Katrien's St. Nicholas Day Treat!
St. Nicholas Day on December 6th, a day special to children of all ages.
Katrien Vander Straeten, Suite101 Custom and Holiday host, tells how she celebrated St. Nicholas Day in her native Belgium and shares with us a recipe for Speculoos!
Katrien Vander Straeten is a stay-at-home mom to her 15-month-old daughter, a Ph.D. student in Philosophy, writer of non-fiction, fiction and poetry, and concocter of creative projects. She is Belgian, married to an East Indian, and living in Boston in the US. You can read about her experiences with diverse cultures and her take on a wide range of customs, holidays and festivals here .
The culinary result of such a combination? A lot of take-out from the many cuisines in the city and an ecclectic mix of dishes prepared in her own kitchen. She is adventurous with international foods, loves the seasonal New England cuisine, and occasionally tries out recipes of her own devising. But she feels most comfortable cooking the Belgian fare she grew up with: "coq-au-vin" and "Gentse waterzooi".
Here's my interview with her about St. Nicolas Day.
What is St. Nicolas Day?
One of my fondest memories of growing up in Belgium is "Sinterklaas" : the feast of Saint Nicholas. This children's Saint is celebrated on December 6 by all children in Belgium and The Netherlands. It doesn't matter that he is still very visibly a Roman Catholic figure (a bishop ), no less, and of course also a Saint). Children of all religious and cultural backgrounds flock to see him arrive on horseback or by steamboat.
What does St. Nicholas Day mean to you?
I remember being taken to the large harbor of Antwerp by my parents, to join the throngs of thousands of children and parents in the bitter cold. The waiting would pass jovially with flag waving and songs. When the boat entered the dock and blew its horn, everyone went wild and the cheers would go up - also adults couldn't help themselves! What a sight it was, to see the stately Saint, with his long white beard and red bishop's miter and robes, on the deck of the ship, sometimes already seated on his white horse. As soon as he and his entourage disembarked, his helpers, all called "Zwarte Piet" or Black Peter , liberally distributed from a large sack handfuls of candy and small, round biscuits with colorful tufts of hardened sugar on them called "Karolientjes". This is still a yearly occurrence in Belgium, and one day I will take my daughter there.
What is a St. Nicolas Day Treat?
Another treat that comes with Sinterklaas is "speculoos" or "speculaas". Probably the American ginger bread cookies come closest, though not close enough for this Belgian, who gladly schleps 5 pounds of the stuff across the ocean each time she returns from a trip home. Speculoos is available in a simple form throughout the year, but in the Sinterklaas season the bakers make the cookies in molds of the Saint and his helpers - so that is why they're called "speculoos," from the Latin "specula," meaning mirror.
Recipe Speculoos:
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 0,5 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger (better err on the light side)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (same here)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 large egg at room temperature
Instructions:
Combine ingredients 1 through 6 in bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the brown sugar and the butter with a mixer, until the consistency is light. Add the egg and beat until fluffy. Gradually add the dry ingredients and beat just until combined. Divide the dough in half and with hands make each half flat and into rectangle. Wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 2 large baking sheets. Roll out each piece on la ightly floured work surface to 13 x 9-inch rectangle. Trim the edges to form 12x8-inch rectangle. Cut it into 24 4x1-inch rectangles. Lightly press miniature cookie cutter into each rectangle to make imprints (do not cut through, the ideais to make a "mirror" image). Arrange the cookies on the baking sheets, 1 inch apart. Bake until edges begin to darken, about 8 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a rack and cool. Repeat with remaining piece.
Makes 4 dozen cookies
Enjoy!
Here's another Seasonal Tradition - Christmas Tarts!
Another kid favorite snack - Reindeer Food
More links on Flemish/Belgian culinary culture:
Food at Belgian and Other Funerals
