Special Occasions
On special occasions, usually different types of pastries are eaten. When a baby is born in a family, the young parents traditionally serve their guests beschuit met muisjes (Dutch rusk covered with sugared aniseed).
The Dutch festival of Sinterklaas (dedicated to Saint Nicholas, celebrating his name day) is held on 5 December. Saint Nicholas leaves gifts in the children’s shoes. On this occasion, the Dutch drink hot chocolate milk and eat spice cookies, like speculaas. These special pastries are said to be distributed by Saint Nicholas' aide Zwarte Piet; and they include pepernoten (gingernut-like biscuits but made with cinnamon, pepper, cloves and nutmeg mix of spices), boterletter or banket, (a baked pastry crust filled with a sugared almond paste filling and shaped into a letter), letters made from chocolate, marzipan, borstplaat (discs of fondant); and several other types of spiced cookies: taai-taai and kruidnoten and banketstaaf.
Christmas in the Netherlands is a typical family holiday. Traditionally there is family brunch with kerststol (fruited raisinbread; often filled with almond paste). Christmas dinner is also a family occasion where roast pork, game or other luxury meat may be served. An alternative typical Dutch tradition for Christmas meals is 'gourmet', when people sit together around a gourmet-set (small table top cooking stove with miniature frying pans) and use their own small frying pans to cook different types of meats, fish prawns/shrimps and finely chopped vegetables accompanied by salads, fruits and sauces.
On New Year's Eve, Dutch houses smell of the piping hot oil used to prepare oliebollen and appelbeignets(not to be mistaken for the "appelflap" which is completely different) (battered apple rings) in deep-fat fryers. These yeast dough balls, either plain or filled with glacé fruits, pieces of apple and raisins and sultanas, are served with powdered sugar and are a special treat for New Year's Eve. The Dutch also took their oliebollen to America, where they are now known in a slightly different form as doughnuts. In Limburg nonnevotte are sometimes served during New Year's Eve, although it is mostly eaten during Carnival. Around New Years kniepertjes are popular, in particular in the northern provinces.
On birthdays all kinds of cakes and cookies are eaten, including appeltaart (apple pie), bokkepootjes, Bossche bol, dikke koek, cream cake, Fryske dumkes, gevulde koek (cookies filled with almond meal), Groninger koek, janhagel, ketelkoek, kindermanstik, krakeling, krentenwegge, kruidkoek, Limburgse vlaai, ouwewijvenkoek, peperkoek (gingerbread), rijstekoek, spekkoek (originally from Indonesia), sprits, tompouce, trommelkoek, bitterkoekjes, kletskop and stroopwafel. Poffertjes are tiny puffed pancakes served on special occasions, served warm with melting butter and powdered sugar on top. They are mostly combined with a drink: milk, chocolate milk or yogurt drink. Cafeterias all around Holland sell poffertjes. Dutch people call such a restaurant a poffertjeskraam. Poffertjes can be eaten as a dessert after dinner or as a sweet lunch.
Read more about this topic: Dutch Cuisine
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