Peperkoek/Ontbijtkoek (Dutch spiced breakfast cake)

Ontbijtkoek is literally breakfast cake and eaten at breakfast spread with butter. Ontbijtkoek/kruidkoek/peperkoek are names used interchangeably and each family has their preferred name. I have named this plainer recipe Ontbijtkoek and the separate peperkoek recipe is the richer version made with more honey and rye flour.

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Equipment

Square profile loaf tin with lid or otherwise a standard loaf tin with foil to cover. You may need to scale up these ingredients to suit your loaf tin. My square profile tin uses 50% more batter than the quantities show here.
Baking paper to line the loaf tin.
Whisk Hand mixer if making over double quantity.

Ingredients

Wet ingredients

100 ml water
30 g honey
2 eggs
250 g dark brown sugar
2 tbsp peperkoek spice or speculaas spice mix

Dry Ingredients

3 tsp baking powder
250 g self-raising flour

Baking

butter to grease the loaf tin

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (170ºC fan oven) and grease a loaf tin with butter - especially the 4 corners and line with baking paper. This is essential for lifting out after baking.

Mix the wet ingredients

whisk the eggs in bowl.
Combine the wet ingredients: water, honey, eggs, spices and brown sugar in a pan.
Heat gently and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Do not overheat.

Assemble

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl
Add the wet ingredients from the pan and mix well. If using a hand mixer, mix slowly and only until everything is combined. Over mixing is not good for the batter.

Baking

Transfer the batter into the lined loaf tin. Fill to no more than two-thirds as this will rise during baking. Cover with lid. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Test with a skewer which should come out clean
Leave to cool for 15 minutes before lifting out the peperkoek. Peel off the baking paper. Transfer to a cooling rack.
Wrap in foil to get the typical sticky edge. Wait 5 days before starting to eat.