The feast of ‘Sinterklaas’ is on December 6
Typical ‘Sinterklaas’ treats traditionally include: mandarins, oranges, kruidnoten, pepernoten, chocolate letters (the first letter of the child’s name), speculaas, chocolate coins, marzipan figures and fruit and a figurine of ‘Sinterklaas’ made of chocolate.
The ‘kruidnoten’ (spiced nuts) are traditionally thrown into the corner of the room by the ‘ Zwarte Pieten’, some say this was to warn of evil spirits.
Method
Store in an airtight container to keep the biscuits crunchy.
There is the same tradition in Hungary. Santa Claus arrives on the night of December 5th with his two helpers, a good angel who helps with the presents and a mischievous, devil-like figure, called Krampusz who punishes bad kids. Santa Claus is generous with ‘good’ kids, but children who have been ‘naughty’ in the past year also receive a virgács (a bunch of golden twigs).
Traditionally, children polish their boots and put them in the window or in front of the door on the evening of December 5th. Santa Claus secretly fills them with little presents during the night for children to find in the morning.
I love the cookie recipe! 🙂
Zita, so great to learn about the Hungarian version of 'Sinterklaas'! I like the fact that Santa Claus has a good angel and a devil-like figure helping him. There are some stories about our 'Sinterklaas' that his helper was actually a mischievous creature and that this was the reason for him to be painted black.
Beautiful post Regula!!! Thank you for sharing these holiday traditions. I so love the little "things" in your pictures the candies the red knitted shoe… happy Sinterklaas Regula I hope Black Pete leaves the beer bottle for you ;-))
Thanks Karin! I've been having fun discovering my home traditions again! My shoe is ready!
My aunt (Polish) used to bring us sweets and say "a strange man with a white beard stopped me in the street and asked me to give these to you" She carried on doing this until I was 20! Happy St Nicholas or Sinterklaas.
I loved reading about this Christmas tradition, and your little cookies look absolutely gorgeous. I'd rather eat them than throw around to ward off evil spirits though! 🙂
Sally, a very happy St Nicholas to you. Thanks for sharing your story, I love to hear about it!
thelittleloaf, I haven't thrown them away, I actually gave them to my co-workers! They were happy 🙂
what a lovely story. The kruidnoten are new for me but I'll be making them this year to ward off those evil spirits! Thanks for sharing x
Uvrashi, thank you! Don't forget to bake these cookies if you want to ward of evil spirits 🙂 Let me know how it goes when you do!
Last weekend I tried your recipe, and they are delicious, so crunchy!!
And it was fun to shape the little balls 🙂
I had seen different recipes for kruidnoten, but I am very happy to use yours cos it's perfect! Thanks!!!
And no evil spirits tonight 😛
Hi Paula, thanks so much for letting me know. It's always nice to hear from lovely people who've tried out things from this blog! Happy Sinterklaas! 🙂
Ah Regula, what a lovely story, I can't actually remember when I knew that Father Christmas didn't really exist. I remember when I was 8 thinking I'd heard him delivering my bike as he was so noisy, must have been a struggle for him as my parent's didn't have a chimney! Your little cookies look very yummmy and I don't think I've ever had pepper in a cookie!
Once you try these cookies you are hooked! Really, the taste is addictive, pepper, salt, spices… addictive! 🙂