Happy baking!

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