Chef Joost
Amsterdamse Koggetjes (Amsterdam Nougatine Cookies)
A thin Amsterdam cookie carrying a cog ship in its name: caramelized butter dough, almond nougatine, and a 1934 contest that turned municipal pride into something for coffee.
Culinary Explorer
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Mergpijpjes
Created by
The name means little marrow bones, but the joke is sweet: sponge, jam, buttercream, almond marzipan, and chocolate from the Dutch pastry-shop window.
Pastries & Cookies
Dutch
Comfort Food
Celebration
Dinner Party
45 min
Active Time
12 min cook•2 hr 30 min total
Yield12 mergpijpjes
The first time I saw a mergpijpje in a banketbakker's window, I thought the pastry cook had been having a private laugh with the butcher. A neat white cylinder, two dark ends, the exact shape of a sawn marrow bone, but inside no bone at all: sponge cake, red jam, soft cream, and almond marzipan. The Dutch are accused of being too serious in food. Then we name a pastry after offal and serve it with coffee.
The name already tells you the joke. Merg is marrow, pijpje is a little pipe or tube, so a mergpijpje is a little marrowbone. But let me tell you a secret: this is not rustic baking. This is the banketbakkerij, the pastry shop, where Dutch thrift put on a clean apron and learned to be precise. A thin sheet of sponge becomes a roll, a little jam gives its red line, buttercream holds the marzipan, and the chocolate ends make the illusion complete.
The method rewards calm hands more than clever ones. Chill the roll before you cut it, chill the wrapped pieces before dipping, and don't fight the marzipan. It behaves best when rolled thin and handled as little as possible. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple: one soft cake, one clean filling, one almond coat, two chocolate ends. That is enough. The whole pleasure is in the neat little deception.
Mergpijpjes belong to the Dutch banketbakkerij tradition, the pastry-shop culture that grew strongly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as sugar, chocolate, almond paste, and fine wheat flour became ordinary celebration ingredients for urban households. The name is literal Dutch wordplay: merg means marrow and pijpje means little pipe or tube, describing the pastry's resemblance to a cut marrow bone rather than any ingredient. Their close cousins are the small marzipan-covered petits fours of wider European patisserie, but the blunt, butcher-shop name is unmistakably Dutch.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
large eggs
Quantity
4
room temperature
caster sugar
Quantity
100g
vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
plain flour
Quantity
100g
fine salt
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
apricot jam or raspberry jam
Quantity
2 tablespoons
warmed and sieved
unsalted butter
Quantity
125g
softened
icing sugar
Quantity
100g
sifted
milk
Quantity
1 tablespoon
white almond marzipan
Quantity
300g
icing sugar for rolling
Quantity
as needed
dark chocolate
Quantity
150g
chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| large eggsroom temperature | 4 |
| caster sugar | 100g |
| vanilla extract | 1 teaspoon |
| plain flour | 100g |
| fine salt | 1/4 teaspoon |
| apricot jam or raspberry jamwarmed and sieved | 2 tablespoons |
| unsalted buttersoftened | 125g |
| icing sugarsifted | 100g |
| milk | 1 tablespoon |
| white almond marzipan | 300g |
| icing sugar for rolling | as needed |
| dark chocolatechopped | 150g |
Equipment Needed
- •30 by 40 centimetre Swiss roll tin
- •Electric whisk
- •Rolling pin
- •Sharp serrated knife
- •Heatproof bowl for melting chocolate
Instructions
- 1
Bake the sponge
Heat the oven to 200C and line a 30 by 40 centimetre Swiss roll tin with baking paper. Beat the eggs, caster sugar, and vanilla for five to seven minutes until pale, thick, and ribboning from the whisk. Fold in the flour and salt gently, spread the batter thinly and evenly, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the sponge springs back when touched.
- 2
Roll and cool
Turn the sponge onto a sheet of baking paper dusted lightly with caster sugar. Peel away the baking paper from the base, then roll the warm sponge up from the long side with the fresh paper inside it. Let it cool completely like this. Warm sponge remembers its shape; cold sponge cracks and sulks.
- 3
Make the filling
Beat the softened butter with the icing sugar until pale and smooth, then beat in the milk to loosen it. Unroll the cooled sponge carefully, spread it thinly with the sieved jam, then spread the buttercream over the jam in an even layer. Roll it up again, tight but not strangled, and chill for 30 minutes so it cuts cleanly.
Keep the filling thin. A mergpijpje should show a neat spiral and a fine red line, not collapse into sweetness before the marzipan has even arrived. - 4
Cut the logs
Trim the uneven ends from the roll, then cut it into 12 short pieces, each about 6 centimetres long. If the knife drags the cream, wipe it clean between cuts. Pastry-shop neatness is mostly wiping the knife and pretending it was skill.
- 5
Wrap in marzipan
Dust the worktop with icing sugar and roll the marzipan into a thin rectangle, about 3 millimetres thick. Cut it into pieces large enough to wrap around each sponge log with a slight overlap. Brush the outside of each log very lightly with buttercream if it needs help sticking, wrap with marzipan, and roll gently under your palm to make a smooth cylinder.
- 6
Dip the ends
Melt the dark chocolate gently in a bowl set over barely simmering water, then let it cool until glossy and a little thickened. Dip both ends of each marzipan roll into the chocolate and set them on baking paper. Chill until the chocolate is firm, then serve at room temperature, when the sponge is soft and the almond scent has opened.
Chef Tips
- •Use real almond marzipan, not fondant. The almond is not decoration here; it is the flavour that makes the pastry worth the trouble.
- •Apricot jam is the clean pastry-shop choice, raspberry gives the brighter red line. Both are honest. Strawberry jam is often too loose and sweet for this small pastry.
- •If the marzipan sticks, dust with icing sugar, not flour. Flour tastes raw here, and a pastry this small has nowhere to hide it.
- •Serve with strong coffee or a small glass of advocaat. A mergpijpje is rich, so give it something bitter or eggy beside it and let the table sort itself out.
Advance Preparation
- •The sponge roll can be filled and chilled up to one day ahead before wrapping in marzipan.
- •Finished mergpijpjes keep two days in an airtight container in the refrigerator; bring them to room temperature before serving so the sponge softens.
- •They do not freeze well once dipped, because the marzipan sweats as it thaws.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 86g)
Calories
355 calories
Total Fat
19 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
85 mg
Sodium
80 mg
Total Carbohydrates
43 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
32 g
Protein
5 g
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