Speculoos for the Rest of Us

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Happy St. Nicholas Day!

speculoos spice packet and 2 cookie molds.

Speculoos (Spekulatius or speculaas) is the official cookie of St. Nicholas Day. Speculoos are thin, crunchy cookies that are stamped or pressed into a mold. Speculoos are made with brown sugar, flour, butter and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, ginger and white pepper) and sometimes with almond flour.

The Dutch/Belgian speculoos use little or no spice. Although their taste is reminiscent of gingerbread they are more of a soft caramel flavor. The Dutch and Belgian make speculoos for consumption on the eve of St. Nicholas Day.

Speculoos are also made in Germany. However they are made as more of a Christmas cookie. The German speculoos are full of spice and taste very similar to gingerbread cookies.Speculoos are available all year long, although in limited varieties. They are often served along side a cup of coffee in a cafe. These Belgian Speculoos, made by Lotus are our favorites.

Recently speculoos have gained in popularity. There is speculoos spread (think Nutella only different flavor,) speculoos ice cream and even white chocolate bars with bits of speculoos in it.

Haven't tried it, but imagine it is pretty tasty.

This spread is gaining popularity all over the globe. David Lebowitz called it one of the 10 things to bring home from Paris. A friend likes to melt it in the microwave and pour it over vanilla ice cream. Crunchy speculoos spread is now available. Having tried both (true confessions) I say skip the crunchy and stick with the original.

White chocolate bar. Looks a bit gimmicky, no?

Here is the speculoos recipe that came with my cookie molds. I haven't tried it as it contains nuts but it looks like a good recipe. Last year I used my molds with Martha's gingerbread recipe - German style speculoos. Ha.

St. Nicholas Day

These tasty, charming little men have been in the bakeries around here for nearly a month now. They show up in late October and disappear after December 6th - St. Nicholas Day. They are called Boxemannchen. The majority of these little guys are made from brioche. Each bakery puts their own creative stamp on their Boxemannchen - chocolate, powdered sugar, faces, a pipe, lollipop, glaze - doesn't matter, they're all delicious.

St. Nicholas Day

It's coming up, ya know, on December 6th. Here is a fun little craft to help put St. Nicholas on the map (for those of us who have been staunch Santa supporters.) St. Nicholas is his own guy, after all. Not Santa Claus. He rides in on a donkey, not a sleigh. And, as you already know, his helpers are not cute little elves; quite the contrary. He doesn't work on December 25th. He's not fat and jolly. Different guy. Here's the craft.

St. Nicholas Spoon Guy

Materials
Red Felt
Wooden Spoons
Cotton Balls
Googly Eyes
Gold Glitter Pen
Gold (or yellow) Pipe Cleaner
Scissors
Fabric Glue, Glue Gun or any non washable White Glue
Black pen


Steps:
1) Create a template for the robe (it's not a gown or a dress, folks) and hat. I would have provided you with a pdf with the shapes had I known how to. Apologies.

2) Trace and cut 2 robes and 2 hats from the red felt


3) Glue the robes onto the stick of the spoon. One on the front, the other on the back. Only glue 2/3 rds of the way down the stick.
4) Glue on cotton ball as beard.

5) Glue on hat - one on the front, one on the back.
6) Glue on eyes. Draw nose and mouth.

7) Cut a 5-6 inch piece of pipe cleaner. Bend the top into a cane or circle shape. Glue onto the robe.
8) With glitter glue, draw a cross on the front of the hat.


9) Let dry over night.

10) Your St. Nicholas Spoon can be poked into a plant or cake with the unglued portion of the spoon stick. With a needle and piece of embroidery floss you can make him into a tree ornament. Just thread your floss through the top of the hat.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Here are a few Christmas crafts from previous years.

I posted this over at Skip to my Lou for Made by you Monday.

Little Difference #17

Little Difference #17 - St. Nicholas and his scary sidekicks

Thought I'd better get this posted before the holidays are a distant memory. I have one more holiday Little Difference that I'll share too.

In my post about our trip on the St. Nicholas Train I mentioned these scary sidekicks who we referred to as Black Peter. They walked up and down the train, rattling their chains, stamping their wooden sticks and spreading fear to all children. I found them quite scary too. They evoked that primal fear that arises from the ancient part of the brain - eyes covered, hooded heads, dark clothing, armful of whipping sticks. Yikes. These sidekicks went from child to child asking if they'd been good (this is my guess. They spoke in Luxembourgish so I couldn't understand what they were actually saying.) If children answered Yes, then they were given a handful of candy and nuts. Audrey was terrified. Eva was scared, but after some explanation, encouragement from her friends, and the realization that they distribute candy she was fine with them (minus the nuts, of course.)

These sinister sidekicks were something very different for us. I can't think of anything comparable to it in American culture. Even at Halloween there isn't one specific character who traditionally appears to frighten children. And the only sidekicks the American Santa has are elves. This was definitely a little difference for us. An interesting one to be sure.

I did some research about these sidekicks (also thought of as servants to St. Nicolas.) We were referring to them as Black Peter, but I knew that wasn't quite right. Black Peter or Zwarte Piet is a jovial and friendly sidekick most popular in The Netherlands. He looks more like a jester not a grim reaper like these Luxembourgish sidekicks. After more reading, it appears that most European countries that celebrate St. Nicolas Day have a character that appears along side St. Nic. These characters are generally scary, a stark contrast to the friendly, child loving St. Nicolas. Each country has it's own name for St. Nic's companion and his appearance varies from country to country. The term, Black Peter can be used as a catch-all word for these sinister side kicks.Luxembourg's Black Peter is called Houseker. He is most similar to the Swiss, Schmutzli and the French, Le Père Fouettard (the whipping father.) There is also Krampus from Austria and Hungary - very devilish!

Zwarte Piet - via Wikipedia

1953 Le Père Fouettard - via Wikipedia

Krampus - via Wikipedia

I'd love to hear about your experiences with St. Nicholas's sinister servants. Leave a comment

Here is a list of links I used to write this post.

Wikipedia - Zwarte Piet
Wikipedia - Krampus
Wikipedia - Belsnickel
Wikipedia - Companions of St. Nicholas
Wikipedia - Knecht Ruprecht
Wikipedia - La Pere Fouettard
Wikipedia - Hans Trapp
Christmastime in Alsace
Amoeblog
Schmutzli

Fête Saint -Nicholas

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! It was a really great day.

As I mentioned in my last post we went on the St. Nicholas Train yesterday afternoon. It was suggested by some fellow expats as a fun thing to do with the kiddos. But other than being "fun" we really didn't know what this St. Nicolas Train experience would entail.

We boarded a train, headed by a steam engine in Petange, Luxembourg. We weren't sure if the train ride was the experience or if there was a destination. After a 20 minute train ride we stopped at an old train station and we all got off the train. As we walked to the station we could see St. Nicolas himself emerge from the train.
The station was filled with large tables and benches, bratwurst vendors and a beverage counter where coffee, beer, cremant, and juice were available for purchase. At the far end, St. Nicolas had his own private grotto to greet children. There was also a miniature train set up for viewing. And it was a mad house. Did I mention that? It was packed with families who had arrived on the previous train. And a train load of families from the train we'd arrived on.
We grabbed a table and then made a mad dash to the queue to visit St. Nicolas. As you can see only 1 child was willing to visit. This was due to St. Nicolas' helpers, Black Peter(s). They were quite terrifying and Audrey wanted nothing to do with them. {More on Black Peter in my next post.} Eva was more than willing after she saw the goodie bag she would receive from St. Nicholas. I told the girls it was more like a shopping bag of treats not a goodie bag. Sheesh.

After greeting St. Nicholas we visited with friends while the girls consumed mass quanitites of chocolate. Then we got on the train and returned to Petange. It was a great experience. Something new. Something that was carried out in a way that wouldn't be found in the U.S. I loved it. The girls did too!

Ebay Find

Just realized I've yet to show you my latest ebay find. This I found on ebay.fr (ebay France) It is a vintage chocolate mold. Do you recognize what holiday is goes with? No, not Christmas. Come on. Think harder. Got it?

Here's the thing. I really want to use it to make some chocolates. In fact, in my mind I've already made lots of darling little chocolate gifties for friends and family. You know how it goes. But the mold is dirty and I'm not sure how to clean it. I did a bit of searching on line but ended up with nothing. Do any of you know about metal chocolate molds? In particular old and dirty ones?

Any info or links would be much appreciated and may even be rewarded with DARLING chocolates.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

This is what the girls woke up to this morning in additon to a few treats in their shoes. A few more pictures here.

St. Nicholas Foot Note

After rereading an email from Catherine AND talking at length with another Belgian native, I think I better understand how St. Nicholas Day is celebrated (at least in Belgium.) After my bit of sleuthing it is clear that European holiday traditions differ greatly from country to country. Since I've yet to meet and interrogate a Luxembourger on the rituals of St. Nicholas Day, I'm going with the Belgian version. Besides, it's charming.

The celebration of St. Nicholas Day begins a week or so before December 6th. Each night children leave out their shoe, preferably near the fireplace for St. Nicholas to find. In the morning they find a small sweet, like a chocolate coin, hidden in their shoe. This continues until the night of December 5th. On that evening children leave milk & cookies for St. Nicholas and something for his donkey (like a carrot) to thank him for the treats. On the 6th children wake to find another sweet in their shoe, a plate with oranges, nuts, chocolates and speculoos (traditional cookie) on it and a gift (varies between families.) Some Belgian families additionally celebrate Christmas. What a cool tradition, huh! I just love learning this kind of stuff. It's so interesting to me. So, we kinda blew it for this year. The girls won't know, though. They'll be excited enough with the 5th and 6th.

We have been sampling the Luxembourg domestic Christmas beers. As I purchase them, I often wonder if it's similar to buying a Rainier Christmas beer or an Olympia Christmas beer. Not sure about the beer hierarchy here. I'm looking forward to doing the research.

Saw this house in our neighborhood and thought it was such a clever decorating idea. Looks like they took Christmas ball ornaments, put wooden dowels in the them and then poked 'em into their garden boxes. I thought it would be pretty to pile fresh greens or holly branches on the garden boxes and then have the Christmas balls poking out. What do you think?

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

Turns out St. Nicholas Day is a big deal here in Luxembourg. St. Nicholas day is the primary day for gift giving, not Christmas. Children here leave their shoes out on the evening of December 5th and St. Nicholas comes during the night, filling their shoes with sweets and leaving presents. St. Nicholas Day is the 6th. The girls are so excited for St. Nicholas to visit. Eva is planning on leaving out her boot. Smart girl.