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Carbs

(Keto Carbs) 0g

Fat

0,9g

Protein

0,4g

Of course we don’t need to explain our Dutchies what ‘pepernoten’ are, as they are a traditional Dutch treat. For those of you who don’t know them: ‘pepernoten’ are a sort of small, delicious biscuits. Very yummy, but we (unfortunately) only eat them in December, as it’s tradition to eat them during the time we celebrate Sinterklaas in the Netherlands! This national holiday is all about treats and presents for young children. But as treats doesn’t necessarily have to mean calories, we are sharing a low-carb recipe for pepernoten here, just for you.

Pepper nuts, or spiced nuts?
Did you know that although everyone in the Netherlands calls these little, tasty cookies ‘pepernoten’, it is actually ‘kruidnoten’ that they all refer to and love so much? Actual ‘pepernoten’ are bigger, chewier and they have a softer flavour, but they are not so popular. So, when people in the Netherlands talk about ‘pepernoten’, they actually mean ‘kruidnoten’.

A little bit of history
Kruidnoten originate from the 18th century, the time when the Netherlands gained access to new spices like cinnamon, ginger, pepper and nutmeg through their colonies. Pepernoten and kruidnoten probably originated as processing of the dough leftovers from pepper and spice cakes. Most likely, the pepper was omitted at some point because it was very expensive at that time. The recipe of the ‘pepernoot’ was adapted and the ‘kruidnoot’ came into being. The little kruidnoten, unlike the original soft pepernoten, were hard and were therefore easier to scatter and throw around for children to catch. The scattering of kruidnoten by servants of Sinterklaas is a typical custom that is part of the feast.

Two secrets to keto-friendly baking
Essentially, it is not at all difficult to turn sweet pastries into lovely keto friendly treats. Of course, you can go all crazy and add as much great ingredients as you like, but basically all you need to do is make two swaps in regular recipes: replace butter with ghee and sugar with erythritol.

Ghee is a form of clarified butter with a nutty flavour. It has a high smoke point and is used a lot in Indian cuisine. It’s great for people who eat paleo, are lactose intolerant or vegan, as the milk solids are removed. As the water content is also removed, you best use 25% less ghee than the regular recipe calls for when replacing butter with ghee. Ghee has a little more fat than butter, but with only trace-amounts of carbs, ghee is a keto-friendly food.

Erythritol is also a great keto-friendly choice. This low carb sweetener is a natural type of carbohydrate called sugar alcohol. It is one of the most popular keto-friendly sweeteners, as it has close to zero net carbs and doesn’t spike your blood sugar as opposed to regular sugar and other sugar alcohols. It is about two-thirds as sweet as regular sugar, so you might want to use a bit more than the amount of sugar that is in the regular recipe.

Serves: 60

Ingredients

  • 70 gr almond flour 
  • 30 gr coconut flour 
  • 40 gr dairy butter/ghee 
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract 
  • 2 tbsp biscuit & speculaas spices 
  • 1 tbsp honey 
  • 1 tbsp erythritol (decide the sweetness yourself) 
  • 1 egg 

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 150 °C. 
  2. Cover a baking tray with baking paper. 
  3. Put all the ingredients together in a bowl. 
  4. Mix all the ingredients together. This is easiest by hand. 
  5. Form small balls from the mixture. Flatten them out a little and place them on the baking tray. 
  6. Bake the pepernoten for 10 minutes in the preheated oven at 150 °C. 
  7. To ensure that the pepernoten get crunchy, bake the pepernoten for another 5 minutes at 180 °C. But, keep an eye on them so that they do not burn.