Eierkoeken

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
• •Two parchment-lined baking sheets
• •Fine sieve
• •Large spoon or piping bag

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the oven

   Heat the oven to 180C. Line two baking sheets with parchment. If you want tidy eierkoeken, draw eight circles about 9 centimetres wide on the underside of the paper; the batter spreads, and a little boundary saves you from making one large egg continent.

2. 2

   Beat the eggs

   Put the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla sugar or extract, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 7 to 9 minutes, until the mixture is thick, pale, and falls from the whisk in a ribbon that sits on the surface for a few seconds before disappearing. This is the whole trick. The air you beat in now is the softness you eat later.

   Room-temperature eggs whip higher and faster than cold ones. If you forgot, set the whole eggs in a bowl of warm tap water for ten minutes before cracking them.
3. 3

   Fold the flour

   Whisk the flour, cornstarch, and baking powder together, then sift half over the egg foam. Fold it through with a broad spatula, turning the bowl as you go, then repeat with the rest. Stop as soon as no dry streaks remain. If a few flour freckles are hiding near the bottom, give three more folds, not thirty.

4. 4

   Shape the rounds

   Spoon or pipe the batter into eight mounds on the prepared sheets, leaving plenty of room between them. Spread each mound gently to about 8 or 9 centimetres wide with the back of a damp spoon. Do not flatten them with ambition; they need enough height to dome.

5. 5

   Bake until springy

   Bake for 9 to 12 minutes, one tray at a time if your oven heats unevenly, until the tops are pale gold, the rims are just beginning to colour, and the centres spring back when touched lightly. Pull them before they look fully brown. A browned eierkoek is usually a dry eierkoek, and dryness is a poor reward for patience.

   The underside will colour more than the top. Judge by the spring of the centre, not by waiting for a deep golden surface.
6. 6

   Cool and serve

   Let the eierkoeken cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then lift them to a rack. Serve them plain, or split and spread with butter while they are still soft enough to bend without cracking. Coffee is not required by law, but the table will understand if it appears.

Chef Tips

• •Do not make the batter ahead. Once the eggs are whipped and the flour is folded in, the air begins to fade; bake at once.
• •Caster sugar dissolves more cleanly than coarse granulated sugar and helps the surface stay tender rather than gritty.
• •The butter belongs on the split eierkoek, not in the batter. That lean sponge is the point: egg, sugar, flour, and the Dutch habit of making very little feel generous.
• •Lemon zest should whisper, not take over. Use only the yellow peel, never the bitter white pith.

Advance Preparation

• •The batter should be baked immediately, so measure the dry ingredients and line the trays before you start whipping the eggs.
• •Eierkoeken keep for 2 days in an airtight tin at room temperature. Freeze any extras the day they are baked, then thaw at room temperature.
• •If serving for breakfast, bake them the evening before and store well covered; split and butter them just before eating.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 39g)