When translating my Dutch recipes, I soon realized that we have a number of typical ingredients that are not widely available abroad.
Starting with basterdsuiker. This sugar is truly a typical Dutch product, and we have no less than 3 varieties of it. Or how about Bastogne cookies, delicious spiced cookies that you don’t easily see abroad either.
Fortunately, there are more than enough webshops that ship all kinds of Dutch products to just about anywhere in the world. I found a list of 12 different webshops with a nice assortment of products.
Most of them are located in the Netherlands, but I also found some in America and Canada. I list them for you!
If you like making Dutch recipes, there are several products you should definitely try. I will start with a list of ingredients that I have in my own home for baking recipes:
Curious about other Dutch products? Check these out too:
I could make these lists much longer, but these are the first products that came to mind. I am very curious to know which Dutch ingredients are your favorites!
An easy eggless chocolate mousse recipe that requires only 3 ingredients and is ready in 15 minutes. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? It comes highly recommended! All your guests will love this simple dessert.
Chocolate mousse is a delicious dessert that many people love, including me! It is creamy, fluffy and, of course, has that blissful chocolate flavor. Officially, chocolate mousse is made with raw eggs, but I personally prefer not to include raw eggs in my non-baking recipes.
Luckily, I have the solution that allows you to make an incredibly easy eggless chocolate mousse. In fifteen minutes, you will have this easy chocolate mousse. It doesn’t get any easier, I promise!
You only need three ingredients to make this easy chocolate mousse: chocolate, whipped cream and sugar. By making the chocolate mousse without eggs, you can serve this easy dessert to everyone and it is perfect for children and pregnant women. It is a tasty and simple alternative to traditional chocolate mousse and is sure to impress your guests.
This mousse is also a great recipe to make with the kids. Let them choose their favorite chocolate bar and decorate the whipped cream according to their creativity. Sprinkles make everything more fun, don’t you think?
Of course, chocolate mousse is the ultimate chocolate dessert, but you can never have enough chocolate recipes in your life. That’s why I’m going to share with you some other really delicious recipes:
The secret to this delicious eggless chocolate mousse is in the combination of melted chocolate and whipped cream. By beating the whipped cream well and gently spooning in the melted chocolate, you maintain the airy texture but also add a full chocolate flavor to the cream.
You can make this chocolate mousse with whipped cream with any kind of chocolate. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate, but you can also just use your favorite flavored chocolate bar. You will find the right proportions in the recipe card. If you want a bar with whole nuts in it, chop them first.
Other ways to add your own twist to this eggless chocolate mousse is by adding additional flavorings! Think of cinnamon, vanilla extract, other flavor extracts or a liqueur. Please note that when adding a liqueur, the chocolate mousse is obviously no longer suitable for children and pregnant women.
There are many ways to serve chocolate mousse. You can go for simple ramekins, but you could also go for a nice cocktail glass. I have listed some nice examples below to inspire you:
Love making homemade desserts? I just know that you really want to give these recipes a try!
Chocolate chip cookies are not only a delicious twist on the classic cut out sugar cookie, but they can also be beautifully decorated or filled. I’m going to tell you all about them today.
Making chocolate chip cookies is very easy. I combined the basic recipe for vanilla sugar cookies with chocolate chips. It’s that easy! To be honest, several batches went into the oven until I got the right ratio. Of course, you want to taste just the right amount of chocolate in your cookies.
So what do these chocolate chip sugar cookies taste like? Kind of like very crunchy chocolate chip cookies, actually. Delicious! Of course, an official chocolate chip cookie is supposed to be soft and a little crunchy around the edges. If this is what you are after, then you should definitely start with my chocolate chip cookie recipe, and save these chocolate chip sugar cookies for later.
You can choose to mix mini chocolate chips into your cookie dough, but I found it worked just as well to use a bar of chocolate and chop it finely. The pieces of chocolate in your cookies will be different sizes, but I didn’t find that to be a problem.
The great thing about baking sugar cookies is that they hold their shape in the oven. The dough is perfect for using a cookie cutter to cut into all sorts of pretty shapes and baking the cookies on a baking sheet.
For this recipe, I used a relatively small heart-shaped cookie cutter. But pick a shape (or several!) that you like, and keep in mind that it’s helpful to bake cookies of the same size on each baking sheet. That way, the cookies will bake and brown evenly.
My cookie cutter collection is already huge, but you can find lots of cute sugar cookie cutters here. Personally, I love having the 12-piece round cookie cutter set around the house. They come in handy for many recipes.
Because sugar cookies hold their shape so well, they are great for decorating with a glaze or royal icing after baking.
Another fun idea is to melt chocolate and put it in a piping bag. Then decorate the cookies with it. The taste is perfect, too.
Cookies come out of the oven soft and get firmer as they cool. So you cannot “feel” when they are done. The best way to bake cookies is to use your eyes and trust the recipe. When your cookies have golden brown edges, they are done.
I used dark chocolate, but you can also use milk chocolate.
You absolutely can! You can store cookie dough for a long time, especially in the freezer. Packaged in an airtight container, cookie dough will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator and up to three months in the freezer.
You certainly can. If you omit the chocolate from this recipe, you will be making classic cut-out sugar cookies. There are many more flavors, I will share them with you soon!
Making your own lemon curd is not difficult at all. With just a few ingredients, you can make your own fresh curd to use in a delicious lemon meringue pie, for example.
On my baking weekend last month, I made lemon curd for the first time. I have no idea why I hadn’t done it before. Since I was so eager to make lemon meringue pie, I wanted to get it right the first time and make the curd myself.
I made a big batch so I could make more recipes with it and make sure I had some left over to put in the yogurt (very tasty!). I didn’t think it would be so easy to make my own curd from lemons and a few other ingredients.
Baking tip: When you make a curd, you can store it in a sealed jar. I usually use glass mason jars.
The possibilities are endless with this delicious curd. Put a little in your yogurt, a scoop over an ice cream dessert, spread it on a cracker, and of course: serve it on homemade scones with clotted cream. Yes, it really is all delicious!
Other popular recipes with this curd are, of course, any recipes that combine the curd with meringue. Like lemon meringue pie. I also love lemon curd cookies, like thumbprint cookies with the curd in the center. I will post a recipe for those soon.
Lemon curd cake is also very tasty. For example, you can use this recipe for lemon loaf and serve it with whipped cream and your homemade curd. Or with ice cream, which is also very tasty!
BAKING TIP: Love lemon curd? Then you will also LOVE these easy lemon bars!
Yes, you can freeze any homemade curd! Once your curd has cooled, simply place the airtight, freezer-safe container in the freezer. You can store lemon curd in the freezer for up to a year.
Yes, you can. The au bain-marie process ensures that the curd does not get hotter than 100 degrees Celsius (the boiling point of water). Fortunately, harmful bacteria are killed above 70 degrees Celsius.
The curd has not been cooked long enough and needs to be heated au bain-marie longer. How long this takes can vary depending on the heat source and the thickness of the bowl (I never use a thick bowl). Also remember that the curd will continue to thicken as it cools.
If your curd is still not the right thickness after more than half an hour au bain-marie heating? Then you can add half a beaten egg (maybe your eggs were on the small side) or add some gelatin to the mixture and let it cool.
These are pieces of coagulated egg white, and you shouldn’t find them in your curd. It’s best to strain your curd to get rid of the white bits.
To prevent this from happening next time, make sure the heat is not too high when you add the egg and immediately stir it well, preferably with a whisk. Once the egg is incorporated into the mixture, it will no longer set. If the heat is too high and you don’t stir the egg immediately, it may solidify.
You probably used the white part of the lemon peel when you grated it. When using lemon zest, you want to use only the yellow part of the zest because the white part is very bitter and will give your curd a bitter taste.
These quick crescent roll cinnamon rolls will be on your table in half an hour. In the recipe, of course, I explain how to make these cinnamon rolls yourself. It’s a breeze, let me tell you.
I love anything with cinnamon in it, but cinnamon rolls make me very happy. On weekends, I often find myself craving cinnamon rolls with caramel sauce. The only downside is that I want to eat them right away and it takes a while to prepare them with dough that still needs to rise.
Does this “problem” sound familiar? Well, I now have a solution: quick and easy cinnamon rolls! You only need about half an hour before you can enjoy them. No, they are not quite the same, but these cinnamon rolls make me very happy. And you probably will too, so try them.
Baking tip: I often make these quick rolls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, I have a small baking sheet at home that gets used a lot. However, you can also bake them in a baking dish and then grease the dish before putting the rolls in.
These cinnamon rolls made from croissant dough are very popular here and are made often. It is also fun to vary the flavor. For example, you can replace the cinnamon with gingerbread spice mix.
It is also fun to add extra ingredients. For example, pieces of apple. Apple cinnamon rolls are really delicious and perfect for fall. If you are looking for a summer flavor, I have made them with peach slices. A delicious combination!
TIP: Want to serve more dishes for breakfast? Try my recipe for fluffy pancakes!
You can, but the end result is very different. Croissant dough is a yeast dough and puff pastry is not. So if you make the recipe below with puff pastry, you will get a slightly flatter and crispier sweet puff pastry snack with cinnamon, sugar and butter.
Personally, I wouldn’t. In fact, they are so quick to make that it is not really necessary. You can bake them in advance and reheat them when you want to eat them.
Absolutely!!! Cinnamon rolls and caramel make a delicious combination.
I wouldn’t recommend it myself, but a reader did (accidentally) and the result was still delicious! The cinnamon rolls become less sweet and crunchier.
The best rhubarb jam is, of course, homemade. This recipe calls for making rhubarb jam with some lemon, but you can also add strawberries, ginger, or spices. I’ll explain it all to you!
Rhubarb season is in full swing! Time to make your own rhubarb jam. It’s incredibly easy, and before you know it, you’ll have a pantry full of homemade jam. Or give your homemade jam to friends and family, which is perhaps the best part.
I chose to flavor the jam with lemon, but you could use any other citrus fruit or ginger, for example. A rhubarb peach jam also sounds amazing. As long as you stick to the 1 kilograms of rhubarb and partially replace this amount with a fruit of your choice, you’ll be fine.
The fresh jam tastes incredible on a cracker with some Dutch cheese, especially if you like a sweet and salty combination. But it actually tastes delicious on lots of baked goods, like bread and toast.
This rhubarb jam recipe makes a good amount of jam, so you can make a lot of cheese and jam crackers. 😉
It is also incredibly delicious to make strawberry rhubarb jam. This is also a benefit for those at home who are not so fond of rhubarb, because the strawberries make it almost impossible to tell that there is rhubarb in the jam.
To make strawberry rhubarb jam, you replace half the rhubarb with (cleaned) strawberries, so you use 500 grams of strawberries and 500 grams of rhubarb. Furthermore, you can follow the recipe exactly.
Rhubarb, either you love it or you don’t. But since you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you love it! There are many more rhubarb recipes on my baking schedule, but one big recommendation is my recipe for rhubarb crumble.
Rhubarb crumble is truly an unbelievably delicious treat. Serve it as a dessert with ice cream or whipped cream and your guests will keep coming back for more.
What rhubarb recipes would you like to see at Laura’s Bakery? Maybe a typical Dutch recipe with rhubarb? Let me know in the comments below, I’m very curious.
You may still have some old jam jars that you can use for this (the jar in the picture I once bought with Bonne Maman jam in it), but of course you can also buy similar jam jars and lids. Once you get the hang of it, you will need a lot of jam jars.
Jam jars options:
You’ll be making several jars of rhubarb jam for this recipe, so you’ll want to start by sterilizing the jars to keep the jam fresh for a long time. Place the jars in a large saucepan of water, bring to a boil, and simmer for a few minutes. Remove them from the water with tongs and place them on a clean dish towel. Do not dry them; they are hot enough to evaporate the moisture. You have now sterilized your jars and can store the jam for a long time.
Ideally use fruit (in this case, rhubarb) that is in season. You can also use frozen rhubarb for the jam, so you can make rhubarb jam all year round. Let it thaw and drain before using.
In the Netherlands we use gelling sugar or jam sugar (Van Gilse geleisuiker) to make jam because it gives the jam a firmer consistency. It also makes the jam last longer. Don’t have gelling sugar on hand? You can use dry or liquid pectin to make jam. Follow the proportions and cooking instructions on the package of your choice.
When you think your jam is ready, you can do a little test thanks to the gelling sugar. Run a spoon through the jam and draw a line across the back of the spoon. Does the line stay visible? Your jam is ready. Does the jam run directly over the line you drew? Then it may need to be boiled down a bit more.
After the jars have cooled, clean them and put a label on each jar with the date of preparation. I often use a label maker machine, this works very easily and quick.
Store jars in a cool, dry place and open jars in the refrigerator. You can keep jars of jam for up to a year if you keep the jar closed!
In the gray box with my tips for jam making, I explain that in the Netherlands we make rhubarb jam with gelling sugar, or gelling sugar from the brand ‘Van Gilse’. This sugar is simply granulated sugar with added pectin and citric acid.
In America, pectin in jam recipes is often added in liquid or powder form. So while this is the ideal way to replace gelling sugar in the recipe below, there is another way: the addition of pectin in its natural form.
Yes, you can make rhubarb jam without the added pectin in liquid of powder form and also without adding gelling sugar. I’d like to call this rhubarb jam the old-fashioned way.
Rhubarb itself is low in pectine, so it does need this to thicken properly. The quickest way to do this is to add a fruit that is naturally high in pectin. Lemons are high in pectin, so adding the juice of an extra lemon to the recipe works great.
For this method I also soak the rhubarb in sugar for several hours (or overnight), and then use this soaked rhubarb and the liquid it releases to make the jam. Easy as that!
Never made no-bake strawberry cheesecake bites before? Get ready, because if you taste a slice of these, you’ll be in the kitchen preparing this delicious treat many times this summer.
Has strawberry season arrived yet? Because I can’t wait to make this cheesecake with strawberries again.
This strawberry cheesecake recipe is made without an oven, so it is a no-bake recipe. Strawberries are always available in the warmest months of the year, so it’s nice if the oven can stay out.
I chose to make the recipe in a square baking pan, so you can cut these nice square bites out of them after they set. Of course you can also make the recipe in a round springform or baking pan, I give a tip for that in the frequently asked questions below.
For the base, I used the following ingredients:
For the strawberry filling (and decoration) of the cheesecake, you will need the following:
No, that’s not what this recipe is meant for.
I used a 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 inch) square baking pan to make these cheesecake bites. This baking pan, for example.
That is possible. In the recipe card, under the small picture of the recipe, you will find a “convert recipe” button. If you click on this you can enter a different size baking pan and then the tool will convert the ingredients for you. Handy isn’t it?
Yes you can. I have not tested it for this particular recipe, but I would replace the strawberries in this recipe 1:1 with raspberries or blackberries.
No, you cannot simply leave out the gelatin. However, it is possible to replace it with an alternative such as agar-agar.
Looking for a tasty snack? Look no further! These apple cinnamon yogurt muffins are just what you need.
For snacks I like to try some things out, this time I wanted to make little yogurt-based muffins. For flavor I chose apple and cinnamon, one of my favorite flavor combinations that I love to bake with during the colder months.
Because just using yogurt as a base makes your batter very thick, I also used semi-skimmed milk. That made the batter just a little nicer to work with.
TIP: I love baking with yogurt, if you do too, you might like this easy yogurt cake!
I decided I didn’t want to use granulated sugar for these muffins, so I decided to reach for the bottle of maple syrup. To be clear, that’s still sugar and not necessarily a “healthy” choice. Regardless, these muffins are more responsible than I normally make them, though. Especially if you leave out the cinnamon sugar on top 😉 .
No maple syrup in stock? You can also use honey or just granulated sugar. You can also vary in the amount. I used very little syrup, feel free to add more if you want sweeter muffins.
These silicone cupcake liners make it a lot easier to release your muffins. I always use them when I make muffins as a snack.
Even though silicone cups are sturdier than the paper variety, I still like using a cupcake baking pan. It’s easier to move your cupcakes around and they hold their shape well.
I always pack snacks by the piece and then store them in the freezer. That way I always have a supply of delicious homemade snacks.
Strawberry season has been in full swing for a while now, so now is the time to take advantage of it and get into the kitchen with fresh strawberries. I made my favorite strawberry custard tart. I love how delicious a summer strawberry custard pie is.
Of course the tart is filled with fresh homemade pastry cream and in addition I used some chopped fresh mint on top. That really gives a special touch to the cake, but you could also substitute the mint for basil.
This strawberry custard pie wasn’t the only thing I’ve been baking with strawberries lately. If there is a container of strawberries staring at you every day when you open the refrigerator door, plenty of great recipes will come to mind. I can promise you that.
Can’t wait? Then I already have these yummy strawberry recipes for you:
A custard tart is one of my favorite pies. The tart is made of a shortbread crust filled with delicious pastry cream. You can fill the custard tart any way you like.
But before you fill the tart, you have to blind bake the crust first. Want to know more about this subject, I wrote a post about everything you’ll need to know about blind baking.
For this recipe, I used strawberries, of course; after all, a strawberry pie needs them. But if you feel like varying, you can easily replace the strawberries with another kind of fruit.
I once made a rainbow tart by using all kinds of different fruits. It was very popular with everyone!
Are you already following Laura’s Bakery on Instagram? There I not only share every new recipe that comes online, but also peeks behind the scenes and fun video reels with recipes, baking tips or how to’s!
It doesn’t happen often that I have made a recipe many times before, but it hasn’t been online at Laura’s Bakery at all. Time to change that I thought, because these strawberry cupcakes are way too delicious not to share!
So I recently stocked up on a whole load of fresh and flavorful strawberries that are now in season. Way more than I needed for this cupcake recipe, but I just love strawberries. During strawberry season I eat some of this red fruit almost every day. For breakfast, dessert or just in between.
For this cupcake recipe, I bake simple but oh-so-delicious vanilla cupcakes as a base. With an apple corer I take out some cake to fill with strawberry jam. Small pieces of strawberry can also be used by the way, but I personally like the jam very much.
If you like, you can also fold small pieces of strawberry through the batter. Keep in mind that the cupcakes might need some extra time in the oven. This is because with this fresh red fruit, you are also adding extra moisture to the batter.
TIP: If you clean your strawberries, do so before removing the crowns. This is because otherwise the strawberries will suck up the water and then your strawberries will have less flavor.
You can also make the topping several ways. I have made strawberry cupcake with buttercream before, but these days I often choose mascarpone frosting as the topping.
In this case, I also flavor this mascarpone cream, with strawberry jam. This not only makes it very tasty, but also gives it a nice color right away. You can choose to give the frosting more color with some red or pink food coloring. I never do this, I like the subtle color.
On top of the frosting, place half a strawberry. Gorgeous cupcake, isn’t it? You can go a little further with the decoration and add sprinkles, or chocolate sprinkles. Ooh, now I have an idea for chocolate chip cupcakes with strawberries. Now you know how I come up with my new recipes. Often they just pop into my head. Out of the blue, or because I am working on another recipe.
If, like me, you always have strawberries in the house at the moment, you probably want to bake with them. Lucky for you, I’ve made many more recipes with strawberries; these are a few favorites:
Want to make cupcakes in a different flavor? Then you should try these Ferrero Rocher cupcakes!
Now that strawberry season has arrived, I buy strawberries on a weekly basis. They go into my yogurt in the morning or I have a small bowl of this delicious red fruit for dessert. By the way, my pet bunny Lot gets the crowns I cut off the strawberries, she loves them.
The strawberries are currently delicious in taste and don’t even need extra sugar if you eat them right out of a bowl. Or you bake with them, I can recommend this strawberry crumble cake. We have all been enjoying it here!
Did you know that you can make a strawberry cake in many different ways? Several options went through my mind before finally baking the one in the photo. So it could just be that more strawberry cakes will appear online. This version has a crumble topping, something I love to use in recipes.
I used my favorite springform from Le Creuset for this crumble cake. I have it for years and still looks good.
For this recipe, I wanted to bake the strawberries with the cake so you have a deliciously smooth result. For extra texture, I added a crumble topping. That extra texture and flavor are wonderfully delicious!
Such a crumble topping is easily made from some butter, sugar, flour and salt. I also like to add some oatmeal. This makes the crumble extra tasty, oatmeal not only gives extra flavor, but also an extra tasty texture.
It is just a matter of putting all the ingredients for the topping in a bowl and using your fingers to work them into a crumbly dough. Sprinkle over the cake and then it can be placed in the oven.
You can serve this strawberry cake with crumble topping just as is, but to make it a real treat, I can recommend serving some whipped cream with it. You will definitely be thanked for that. Although I must say that everyone here has been enjoying it even without the whipped cream.
Now that strawberry season has started again, you’ll probably want to use strawberries more often. We have already done so, as there will be more delicious recipes with strawberries this month. There are already several strawberry recipes online, here are a few of my favorites:
It’s like a little apple pie combined with caramel cheesecake. With this recipe, you can easily make delicious no bake apple caramel cheesecakes dessert.
Start with small glasses or glass jars. These are really cute. You build the dessert in layers, starting by crushed cookies. Top that with your cheesecake mixture and finish it with your topping. Warm caramelized apple for this recipe. It’s really easy to make small one person cheesecakes as you can see!
You can prepare this cheesecake dessert very well, which I think is perfect. Put the prepared dessert in the refrigerator and take it out when needed.
However, you can also prepare the base (cookie + cheesecake layer), and make the apple mixture only just before you want to serve the dessert. This way, you have little cheesecakes with warm apples as a topping. Delicious!
In the last case, you can prepare the apple layer as well. Add a little lemon juice to keep the apple pieces fresh and store them in the refrigerator until you need them. I made them this way for Christmas and it worked perfect.
For this dessert, I decided to first heat the apple in a pan and caramelize it with some sugar. Warm apple pieces work incredibly well in a dessert. In this case, I combined it with whipped cream, cookies and cream cheese.
For the cookies, I chose Bastogne cookies, which are a kind of spice cookies. It’s hard to find this particular cookie outside The Netherlands and a few other European countries, but any spice cookie will do. Biscoff cookies are a good alternative for example.
Of course! Chop some pecans or other nuts, add them to the apple mixture in the saucepan and enjoy your pecan caramel cheesecakes.
I used small caramel fudge pieces. You can buy them or cut bigger pieces up. These caramel bits are also perfectly fine.
First of all: you can decide yourself how full you want to make your glass jars. I used diamond shaped glasses that are almost exactly the same as these ones.
I love making desserts in individual portions, here are some more delicious dessert recipes that you can serve in small glass jars:
