Chef Joost
Advocaat (Dutch Egg Liqueur)
Advocaat is the Dutch liqueur you eat with a spoon: brandewijn, yolks and sugar turned into a glossy Easter glass, with a hat of slagroom and no apology.
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Boerenmeisjes (Dutch Brandied Apricots)
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Boerenmeisjes are the farm girls of the Dutch feest (celebration) table: dried apricots made golden with brandy, cinnamon, and lemon, waiting until New Year gives them an excuse.
Beverages
Dutch
Make Ahead
Celebration
New Years
15 min
Active Time
10 min cook•336 hr 55 min total
Yield1 liter jar, about 12 small servings
Boerenmeisjes is the kind of name a sensible country gives to a jar of fruit and liquor when nobody wants to admit how charming the thing is. The farm girls sit in brandewijn, burnt wine, beside their brothers, boerenjongens, who are raisins in the same spirit. The name already tells you the joke: same farm cupboard, different children.
In my grandmother's second notebook, this was not filed under cocktails, for obvious reasons. A cocktail has posture. Boerenmeisjes has a spoon. It came out when the New Year table needed something sweet and amber, spooned over vanilla ice cream or served in those tiny glasses that make everyone pretend moderation is involved. Dried apricots were summer made portable, the kind of fruit a Dutch pantry could keep until winter decided to behave badly.
But let me tell you a secret. The trick is not the liquor, it's patience. Hot syrup wakes the apricots and opens them, but the brandy must go in after the pan has cooled, or you'll cook away the very thing you invited. Then the jar waits in the dark for two weeks, better four. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple: good dried apricots, honest brandy, cinnamon, lemon, and time. History and cookery, they cannot be separated, but here they also do not need to be difficult.
Boerenmeisjes, literally farm girls, is the companion to boerenjongens, the northern Dutch raisin preserve most closely associated with Groningen festive tables. Both belong to the wider Dutch habit of fruit op brandewijn, fruit preserved in brandy, a technique found in eighteenth-century household books such as De volmaakte Hollandsche keuken-meid from 1746. The word brandewijn means burnt wine, distilled wine, and entered English as brandy, a small linguistic souvenir of Dutch trade.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
soft dried apricots
Quantity
500g
whole and unsweetened if possible
water
Quantity
250ml
granulated sugar or witte basterdsuiker (Dutch soft white sugar)
Quantity
200g
cinnamon stick
Quantity
1
lemon peel
Quantity
2 wide strips
yellow zest only, no white pith
lemon juice (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Dutch brandewijn or mellow brandy
Quantity
500ml
35-40% alcohol
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| soft dried apricotswhole and unsweetened if possible | 500g |
| water | 250ml |
| granulated sugar or witte basterdsuiker (Dutch soft white sugar) | 200g |
| cinnamon stick | 1 |
| lemon peelyellow zest only, no white pith | 2 wide strips |
| lemon juice (optional) | 1 tablespoon |
| Dutch brandewijn or mellow brandy35-40% alcohol | 500ml |
Equipment Needed
- •One-liter glass preserving jar with tight lid
- •Small saucepan
- •Clean spoon or ladle
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the jar
Wash a one-liter glass jar and its lid in hot soapy water, rinse well, and let them dry completely. Look over the apricots and remove any hard stem bits. This is preserving, not surgery, but a clean jar and good fruit are the two places where care pays you back.
- 2
Make the syrup
Put the water, sugar, cinnamon stick, and lemon peel into a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves, then let it murmur for three minutes. The syrup should be clear and lightly scented, not boiled down into candy.
- 3
Plump the apricots
Add the dried apricots to the syrup and simmer gently for five to seven minutes, just until they swell and become supple. They should still hold their shape. If your apricots are very sweet, add the lemon juice now; it sharpens the syrup without making the jar taste of lemon.
If the apricots are hard as buttons before you begin, soak them in warm water for fifteen minutes and drain them before they meet the syrup. Get the real ingredient and I'll forgive rough technique; old, dry fruit gives you very little to forgive. - 4
Cool and pour
Take the pan off the heat and let the apricots cool in the syrup until the pan is no warmer than your hand. Pack the apricots, cinnamon stick, and lemon peel into the jar, then pour in the syrup and the brandy. The fruit should be covered; if a few apricots bob up, press them down with a clean spoon.
Do not pour brandy into hot syrup. Heat drives off the spirit, and then you've made expensive apricot tea. Pleasant, yes. Not boerenmeisjes. - 5
Let it mature
Seal the jar and turn it gently once or twice to mix. Store it in a cool, dark cupboard for at least two weeks, turning the jar every few days. After four weeks the apricots become deeper, rounder, and properly festive. Patience is the seasoning here.
- 6
Serve the girls
Serve one or two apricots with a spoonful of the amber brandy syrup over vanilla ice cream, hangop (strained yogurt), or rijstebrij (rice pudding). For a small glass, pour a little of the syrupy brandy with one apricot at the bottom. Use a clean spoon each time and refrigerate the jar after opening.
Chef Tips
- •Choose soft dried apricots that bend when pressed. Bright orange apricots give the familiar golden jar; darker unsulphured apricots taste deeper and less sunny. Both are honest, but neither should be candied.
- •Use a mellow brandy or Dutch brandewijn you would drink in a small glass. The fruit and sugar soften it, but they cannot rescue a harsh spirit.
- •Serve boerenmeisjes after a rich winter meal, especially at New Year. They belong with ice cream, hangop (strained yogurt), or a plain rice pudding that lets the brandy syrup do the talking.
- •Keep the fruit covered by syrup and spirit. If you scale the recipe, scale the liquid too; exposed fruit dries at the top and loses the whole point of the jar.
Advance Preparation
- •Make at least two weeks ahead; four weeks gives a fuller flavour and a softer apricot.
- •Store unopened in a cool, dark cupboard for up to three months. After opening, refrigerate and use within six weeks.
- •The jar can be doubled for a feast, but divide it between smaller jars if you plan to give some away.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 115g)
Calories
250 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
5 mg
Total Carbohydrates
43 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
39 g
Protein
1 g
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