Haagse Hopjes

The first Haagse Hopje was not invented with a copper pan and a proud recipe card. It began, if the old story is allowed to keep its hat on, with a cup of coffee left too long by the fire. Very Dutch. We waste nothing, not even a mistake.

The name already tells you the joke. Hopjes are little Hops, named for Baron Hendrik Hop, a coffee-loving gentleman in The Hague who is said to have taken his coffee with sugar and cream until his doctor tried to separate him from the cup. The sweet was the compromise: coffee boiled with cream and sugar until it became something you could keep in your pocket and pretend was not quite coffee. For obvious reasons, doctors are rarely consulted about confectionery after that.

But let me tell you a secret: a good Hopje is not just coffee caramel. It should taste first of dark sugar, then roasted coffee, then cream at the back of the tongue, with a clean snap under the teeth and no burnt bitterness. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. Use strong coffee, a heavy pan, and a thermometer if you have one. Sugar forgives many things, but it does not forgive inattention.