Name: Kruidnoten
Yield: Makes 176 tiny biscuits: you can halve the recipe, but you will regret doing so as these are very good and eat like peanuts
Cuisine: Belgian
Ingredients: 45 ml buttermilk (or milk with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice whisked in); 420 g plain (all-purpose) flour or white rye flour; 1 teaspoon sea salt; ¼ teaspoon each of ground ginger, nutmeg, coriander, allspice, mace, cardamom, long pepper (or the pepper you have); 190 g unsalted butter, softened; 4 teaspoons mixed spices; 225 g (8 oz) dark brown sugar; 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (baking soda); 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon; ½ teaspoon ground cloves

Preparation info

Makes
176
tiny biscuits: you can halve the recipe, but you will regret doing so as these are very good and eat like peanuts

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Dark Rye and Honey Cake

By Regula Ysewijn

Published 2023

About

Kruidnoten (Pfeffernüsse in German) means spiced nuts: these are tiny brittle speculaas biscuits only a little larger than a hazelnut. At Saint Nicholas festivities these small biscuits are thrown into the crowd by Saint Nicholas’s helpers during the arrival parades, though in recent years, because of health concerns, only wrapped sweeties and mandarins (clementines) or oranges are thrown. Kruidnoten are now left on school desks, or in