Kruidnoten a Dutch treat, 22 days until Christmas

It’s something that gets eaten at this time every year, it’s one of the many things to look forward to when Sinterklaas is in the country. Normally we buy them from the store, but this year I decided I wanted to make a few myself.

The last time I’ve made Kruitnoten I was still in school, around the age of 10. We would be busy rolling small balls out of the dough and when we were done it was playtime, time to play in the schoolyards, while the teachers would bake all of the kruitnoten into the oven. When playtime was over we would be welcomed by the smell of freshly baked kruitnoten, which had filled the school. It was that smell that filled my house now and reminded me of me being 10 years old and coming home, at 15.30, with a small bag of delicious home made kruidnoten.

Ingredients:
4 tsp gingerbread spices:             - 8 tsp cinnamon
                                                               - 2 tsp nutmeg
                                                               - 2 tsp clove
                                                               - 1 tsp ginger powder
                                                               - 1 tsp cardamom
                                                               - 1 tsp white pepper

250 g of self-raising flour
125 g of dark brown sugar
100 g hard, cold butter
6 tbsp milk
Pinch of salt

How to:
Preheat the oven to 175 ◦C
Mix the flour with the sugar, gingerbread spices and the salt.
Cut the butter into small pieces and at this together with the milk to the dry ingredients.
Knead quickly into a dough.
Line the baking tray with baking sheet.
Roll the dough into small balls, in the size of a marble, and divide them on the baking tray.
Let the kruidnoten bake for 15 to 20 minutes.