Chef Joost
Amandelbroodje (Dutch Almond Pastry Roll)
The December bakery counter made small: cold leafed pastry wrapped around lemon-scented amandelspijs, brushed gold, and scattered with almonds so one person gets the whole holiday in both hands.
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Chocoladeletter (Dutch Chocolate Letter)
Created by
One initial per child, hidden in a shoe or set beside speculaas: the Dutch chocolate letter turns cacao, tempering, and Sinterklaas mischief into the most personal December sweet.
Desserts
Dutch
Christmas
Holiday
Celebration
35 min
Active Time
10 min cook•1 hr 20 min total
Yield6 medium chocolate letters
The most democratic luxury in the Dutch December is a single letter. In my grandmother's house the Sinterklaas table could be chaos: kruidnoten, little spiced biscuits, under elbows, poems read with theatrical injury, wrapping paper migrating toward the soup bowls. But in the shoe by the hearth, or later beside each plate, the chocoladeletter made order. One initial per name. Mine was J, for Joost, which is a generous letter in chocolate, for obvious reasons.
The name already tells you everything and almost nothing: chocoladeletter, chocolate letter. It is not a chocolate bar dressed up for a feast; it is a child's claim on the feast. Older St Nicholas customs used edible letters in bread and pastry before chocolate became cheap enough to hand to every child, and then the nineteenth-century confectioner did what Dutch cooks so often do: made a luxury practical, personal, and very slightly competitive. Chocolate came into Dutch cupboards through the same seventeenth-century appetite for traded luxuries that filled speculaas with cinnamon and clove, though cacao itself crossed the Atlantic rather than the route to the Spice Islands. The distinction matters in a kitchen as much as in an archive.
But let me tell you a secret: the trick is not decoration, it is temper. Good temper gives the shine, the clean snap under your teeth, and the little moment of pride when the letter releases from the paper. Bad temper gives grey bloom, which tastes fine but looks as if it has read the news. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. Use real chocolate with cocoa butter, keep water away, obey the thermometer, and pipe the letter thick enough that every name at the table is treated fairly.
Chocoladeletters became a Sinterklaas confection in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century, when moulded chocolate grew affordable after Dutch cocoa innovations such as Coenraad Johannes van Houten's 1828 cocoa press. The edible-letter custom is older than chocolate, with St Nicholas gifts in bread or pastry letters used to mark names before cacao became a holiday luxury. The modern rule is personal and practical: each recipient receives the initial of their first name, and commercial letters are usually made to the same weight, so an I is not punished and an M is not rewarded.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
good eating chocolate or couverture, dark, milk, or white
Quantity
600g
finely chopped, 450g for melting and 150g reserved for seeding
toasted almond slivers (optional)
Quantity
40g
candied orange peel (optional)
Quantity
25g
finely diced
Dutch hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) (optional)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| good eating chocolate or couverture, dark, milk, or whitefinely chopped, 450g for melting and 150g reserved for seeding | 600g |
| toasted almond slivers (optional) | 40g |
| candied orange peel (optional)finely diced | 25g |
| Dutch hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) (optional) | 2 tablespoons |
Equipment Needed
- •Digital thermometer
- •Heatproof bowl and saucepan
- •Piping bag
- •Flat baking tray
- •Baking parchment
- •Printed or hand-drawn letter templates
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the letters
Slide printed or hand-drawn initials under a sheet of baking parchment on a flat tray. Make each letter about 10 to 12 cm high with thick strokes, not schoolbook thinness; chocolate needs a little generosity to feel like a gift. Tape the parchment down so it cannot wander when you pipe.
- 2
Chop and divide
Chop the chocolate small and evenly. Put 450g in a dry heatproof bowl and keep 150g aside as seed chocolate. If water gets into chocolate it seizes into a grainy lump, which is the sort of chemistry lesson one remembers for years, so dry the bowl, spatula, and thermometer properly.
- 3
Melt gently
Set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir until just melted: 45C for dark chocolate, 40C for milk chocolate, or 38C for white chocolate. Take the bowl off the heat and wipe the bottom dry before it drips onto your work.
- 4
Seed and test
Add the reserved chocolate a handful at a time, stirring steadily until it melts and cools the bowl: 27 to 28C for dark, 26 to 27C for milk, or 25 to 26C for white. Rewarm the chocolate for just a few seconds over the pan to working temperature: 31 to 32C for dark, 29 to 30C for milk, or 28 to 29C for white. Smear a little on a knife; if it sets firm and glossy within three minutes at cool room temperature, it is ready.
If the test patch streaks, stays tacky, or sets dull, keep stirring and test again. Tempering sounds grand, but it is only disciplined patience, and Dutch December has always had room for that. - 5
Pipe the initials
Scrape the tempered chocolate into a piping bag and cut an 8 to 10 mm opening. Pipe the outline of each letter first, then fill it with thick back-and-forth ribbons, and add a second pass for height. If you are making different initials, aim for about 90g of chocolate per letter; an I deserves as much as an M, which is the whole morality of Sinterklaas in edible form.
- 6
Decorate and set
While the chocolate is still glossy, scatter over almond slivers, candied orange peel, or hagelslag if you are using them. Let the letters set at cool room temperature, ideally 18 to 20C, for 30 to 45 minutes, until they lift cleanly from the parchment. Serve at room temperature, tucked beside a cup of coffee, after the Sinterklaas poems have done their damage.
Avoid the refrigerator unless the room is too warm. A five-minute chill can help set the chocolate, but long cold storage brings condensation, and condensation makes a fine letter look tired.
Chef Tips
- •Use chocolate you would happily eat plain, and check that it contains cocoa butter. Compound coating behaves politely but tastes like a shortcut with a clean shirt on.
- •Temper one chocolate type at a time. Dark, milk, and white each want different temperatures, and a bowl of mixed ambition rarely ends well.
- •If your temper fails and the letter blooms grey, remelt and start again. Nothing has been ruined except your schedule, and December was never famous for mercy.
- •Store finished letters in a cool, dry cupboard, not beside spices, onions, or cheese. Chocolate is a quiet listener and absorbs nearby smells.
Advance Preparation
- •The letters can be made up to two weeks ahead and stored airtight in a cool, dry place, ideally 15 to 18C.
- •Wrap each letter in parchment or cellophane once fully set. Keep them away from the refrigerator unless your kitchen is warm enough to soften the chocolate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 115g)
Calories
580 calories
Total Fat
36 g
Saturated Fat
20 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
14 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
45 mg
Total Carbohydrates
62 g
Dietary Fiber
7 g
Sugars
51 g
Protein
8 g
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