Ontbijtkoek (Dutch Spice Cake)

I've been scrambling to use up sourdough starter over the last couple days. I mixed up some bread dough yesterday and another small batch today, but I still had starter to use and was feeling in the mood for something in the cake/muffin/quickbread family. My original intent had been to make a gingerbread cake. I knew I'd seen a recipe kicking around on Northwest Sourdough blog a while back, so I figured I'd give that one a go. Rather than searching the blog for it though, I just googled "sourdough gingerbread". And that did indeed turn up the recipe I was looking for. But it also turned up a gingerbread cookie recipe on a blog I'd never heard of before. But with a name like "Bubbling Starter", I figured I had to check it out!

It didn't take me long to stumble across this ontbijtkoek recipe. (No, I don't know how it's meant to be pronounced.) The recipe looked interesting: rye flour and lots of spices and brown sugar. And it used sourdough discard, so I was sold!

According to the author this is a classic Dutch breakfast cake and is usually served topped with butter and/or Gouda. As far as I can tell, the name actually literally translates as "breakfast cake". I decided to buck tradition and have a bit for dessert and oh my goodness, is it ever delicious! I will definitely be making more "breakfast cake" in the future!

If I have one small disappointment with the recipe it's that the cake fell in the centre. I know it wasn't underbaked, because it was already sunken before I took it out of the oven. And I didn't open the door or peek at it during baking, so that's not the culprit either. My best guess is that maybe there was a bit too much leavener in it. I thought 1 tsp. of baking soda seemed like a lot for the amount of batter, especially considering that it already contained 2 tsp. of baking powder. The cake is still delicious! No issues there. But I'll probably try scaling the bicarb back to just 1/2 a tsp. next time to see if that helps at all.

Ontbijtkoek

Slightly adapted from Bubbling Starter

Ingredients

• 120g (1 c.) all-purpose flour
• 120g (1 c.) rye flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods)
• 1/8 tsp. coriander seeds
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1/8 tsp. anise seeds
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 125g sourdough discard
• 3/4 c. milk
• 120g (1/2 c.) brown sugar
• 1/4 c. molasses
• 1/4 c. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and grease and flour a loaf pan¹.
2. Combine the flours and sift in the baking powder and baking soda.
3. Add the salt, cardamom, coriander, peppercorns, and anise seeds to a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder (or use a mortar and pestle).
4. Stir in the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
5. Add the spice mix to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
6. In a separate bowl, combine the sourdough discard, milk, brown sugar, molasses, honey, and vanilla and mix well.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake at 150°C (300°F) for 1 hour.
9. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes.
10. Turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
11. Serve with butter and/or Gouda cheese. (The cake should be sliced thin and the butter spread thick!²)

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Variants

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 120g (1 c.) all-purpose flour
• 120g (1 c.) rye flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods)
• 1/8 tsp. coriander seeds
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1/8 tsp. anise seeds
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 125g sourdough discard
• 3/4 c. nut or soy milk
• 120g (1/2 c.) brown sugar
• 1/4 c. molasses
• 1/4 c. golden syrup, corn syrup, or agave syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

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¹ The recipe didn't specify the size of loaf pan. I ended up going with an 8.5x4.5" pan. I might try an 8x4" (20cm by 10cm) pan at some point just to see how it compares, but I think either one is probably acceptable. ^Back
2 Although I won't judge you if you also want to slice the cake thick. ^Back

Kaas-Uien Brood (Cheese-Onion Bread)

I forget exactly how I ended up on a Dutch food blog, but I ended up finding quite a few recipes that piqued my interest. This onion-cheese bread was one of them. I ended up searching out a few different recipes to compare and contrast. What I mostly concluded was that there's no consensus on how to make it. Some recipes used water, some used milk, some used both. Some used only one onion per loaf, some used up to five! Some included sweeteners like sugar and/or honey, others didn't. The only real consensus I found was that it's a fairly flat loaf (like a foccacia) and the onions go on raw. Everything else was variable.

I ended up (more-or-less) following the original recipe I found. I swapped out some of the all-purpose (white) flour for hard whole wheat flour. I also held back a portion of the flour since I know that bread recipes written by folks who aren't used to baking bread are often a bit on the dry side. This turned out to be the right call! Even with 1/4 c. of the flour held back, I still needed to add ~1/4 c. of additional water just to make a reasonable (if still somewhat tight) dough. The recipe below has been adjusted to accont for this.

Kass-Uien Brood

Adapted from The Dutch Table

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. warm water
• 1/2 Tbsp. active dry yeast
• 1 c. hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 c. milk
• 2 small onions, halved and sliced
• 2 c. grated Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Sprinkle yeast over warm water and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Combine whole wheat flour with the salt and 1 c. of the all-purpose flour and make a well in the centre.
3. Pour the yeast mixture and the milk into the well in the centre of the flour.
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, working from the centre outward.
5. Turn the dough out onto your work surface and knead for 10-20 minutes, working in the additional 1/4 c. flour as needed.
6. Shape into a ball and place in a covered bowl to rise for 60-90 minutes. (Poke with a wet finger to test for doneness. If the hole doesn't fill in at all, it's ready to be knocked back.)
7. Knead a few strokes, shape back into a ball, and return to covered bowl to rise for another 45-60 minutes. (Use the same finger poke test to check for doneness.)
8. Knock back again and shape into a 1.5cm thick rectangle.
9. Transfer dough to a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with sliced onions and grated cheese.
10. Set aside to rise for ~30 minutes.
11. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 20-30 minutes.

I recently took a trip to the Dutch grocery store and picked up a package of frikandellen. I had no idea what they were, but I figured I could look it up and figure out how to serve them.

I discovered that they're normally deep fried and popularly served as frikandel speciaal which means topping them with mayo, curry ketchup, and finely chopped raw onion. I thought this sounded great. I wanted to serve it with mashed potatoes and some sort of vegetable dish. The vegetables weren't a problem, but we were fresh out of potatoes. In lieu of the mash, I decided to order some poutine and top it with all the frikandel speciaal fixings. This worked quite well. To the point that I'm contemplating sending the photos and instructions to the local poutine place as a suggestion to be added to their menu.

Frikandel special poutine, pictured here without the raw onion because I forgot to add it 'til after I'd taken the photo.

Frikandel Speciaal Poutine

Ingredients

• 1 frikandel sausage
• 1 order of poutine (fries + cheese curds + gravy)
• 1 Tbsp. mayonnaise
• 1-2 Tbsp. Curry Ketchup
• 2-3 Tbsp. finely chopped raw onion

Directions

1. Pour 1-2cm of oil into a pan and preheat over medium-high heat.
2. Slice the frikandel open lengthwise.
3. Fry the frikandel, turning as necessary, so that it gets crispy all over.
4. Remove from oil and drain on a paper towel for a few minutes.
5. Cut into bite-sized pieces and place on top of poutine.
6. Top with mayo, curry ketchup, and raw onion.

I picked up some frikandellen at the Dutch grocery store the other day, not being entirely sure what they were. Upon returning home with them, TF and I did a bit of research and discovered that they're Dutch fried hotdogs/sausages. They're normally made from a mixture of spiced beef, pork, and chicken. They're first boiled (or steamed) and then deep fried. For frikandel speciaal you cut them open lengthwise (either before or after frying) and top them with mayo, curry ketchup, and finely chopped raw onion. I figured I'd like to try doing them up that way, but this meant that I needed curry ketchup. They had tonnes of curry ketchup for sale at the Dutch grocery store, but I didn't think to get any because I didn't know what frikanellen were yet!

Some casting about on the internet turned up this recipe for curry ketchup. It's part of a German currywust preparation. I'm hoping that Dutch curry ketchup and German curry ketchup are similar enough as to make no odds. It's not like I'll be able to tell anyway given that I've never had either!

Curry Ketchup

Slightly adapted from The Daring Gourmet

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. Madras Curry Powder
• 1 Tbsp. sweet paprika
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 c. ketchup
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 5 Tbsp. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. prepared yellow mustard
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion and cook until softened, but not browned (3-4 minutes).
3. Add garlic and cook for another minute or two.
4. Add curry powder, paprika, cloves, and cinnamon and cook for another 30-60 seconds.
5. Add ketchup, tomato paste, stock, vinegar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, mustard, and pepper, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.
7. Transfer to blender jar and puré (or use an immersion blender).
8. Allow to cool, cover, and transfer to fridge. Let sit overnight before serving.
9. Enjoy with sausages and/or fries.