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.
Culinary Explorer
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Kruidnoten
Created by
Small as pebbles and loud with cinnamon, clove, mace, and nutmeg, kruidnoten are the Sinterklaas cookies that carry a spice empire in a child's coat pocket.
Pastries & Cookies
Dutch
Christmas
Holiday
Make Ahead
25 min
Active Time
18 min cook•1 hr 43 min total
Yield90 small kruidnoten
Smell kruidnoten in the oven and you're smelling December before the calendar admits it. In Dutch houses they arrive early, too early if you ask the stern people, exactly on time if you ask the children. They sit in bowls by the door, vanish from paper cones in cold streets, and tumble across the table as strooigoed, scattering sweets, for Sinterklaasavond, St Nicholas' Eve.
The name already tells you the secret, if you listen carefully. Kruid means spice or herb, and noot means nut, though these little things contain no nuts at all. They are nuts by shape and hardness, small brown pebbles that crack crisply under the teeth. That matters, because a kruidnoot is not a pepernoot. The old pepernoot is darker, chewier, often made with rye and honey or syrup. The kruidnoot is the neat little speculaas child: butter, flour, sugar, and the VOC cupboard in miniature.
But let me tell you a secret. The recipe asks almost nothing, and that is why you must do the small things properly. Use a real speculaaskruiden blend with cinnamon, clove, mace, nutmeg, ginger, and white pepper if you can. Chill the dough so the butter firms and the spices settle. Roll the pieces small, because they puff in the oven and a kruidnoot should be one bite, not a biscuit pretending to be modest.
Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. Mix, rest, roll, bake until the edges darken and the room smells like a seventeenth-century cargo list turned domestic. Then let them cool completely before judging them. Warm from the oven they are still soft and undecided. Cool, they become what they promised: crisp little spice nuts for passing by the handful.
Kruidnoten belong to the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition and became common as small, crisp speculaas-spiced biscuits in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when industrial baking made them cheap enough to scatter as strooigoed. They are often confused with pepernoten, an older chewy sweet related to honey and rye doughs, but the two are distinct in texture, shape, and ingredients. Their spice blend reflects the Dutch VOC-era pantry: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, ginger, and pepper became ordinary festive flavours precisely because the Dutch spice trade made the extraordinary domestic.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose flour
Quantity
250g
baking powder
Quantity
8g
dark brown basterdsuiker or dark brown sugar
Quantity
100g
speculaaskruiden
Quantity
2 tablespoons
fine salt
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
unsalted butter
Quantity
100g
cold and diced
milk
Quantity
4 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon if needed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose flour | 250g |
| baking powder | 8g |
| dark brown basterdsuiker or dark brown sugar | 100g |
| speculaaskruiden | 2 tablespoons |
| fine salt | 1/4 teaspoon |
| unsalted buttercold and diced | 100g |
| milk | 4 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon if needed |
Equipment Needed
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Two baking trays
- •Parchment paper
- •Wire cooling rack
Instructions
- 1
Mix the dry bowl
Whisk the flour, baking powder, dark brown sugar, speculaaskruiden, and salt together in a large bowl. Break up any damp lumps of sugar with your fingers. Those little pockets seem harmless, then they bake into bitter dots, and nobody asked for archaeology in a cookie.
- 2
Rub in butter
Add the cold diced butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like damp sand. Work quickly. You want the butter distributed, not melted, because cold butter gives the kruidnoten their crisp snap.
- 3
Make the dough
Add 4 tablespoons of milk and press the mixture into a firm dough. It should come together without being sticky. If dry crumbs refuse to join, add 1 teaspoon more milk, no more at first; a wet dough spreads, and kruidnoten should stay small and proud.
If your speculaaskruiden is old and smells mostly of dust, replace it. This recipe has no hiding place for tired spice. - 4
Chill the dough
Flatten the dough into a thick disc, wrap it, and chill for 1 hour. This rest is doing two jobs: the butter firms again, and the spices settle into the dough instead of sitting on top of it like perfume.
- 5
Roll small pieces
Heat the oven to 170C. Line two baking trays with parchment. Pinch off pieces of dough of about 3g each, roll them into small balls, and set them on the trays with a little space between them. Think hazelnut-sized, though of course there is no hazelnut here, only the old joke of the name.
- 6
Bake until crisp
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the trays halfway, until the kruidnoten are deep brown at the edges and dry-looking on top. They will still feel a little soft if you press them. Leave them on the tray for 10 minutes, then move them to a rack to cool completely; their crispness arrives as they cool, like a decision finally made.
Chef Tips
- •Kruidnoten are not pepernoten. If you want the crisp little Sinterklaas pebbles sold in paper bags, this is the right dough; if you want the older chewy rye sweet, that is another story and another afternoon.
- •Make your own speculaaskruiden once with cinnamon, clove, mace, nutmeg, ginger, coriander seed, cardamom, and a little white pepper. The supermarket jar is useful; the fresh blend is a small education.
- •Keep the balls small. Large kruidnoten bake like ordinary cookies, and the whole pleasure of this one is the handful: crisp, spiced, and gone before anyone has counted properly.
- •Store them only when fully cool. Trap warmth in the tin and they soften, which is a sad end for a cookie whose whole duty is to crack under the teeth.
Advance Preparation
- •The dough can be made up to two days ahead and kept wrapped in the refrigerator; let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling if it is too firm.
- •Baked kruidnoten keep well for 2 weeks in an airtight tin once completely cool.
- •They freeze well after baking for up to 2 months; refresh on a tray in a low oven at 140C for 5 to 7 minutes, then cool again for crispness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 5g)
Calories
25 calories
Total Fat
1 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
3 mg
Sodium
20 mg
Total Carbohydrates
3 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
0 g
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