A Guide to Dutch Pastry and Baked Goods — Everything Newcomers Need to Know

Dutch pastry does not travel well as a reputation. Ask most people outside the Netherlands to name a Dutch baked good and you will likely get a long pause followed by a tentative mention of stroopwafels — if you are lucky. The Netherlands does not market its culinary traditions with the same confidence as France or Belgium, and Dutch baking in particular tends to be described in modest terms even by the Dutch themselves.

This modesty is undeserved. Dutch pastry has a distinct and serious character. It is not built on complexity for its own sake — there are no twelve-layer entremet cakes or elaborate spun-sugar showpieces in the average Dutch bakery window. Instead, it is rooted in quality ingredients, seasonal rhythm, and a kind of honest restraint that, once you understand it, becomes very easy to appreciate. For newcomers arriving from countries with more flamboyant baking traditions, the adjustment takes a few weeks. After that, most people are converted.

The Classics: Essential Dutch Pastries

Tompouce is the signature Dutch cream pastry and the item you are most likely to encounter first. Two rectangular sheets of puff pastry enclose a thick layer of pastry cream (banketbakkersroom), and the whole thing is finished with a smooth fondant icing — traditionally pink, turned orange on Koningsdag (King's Day, April 27). It is served in individual portions, eaten with a fork or by hand depending on your tolerance for mess, and found in virtually every patisserie and bakery in the country. A good tompouce has puff pastry that shatters cleanly, cream that is set but not stiff, and fondant that is sweet without being cloying.

Stroopwafel is perhaps the most internationally recognised Dutch baked good, and the gap between the supermarket version and the fresh version is one of the largest in the world of pastry. At its best — made to order at a market stall, pressed on a hot iron — a stroopwafel consists of two thin, chewy waffle rounds bonded with warm caramel syrup. The texture is yielding and the flavour is straightforwardly excellent. Originally from Gouda (where the city's market still has outstanding stroopwafel stalls), they are now made across the country. Buy them fresh whenever possible.

Oliebollen are deep-fried dough balls traditionally eaten in December and on New Year's Eve. Dusted with icing sugar and optionally filled with raisins, apple pieces, or both, they are sold from dedicated street stalls (oliebollenkar) that appear across the Netherlands from mid-December through January 1st. They are not subtle. They are extremely satisfying.

Appelflap and appeltaart represent two different approaches to apple pastry. The appelflap is a single-serve turnover — puff pastry folded around a spiced apple filling, baked until golden. Appeltaart is a full cake: a deep, shortcrust shell packed with sliced apple, raisins, and cinnamon, with a latticed top. Dutch appeltaart is denser and taller than most non-Dutch apple pies, closer to a tart than a cake in texture, and is almost always served with a substantial portion of fresh whipped cream. It is one of the great Dutch contributions to café culture.

Bossche bol is a regional speciality from Den Bosch ('s-Hertogenbosch) that deserves wider fame. It is a large, spherical choux pastry puff filled with whipped cream and entirely coated in dark chocolate. It is, by most measures, an extraordinary thing. In Den Bosch, the definitive version comes from Banketbakkerij Jan de Groot. In Amsterdam and other cities, decent versions can be found in good patisseries, though nothing quite matches the original.

Speculaas is a spiced shortcrust biscuit made with a blend of warming spices — cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, and white pepper — and traditionally pressed into carved wooden moulds depicting windmills, figures, and seasonal imagery. It is most strongly associated with Sinterklaas (December 5) but is eaten year-round. Windmill-shaped speculaas are a staple of Dutch office meeting tables and coffee accompaniments.

Gevulde koek is a soft, slightly chewy round biscuit with a thick almond paste (amandelspijs) filling and an almond pressed into the top. It is one of the most ubiquitous items in any Dutch bakery and represents the Dutch love of almond paste in its most straightforward form. Bought fresh from a bakery, it is considerably better than anything sold pre-packaged.

The Seasons of Dutch Baking

One of the most appealing aspects of Dutch pastry culture is how closely it follows the calendar. The Dutch baking year has a clear rhythm, and for newcomers, following it is one of the best ways to integrate into local life.

January and early February bring oliebollen — lingering from the New Year celebrations — alongside poffertjes (small yeasted pancakes) at winter markets. Easter introduces paasstol, a rich yeasted bread filled with almond paste and dried fruit, similar to but distinct from German Stollen. April 27, Koningsdag, sees tompouces appear in orange fondant across every bakery in the country. The summer months are quieter in terms of seasonal specials, though fresh fruit tarts and slagroomtaart (whipped cream cake) are at their best. November and December bring the most dramatic shift: pepernoten (small spiced biscuits), speculaas in every form, banketletter (almond-paste-filled pastry letters, traditionally given as gifts on Sinterklaas eve), and the return of the oliebollen stalls.

Where to Buy

The Dutch bakery landscape has several distinct categories. The banketbakker is the pastry specialist — focused on tarts, cream pastries, celebration cakes, and fine biscuits. These are the addresses to seek out for tompouce, gevulde koek, and Sinterklaas specials.

The broodbakker is primarily a bread baker but almost always carries a selection of pastry alongside — appelflap, various rolls, and often a small range of cakes. For everyday pastry needs, these are reliable and usually good.

Supermarkets — particularly Albert Heijn — carry a reasonable range of Dutch pastry staples. The quality is not comparable to a good bakery, but the stroopwafels are consistent and the speculaas selection is extensive. For a quick introduction to Dutch baking before you find your local bakery, it is a perfectly reasonable starting point.

Market stalls remain the gold standard for several products. Stroopwafels, oliebollen, and poffertjes are all substantially better from a market vendor than from any other source. The Saturday markets in most Dutch cities have at least one dedicated stroopwafel stall; in larger markets like Amsterdam's Albert Cuyp, there are several.

What Makes Dutch Pastry Distinctive

A few characteristics define Dutch baking regardless of the specific product. Butter is used generously and without apology — Dutch butter is of high quality, and the flavour it contributes to pastry is central rather than incidental. Cream, similarly, appears in its full-fat form without modification.

Almond paste — sold as amandelspijs or banketspijs depending on its application — is the most distinctively Dutch flavouring. It appears in gevulde koek, banketletter, paasstol, and numerous other products. It is sweeter and more intensely flavoured than French frangipane, and if you are not accustomed to it, the first few encounters can be surprising. Most people come to love it.

The Dutch tendency toward simplicity is not a limitation but a philosophy. Dutch pastry rarely tries to do more than it needs to. The focus is on the quality of a small number of core ingredients, the correctness of the technique, and the appropriateness of the product to its context.

For Those with Dietary Needs

The Dutch baking tradition is heavily reliant on wheat, butter, eggs, and dairy, which presents challenges for those with dietary restrictions. The good news is that the Netherlands has been quicker than many European countries to respond to demand for alternatives. Most mid-to-large cities now have bakeries offering gluten-free options, and vegan patisserie — once essentially non-existent in the Netherlands — is increasingly represented, particularly in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. Dedicated gluten-free and vegan bakeries operate in all major cities, and mainstream bakeries are expanding their ranges. It is worth researching specific addresses before visiting, as the availability of alternatives can vary significantly by location.

Conclusion

Dutch pastry rewards those who approach it on its own terms. It is not trying to be French, and it is not attempting to compete with the elaborate confections of Belgian chocolate culture. It is doing something quieter and, in its best moments, deeply satisfying: taking excellent local ingredients, following the seasons, and producing baked goods that are honest about what they are. For newcomers to the Netherlands, learning to read a bakery window — understanding the difference between a banketbakker and a broodbakker, knowing which month the oliebollen stalls appear, finding a tompouce that meets your personal standard — is one of the more pleasurable aspects of settling into Dutch life.