The Netherlands Part two: Boterkoek

One of my favorite parts of studying countries has been trying so many new foods. We have tried a new recipe every week and we have definitely found a few keepers. This weeks recipe is a traditional Dutch dessert. From the research I did, it isn't a delicacy or something fancy for a special occasion but, it is "working man's" dessert. Our favorite part of this recipe was the name, Boterkoek (Boat-er-coke) The girls would repeat it over and over and over, it was adorable. If I had to rate all the recipes we have tried this one might be my least favorite. But, I think that is just because it tasted pretty familiar. I would compare it to an almond sugar cookie.

Boterkoek

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup unsalted butter

1 Cup superfine, or regular sugar

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

Handful of almonds (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or line your tin, I use a 9" springform, you could also use a 9" pie plate.

2. Mix together butter, sugar and almond extract until light and fluffy. (If you do not have super fine sugar you can put regular sugar in the blender to make your own)

3. Add the beaten egg to the mixture, but leave a tsp or so in the bowl for glazing at the end. Stir in egg then add flour and baking powder and mix until the dough comes together. 
4. Place mixture in the prepared baking pan and gently press until level. 
5. With a sharp knife score the surface to create a diamond criss-cross pattern. I apparently didn't score ours deep enough. I had to go back over it with a knife to get it to appear. 
6. Mix the tsp of egg with a tsp of water and brush over the cake (I did this step and ours didn't get golden brown like I expected it, but tested done so I didn't wait.)
7. Sprinkle with flaked almonds (optional) and bake for 25-30 minutes until it tests done with a toothpick.

Original recipe from lovefoodies.com

Passport to the world: The Netherlands

This is week four of our one country a week "travels" I must say that I expected to start to feel some burn out at this point but we are loving this study unit. I have even thought about adding to it during the summer to study a few more countries that we had not planned on.  This week we found ourselves in The Netherlands. It ended up being a much more interesting country than I thought it would be.

Here are the highlights. Coloring page from our workbook. She found it particularly funny that the boys name was Hans.

 Our weekly flag picture

We found the pictures of Holland fascinating. Especially the aerial photos of the tulip fields. So beautiful. You should really check it out!

We talked about why windmills are important to The Netherlands, and what they do. This was a great video about windmills. 

To go along with this lesson we made this windmill craft out of a toilet paper roll.

Color and cut

 Glue, the paper clips help keep things in place until it dries.

I found that we needed to punch a hole in the blade to help it turn better.

We used a brad and the project was complete, her own working windmill!

We also did a quick paint project that both girls were able to do together. It is nice when Emily can join us for one of our projects.

These are plastic fork tulip paintings. We just dipped a plastic fork in paint and pressed it on the paper. Even Emily was able to do this with little assistance.

We let them dry and added leaves the next day.

Cute, simple, quick project for The Netherlands or spring!

Holland was honestly my favorite country we have done so far. I really felt like Marissa and I both learned a lot.

Before we wrap up all things Dutch, we need to do some baking. I found a recipe for a traditional dutch dessert that ended up having a name that was as fun to say, as it was to eat.