dutch s'mores

S'mores bar #3 inspired by my recent romp around the Netherlands with my long lost Frands.

appelstroop grahams

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stroopwafel mallows

berry (+stroopwafel) mallows

curry mallows

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assorted Tony's Chocolonely

peren apelstroop graham crackers

Priority number 1 on this return to Netherlands was to see Abbey's sweet face and take in her laugh again. Priority number 2 was to traipse through all the little traditional seaside towns.

I nearly passed away wandering through these streets. I wonder if Europeans ever feel this way walking through certain (maybe historic?) parts of the US.

My favorite part was definitely this cozy little Airbnb Abbey found in the fisherman's village of Volendam. Furnished and decorated with cute traditional Dutch paraphernalia like the kitchen set. I felt like I was in a fairytale book.

But my absolute favorite parts were the closet beds. This is what I want - to close myself into a little hobbit hole, tuck myself in and sleep forever, dead to the world.

I slept in this cute pink one:

Abbey slept in this A-frame one:

We found this one in a klompenmuseum:

We found this one at the Openluchtmuseum:

Which is a great segue so I can circle back to the grahams! The Netherlands Oppenluchtmuseum in Arnhem was the most fun theme park for adults if you can call a place that demonstrates what life was like back in the day through the years a theme park. Well my frands and I are simple people with simple pleasures. I loved the thatched roofs, every windmill, that game with the giant heavy balls. I definitely loved the life-like mannequins... And I of course got fixated on the apelstroop house that was set up like a maple syrup house. Intuitive. You're basically just boiling down and concentrating something sugary. Anyways, I found a jar at the gift shop and replaced it for the molasses in my graham crackers.

stroopwafel mallows

Outside our adorable Volendam Airbnb was an adorable seaside town (minus the seagulls that pooped on me in the same place two days in a row...). We somehow found ourselves at a stroopwafel demo, which I thought was going to be underwhelming and simplistic, but it was quite delightful. I know I audibly gasped after a ball of wafel dough went into the iron, and after 2 minutes, the lady pulled it out of the wafel iron and seamlessly separated the halves to spread a generous amount of stroop in the middle. Voila - stroopwafel. So much better than the packaged kinds. 

Let me backtrack a bit though. They sent us downstairs to this windowless basement demo room (it was fine for us though - we know a lot about working with food in windowless basements) where everything was antique and rusted, including dusty jars of "spices" and a giant standing mixer. Apparently this is where Woltje began her baking operations to feed her many children after her husband died.

Here is where the lady demo'd how to make a classic stroopwafel and then let us sample chocolate and honey variations, as well as a tiny shot of stroopwafel liqueur.

Holy crap the liqueur was rich sweet caramel deliciousness, and the ceramic bottle with the Dutch kids kissing was so cute, Abbey and I each bought one. And I used it in place of vanilla in my marshmallows.

curry mallows

For my other mallow, I went out on a limb. Searching my head for stand out flavors, I kept coming back to strawberries (more for that strawberry drink in Germany) and savory...like... curry? Which was maybe primarily inspired by Garrett's currywurst. I've made curry caramel before so curry marshmallows didn't feel like that much of a stretch. But then I thought about the rijsttafel I dragged my frands to at Batavia. So many more flavors I could've mined for marshmallows there - peanut, coconut, banana, soy caramel (amazing cake filling btw), brown sugar.

I love meats and vegetables stewed in deep fragrant sweet and salty sauces. Immediately coat-your-tongue in strong umami type sauces with a mix of aromatic spices in the background.

I used a basic curry powder I had in my pantry for my mallows, so while the exact mixture of spices might not be right, the spirit was there. The end product could best be described as interesting. They weren't a hit, but I didn't hate them. I liked the subtle aftertaste of spice (like chili) and curry which I think was balanced by the layers of sweet from all the other components. Like having chili in your chocolate.

Tony's Chocolonely

I conceptualized my s'mores bar in my last couple days, so I had a chance to peruse duty-free for Dutch chocolates. Some Googling while loitering later, I learned these fun and cartoon-ish bars are based in Amsterdam. None of us wanted to spend much time in Amsterdam as we've all been there already, but Utrecht was like a hella cute mini Amsterdam with its canals and tall skinny houses and bikes and restaurants along the water.

We made a resolution to bbq on a boat next time while drinking spritzers.

I thought about if I wanted to attempt to temper chocolate again to make a Dutch-y chocolate for s'mores bar, but decided buying a bag would be easier and could double as a souvenir. Tony's was started by a Dutch journalist, Teun van de Keuken, who wanted a slave-free chocolate bar option, which is nice. Small atonements I suppose.

I will close with this somber looking fisherman statue on a bench that no one could resist pointing out as they walked by. Probably because it's quite startling.