Sandwiches for the feast of St. Nicholas: ‘klaaskoeken’ – vegan

‘Klaaskoeken’ are not really cookies, but more sandwich like breads. I could not find a proper English translation for it! They are traditionally eaten in Western-Flanders (most in the south of the province) around the period of Saint-Nicholas. (Sinterklaas or Saint Nicholas is on December 6, a date when children in many countries (especially Netherlands, Belgium) wake up to find toys and candy that Saint Nicholas on his horse and his helpers have brought to their homes, through the chimney – as the legend goes. The sandwiches mostly take the shape of a horse ( calles ‘kloajspèrden’) or a man or another figure (we also make ducks). Whether you particpate in this children’s feast or not, they are delicious! One eats them with a bit of ‘butter’, or with bread spead.

Vegan ‘klaaskoeken’ -sandwiches for St Nicholas

It’s very rare to find vegan ‘klaaskoeken’, so we experimented.
Note: this recipe calls for advanced preparation: the dough needs time to rise.

Ingredients

1kg flour
60g fresh yeast
500ml soy milk – lukewarm
150g sugar
150g vegan butter
17g salt

large cookie cutter (about 10-15cm)

optional: sugar solution to give the sandwiches a shining surface: 7 parts of sugar and 5 parts water (eg. 7 teaspoon sugar en 5 teaspoon water).

Making vegan klaaskoeken

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm soy milk.
Maak a dimple in the flour, pour in the soy milk with yeast mixture,and mingle.
Cut the vegan butter in pieces, and add this, together with the sugar.
Add the salt, and start kneading. if you are kneading by hand: about 10 minutes. The dough needs to become elastic: it need to sping back after pressing your thumb in it.
Make a boll, cover it with a kitchen towel and put all of this in a plastic bag. Place the bag in a room at room temperature, until the dough has risen to about twice its size (+/-30 min).
remove the dough from bag and flatten it a bit. Roll out with flour pin on floured surface, until it is evenly about 1,5 cm.
Put the oven on 40° (104F)
Cut out your shapes from the dough and place them on baking plates with baking paper. Kneed the remaining dough together, roll out again, and cut out shapes again. Do this till all douh is on your baking plates.

after rising in the oven

Put the baking plates with the dough in the preheated oven: 60 minuten at 40°C (104F). This is to let the dough rise even more.
Meanwhile, make your sugar solution. Add 7 ts sugar to 5 ts water and bring to a boil. Put aside to cool down.

Remove the baking plates from the oven, now put the oven at 220° (400F).

When the oven has heated to 220° (400F), put the baking plates with the sandwiches back in.
Bake the sandwiches for 8 to 15 minuten at 220° (400F) (this depends on the size of your sandwiches).
remove from oven, and put in a wire mesh to cool.
Immediately after taking them out of the oven, brush them with the sugar solution (not to much, otherwise they will become very sticky!).