Recipes from the Dutch holidays

[Markje]

Since holidays are coming, I thought I'd post a few typicly dutch recipes for holidays.

5 December: Saint Nicholas

Typical dutch food:
- Chocolate letters (Usually S for Saint, N for Nicholas, P for Piet) , 300Gram heavy.
- Pepper nuts (peper noten)
- Taai taai (not translatable)
- Foam (Schuimpjes)

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[Markje]

Chocolate Letters.
Original Article (Dutch):
http://www.wereldexpat.nl/nl/typischNL/recepten/sintrecepten_chocoletters



30 november 2006

Chocolate letters are usually available from early september in the Dutch stores. All letters in different size, shape and taste are available.
White, Pure, milk , without nuts, with nuts, without decorations and with decorations. The chocolate specialty shops are filled with chocolate letters for this festive day.

Making your own chocolate letter is fairly easy. Chocolate is usually premade available in pure form as a candy bar. Be sure to buy only pure non-contaminated candy bars like Droste, Verkade or other pure chocolate brands. You will also need a moulding form made of flexible paper or very sturdy plastic.

A premade form looks like this :


If you do not have one, you can make one like this:
First, enter your ingredient in a small plastic bag , like this :


Then tie off the front of the bag, directly above the ingredient and puncture the bottom of the bag with something sharp (but not too wide!)


Now you are ready to start making the chocolate letters. Without a true chocolate letter form however, you can never get the exact shape but some people like the "personal touch"  of a handwritten chocolate letter above form printed ones.

Firstly, to melt the chocolate.
Warning - Warning - Warning: Make sure the smaller pan is absolutely clean and dry, and also all the cooking utensils you use. Even 1 drop of water will ruin your chocolate!

Melting chocolate is a delicate task which is all about temprature. White chocolate needs 28C , Milk chocolate needs 30C and pure chocolate 32C. The easiest way to gradually increase the temprature is by using 2 cooking pans. The first will be the biggest and filled with water, which is brought to boiling temperature. Then the second pan (smaller) is filled with chocolate pieces from your candy bar. Use only 1 type of chocolate per try. Now, insert the smaller pan in the bigger where the pan floats on the boiling water of the first. Wait until the chocolate becomes a paste of some sort, but not fully liquid. When it is ready, put the chocolate paste in the form.

If you use the handwritten form, start writing by using the form as a pen and pour the chocolate slowly in the desired shape. Use a large metal plate as the bottom to write the chocolate on. The plate should be covered with baking paper that is easily removed once the chocolate hardens again. Putting your new chocolate in a refridgerator speeds up this process... BUT molten chocolate "breathes" the taste/smell of other food stuff in your fridge, so be careful if you do not want this.

Decorating



Now your chocolate letters are ready for the fun part. Use the leftover molten chocolate (reheat if necessary) to adorn your letters with a personal touch. Now you can also use the extra chocolate as "glue" to glue on nuts and other chocolate candy. Use white chocolate on brown letters and brown chocolate on white letters for extra beautiful effects.

The biggest challange of making chocolate letters is to refrain from licking your fingers clean whilst making them!