Pepernoten: Recipe and History

Pepernoten are a cookie-like kind of candy, traditionally associated with the Sinterklaas holiday in the Netherlands.

You will see the pepernoot in two varieties: The first is light brown, randomly shaped, and made from the same ingredients as taai-taai (flour, sugar, anise, cinnamon, and clove). The other variety is more common nowadays; it uses the ingredients that are used for speculaas (also known as Dutch Windmill cookies): Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom, and white pepper. The latter is definitely the most tasteful type of pepernoot.

100 g butter
125 g brown (caster) sugar
200 g flower
1/2 tsp. baking powder
150 g sugar sirup
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. clove
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. coriander
pinch of salt

1. Mix the flower and baking powder in a bowl.


2. Make a small ditch in it and pour the sirup in it, along with the flavourings.


3. Give it a good stirr, untill your dough is nice and firm.


4. Mould your dough into small, round pebbles and place them on a greased oven plate.


5. Bake the Pepernoten in the oven (160 degrees Celcius) for 15 minutes.

Sinterklaas is a typical Dutch tradition, though it is celebrated in other parts of Europe as well. The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of, among other things, children.

In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas' Eve (December 5) is the chief occasion for gift-giving. The evening is called "sinterklaasavond" or "pakjesavond" ("presents evening"). In the Netherlands, children receive their presents on this evening whereas in Belgium, children put their shoe in front of the fireplace on the evening of December 5, then go to bed, and find the presents around the shoes on the morning of the 6th.

Sinterklaas is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus. It is often claimed that during the American War of Independence the inhabitants of New York City, a former Dutch colonial town (New Amsterdam) which had been swapped by the Dutch for other territories, reinvented their Sinterklaas tradition, as Saint Nicholas was a symbol of the city's non-English past.