{"id":2948,"date":"2014-08-27T20:13:53","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T20:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=2948"},"modified":"2014-09-05T12:29:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T12:29:00","slug":"rainy-days-make-me-want-to-bake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/rainy-days-make-me-want-to-bake\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainy Days Make me Want to Bake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer seems to be over in the Netherlands. Most days have been bewolkt<\/em> and the sun only makes short appearances. The temperatures have also cooled down and an umbrella is a must in my purse.<\/p>\n

These days have brought out the inner bakker<\/em> in me. Perhaps its because I\u2019ve been drinking more tea to stay warm, or perhaps I like the warmth of the oven. Regardless of the reason, I have been experimenting a bit with baking, and with it, the words and customs of it in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

My first bak experiment<\/em> was with my grandma\u2019s cookie recipe. The ingredi\u00ebnten<\/em> I needed were bloem, suiker, zout, bakpoeder, kaneel, dooiers, ei,<\/em> and the most difficult ingredient to find: shortening. I learned with this project that everyday baking in the Netherlands doesn\u2019t require shortening. I stood in front of the butter section of the grocery store (someone told me I could find shortening there) for about 20 minutes sorting out the different types of butter hoping to find something similar to bakvet<\/em>. When that failed, I spent another 20 minutes in front of the baking section looking through the boxes to see what ingredi\u00ebnten<\/em> were used instead of bakvet<\/em>. Most recipes called for roomboter<\/em> which is a creamy version of butter, but this is made from milk, and what I needed was vegetable fat.<\/p>\n

It took over an hour for me to consider that perhaps the specialty baking store nearby might have shortening. Someone has to have shortening, right? Lucky for my grandma\u2019s recipe and me, the store did have shortening, and the very nice woman told me they always have it in stock. She could even order bigger cans if need be.<\/p>\n

My second baking experiment was an appelflap<\/em> or an apple strudel. Some months ago, Riccardo and I ate a very delicious appelflap<\/em> in a small bakkerij<\/em> in Amsterdam and since then, I have longed for one. It turned out to be a very simple endeavor because in the frozen food section<\/em>, you can find bladerdeeg,<\/em> which comes in plakjes<\/em> or pre-cut slices. You only need to prepare your filling, stuff and put in the oven for about 20 minutes. I was set on appelflap<\/em> so I simply peeled<\/em> and chopped<\/em> one apple, mixed in about 2 theelepeltjes<\/em> of suiker<\/em>, a dash of kaneel<\/em> and citroensap<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The appelflap<\/em> was delicious, and I am now eager to learn to bake what Limburg is most famous for: taart <\/em>(which is actually called a vlaai<\/em> in Limburg dialect)! I found this video and I cannot decide which I like most. What do you think?<\/p>\n

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