Cook This: Three Belgian baking recipes from Dark Rye and Honey Cake

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Our cookbook of the week is Dark Rye and Honey Cake by Belgian food writer, photographer and broadcaster Regula Ysewijn. Read an interview with the author.

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Jump to the recipes: Luikse wafel (Liège waffle), tarte al djote, and gozette à la crème and appelflap.

Regula Ysewijn’s hometown of Antwerp is known as koekestad, cookie city. “This is because we used to have two massive biscuit factories in Antwerp. And no matter which station you arrived (at) by train, or going to the town by tram, if you arrived in the centre of Antwerp, you would smell biscuits (cookies).”

Her parents still associate the city with the scent of freshly baked cookies, though the factories have been gone for roughly 50 years. But for Ysewijn, the city is defined by the smell of something else: the Luikse wafel (Liège waffle), a specialty of the city of Liège in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium. “So, the smells of Antwerp have changed, but the city still smells of sweet treats.”

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Waffle bakers once lined Meir, Antwerp’s main shopping street. During her childhood, Ysewijn and her mother would stop for a Liège waffle each week in spring, fall and winter. Substantial enough for lunch, the Walloon specialty is the only waffle meant to be eaten as a street food, explains Ysewijn. Today, there are fewer waffle stalls, and the characteristic aroma of caramelized sugar and cinnamon has faded — but her scent association remains.

“When made well and baked twice — because baking it twice, as is done in street stands, caramelizes the sugar better — these waffles are an absolute delight.”

The second recipe Ysewijn shared with us, tarte al djote, is also a specialty from Wallonia. Hailing from Nivelles — a city south of Brussels in Walloon Brabant — the Swiss chard, cheese and egg tart dates back to medieval times. The spices called for in 13th- and 14th-century recipes are no longer used, but otherwise, the tarts of today are very similar.

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In Wallonia, tartes al djote would be filled with boulette, an intense, washed-rind cow’s milk cheese. “The tarte al djote is fantastic. And, of course, if you would be able to make it with the local cheese that we have here, then it just rips your head off because it’s so strong. It’s unbelievable. It’s such a pungent cheese.”

Mature cheddar or Gouda (or a comparable cheese local to you) would make a fine substitute for boulette, Ysewijn notes, and if you can’t find Swiss chard, consider bok choy or chervil.

Bakeries in Nivelles still bake this traditional tart in wood-fired ovens and serve them like pizza. “It’s not like a quiche (or other) savoury tarts where you would have a slice, a wedge or something. No. The meaning of this tart is you will have one entire one in front of you. And you would eat that like you would eat a pizza.”

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The third recipe, gozette à la crème and appelflap, is one Ysewijn has enjoyed often on the banks of the River Meuse in the picturesque Walloon city of Dinant. Gozettes are enjoyed all over Belgium, she says, but the pastries take different forms. In the north, in Ysewijn’s native Flanders (Belgium’s Dutch-speaking region), bakers primarily make appelflappen (apple turnovers) with puff pastry. In the south, in Wallonia, bakers make gozettes à la crème with enriched bread dough.

“So, essentially, it’s the same thing but different pastry, which I think is quite fun. You cross the language border and the pastry changes.”

LUIKSE WAFEL

Liège Waffle

4 cups (500 g) bread flour
2 tbsp (25 g) coarse raw or superfine sugar
4 3/4 tsp (15 g) instant dry yeast
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup water
3 1/2 tbsp whole milk
1 tbsp runny honey
1 medium egg
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 cup (250 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (200 g) pearl sugar, lightly coated with vegetable oil to prevent the sugar from taking moisture from the batter
Butter or lard, for greasing (if you don’t have a nonstick waffle iron)

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Step 1

Use a deep or plain waffle iron plate.

Step 2

Combine the flour, sugar, yeast and cinnamon in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Pour in the water, milk, honey and the egg and knead for 5 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Step 3

Add the salt and baking soda on one side and the softened butter in chunks on the other side and knead for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, gently knead in the pearl sugar so that it is well distributed throughout the dough, then let rest for 5 minutes. After resting, the dough will no longer appear wet and will have started to embrace the pearl sugar so the nibs no longer drop out.

Step 4

Line a tray or large airtight container with parchment paper. Divide the dough into 8 pieces (about 5 1/2 oz/150 g each) and place on the tray or in the container. Transfer to the fridge to proof slowly — overnight for the best flavour.

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Step 5

Take the dough out of the fridge 30 minutes before baking. Heat the waffle iron. Grease the waffle iron with butter or lard if it is not nonstick and bake the waffles until they are golden brown (how long that takes depends on your iron — mine takes 5 minutes).

Step 6

The first waffle will come out fairly clean, but the second will have some caramelization from the melting pearl sugar nibs, which is what you want. Greasing with butter or lard for every bake will create a nice layer of caramel on the outside of the waffle. There is nothing more disappointing than a Liège waffle without any caramel because the waffle baker is trying to keep the iron from getting sticky.

Step 7

Transfer the baked waffles to a wire rack to cool. When ready to serve, reheat waffles as needed: this second time in the waffle iron will add some more caramel to the waffle. When cold, these waffles seem dense as bricks! Baked waffles that you don’t eat straight away can be frozen, thawed overnight in the fridge and heated up in a hot iron for that perfect fresh-baked experience.

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Makes: 8 waffles

TARTE AL DJOTE

For the pastry:
4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (125 g) salted butter, softened
3 1/2 tsp (11 g) instant dry yeast
2 tsp salt
2 medium eggs
1/2 cup whole milk

For the filling:
14 oz (400 g) cheese (see note)
5 tbsp (75 g) salted butter, plus extra butter, for serving
1 medium egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 oz (35 g) Swiss chard, leaves only, finely chopped
2 medium shallots, finely chopped
1/3 cup (20 g) finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

Step 1

Use 4 pie tins, 8-inch top diameter x 7-inch base diameter x 1-inch depth, greased and floured.

Step 2

To make the pastry, combine the flour, butter, yeast and salt in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and knead until you get a coarse mixture. Add the eggs and milk and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth. Cover the bowl and set aside to rest for 30 minutes or overnight in the fridge.

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Step 3

For the filling, crumble or shred the cheese and leave it out to get “sweaty.”

Step 4

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat and brown it (beurre noisette). Set aside to cool so that the butter doesn’t cook the eggs.

Step 5

Mix the cheese with the cooled melted butter, the egg, egg yolk, pepper and salt. Fold the chard, shallots and parsley through and set aside.

Step 6

Preheat the oven to 400F. Do not use the fan setting.

Step 7

When the dough has risen, knock out the air, divide in 4 and roll out all 4 pieces of dough as thin as you can. Lay the dough rounds over the greased and floured tins, press into the base and cut away the excess pastry. Pierce the bases all over with a fork.

Step 8

Spoon in filling to just under 1/2 inch deep in each pastry-lined tin.

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Step 9

Place the tarts on a baking sheet, place on the lowest rack of the oven and bake for 20 minutes until the crust has a blush. Transfer to a wire rack and set aside to rest for 5 minutes for the cheese to coagulate so you can safely remove the tart from the tin.

Step 10

Serve warm, with a knob of extra butter on top to melt. Pair with a full-bodied red wine (Burgundy is traditional) or a dark monastery beer.

Step 11

The next day you can reheat the tarts in a 400F oven for 10 minutes. The baked tarts freeze incredibly well: just thaw in the fridge and reheat.

Makes: 4 individual tarts

Note: After talking to cheese experts, I have to conclude that the Walloon cheese used in the original recipe is unique and doesn’t really have a counterpart anywhere else in the world. For the sake of completeness, I’m listing the traditional cheeses, but as an alternative, shredded mature Gouda or cheddar is a very good choice.

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The traditional cheeses include: bètchéye, boulette, boulette de Falaën, boulette de Namur, boulette de Nivelles, boulette de Romedenne, boulette de Surice and cassette de Beaumont.

GOZETTE À LA CRÈME AND APPELFLAP

For the custard filling:
9 medium egg yolks
6 tbsp (75 g) superfine sugar
3 tbsp (40 g) custard powder, or 5 tbsp (40 g) cornstarch
3 cups whole milk
1/3 cup heavy cream (36-40 per cent fat)
1 vanilla bean, split, or 1 bay leaf

For the pastry:
4 cups (500 g) bread flour
2 tbsp (25 g) superfine sugar
5 tbsp (70 g) unsalted butter, softened
4 3/4 tsp (15 g) instant dry yeast
1 medium egg
1 1/4 cups whole milk, at room temperature
1 tsp fine sea salt
Milk, for brushing
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

For appelflappen:
1 jar apple compote

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Step 1

For the custard filling, have a large shallow ovenproof dish ready.

Step 2

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and custard powder until creamy, then set aside. In French culinary terms, you’ve now made a ruban (ribbon).

Step 3

In a large saucepan, warm the milk and cream with the seeds of the vanilla bean. Strain the milk if you want to get rid of the black vanilla seeds or leave them in and show the world you used the real stuff. Add a tablespoon of the warm milk to the ruban and whisk well, then add the ruban to the warm milk while constantly whisking. Return the pan to low heat and whisk until the custard thickens, turning off the heat as soon as the mixture appears to give more resistance to whisking it.

Step 4

Immediately pour the hot custard into the cold ovenproof dish and cover the top of the custard (not the dish) with a sheet of plastic wrap. The plastic wrap prevents the custard from forming a skin. Sadly I have not found an alternative that is not plastic: a lid doesn’t work because the condensation between the lid and custard will make it wet. Let the custard cool and then transfer to a piping bag.

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Step 5

For the pastry, combine the flour, sugar, soft butter and yeast in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add the egg and half of the milk and start kneading. When the liquid is completely absorbed, pour in the rest of the milk and knead for 5 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Step 6

Add the salt and knead for a further 10 minutes until it has come together in a smooth and elastic dough that is neither too dry nor terribly wet. Cover the dough and set aside for 1 hour until it has doubled in size. Toward the end of the resting time, preheat the oven to 425F. Do not use the fan setting. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 7

When the dough has risen, knock out the air and divide it into 12 balls. Roll out the balls into 1/4-inch-thick ovals and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet.

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Step 8

Now fold all the ovals in half, without pressing the pastry (when making appelflappen, add 2 tablespoons of apple compote to each one before you fold and omit the custard). Brush all over the top with the milk, then transfer the sheet to the middle of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes until the pastry is just golden brown and let cool on a wire rack.

Step 9

When cool, cut open the buns that you’re filling with cream for gozettes à la crème on the seam created by folding the dough, making sure the halves remain attached along the straight side, then pipe the custard into the buns. Appelflappen need nothing more than to cool. Dust both the appelflappen and the gozettes generously with confectioners’ sugar to serve.

Makes: 12 gozettes or appelflappen

Recipes and images excerpted from Dark Rye and Honey Cake by Regula Ysewijn. First published in England by Murdoch Books. Copyright ©2022 by Murdoch Books, an imprint of Allen & Unwin. Text, design, styling and photography copyright ©2022 by Regula Ysewijn. Reproduced by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.

Article content

Our cookbook of the week is Dark Rye and Honey Cake by Belgian food writer, photographer and broadcaster Regula Ysewijn. Read an interview with the author.

Article content

Jump to the recipes: Luikse wafel (Liège waffle), tarte al djote, and gozette à la crème and appelflap.

Regula Ysewijn’s hometown of Antwerp is known as koekestad, cookie city. “This is because we used to have two massive biscuit factories in Antwerp. And no matter which station you arrived (at) by train, or going to the town by tram, if you arrived in the centre of Antwerp, you would smell biscuits (cookies).”

Her parents still associate the city with the scent of freshly baked cookies, though the factories have been gone for roughly 50 years. But for Ysewijn, the city is defined by the smell of something else: the Luikse wafel (Liège waffle), a specialty of the city of Liège in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium. “So, the smells of Antwerp have changed, but the city still smells of sweet treats.”

Article content

Waffle bakers once lined Meir, Antwerp’s main shopping street. During her childhood, Ysewijn and her mother would stop for a Liège waffle each week in spring, fall and winter. Substantial enough for lunch, the Walloon specialty is the only waffle meant to be eaten as a street food, explains Ysewijn. Today, there are fewer waffle stalls, and the characteristic aroma of caramelized sugar and cinnamon has faded — but her scent association remains.

“When made well and baked twice — because baking it twice, as is done in street stands, caramelizes the sugar better — these waffles are an absolute delight.”

The second recipe Ysewijn shared with us, tarte al djote, is also a specialty from Wallonia. Hailing from Nivelles — a city south of Brussels in Walloon Brabant — the Swiss chard, cheese and egg tart dates back to medieval times. The spices called for in 13th- and 14th-century recipes are no longer used, but otherwise, the tarts of today are very similar.

Article content

Article content

In Wallonia, tartes al djote would be filled with boulette, an intense, washed-rind cow’s milk cheese. “The tarte al djote is fantastic. And, of course, if you would be able to make it with the local cheese that we have here, then it just rips your head off because it’s so strong. It’s unbelievable. It’s such a pungent cheese.”

Mature cheddar or Gouda (or a comparable cheese local to you) would make a fine substitute for boulette, Ysewijn notes, and if you can’t find Swiss chard, consider bok choy or chervil.

Bakeries in Nivelles still bake this traditional tart in wood-fired ovens and serve them like pizza. “It’s not like a quiche (or other) savoury tarts where you would have a slice, a wedge or something. No. The meaning of this tart is you will have one entire one in front of you. And you would eat that like you would eat a pizza.”

Article content

The third recipe, gozette à la crème and appelflap, is one Ysewijn has enjoyed often on the banks of the River Meuse in the picturesque Walloon city of Dinant. Gozettes are enjoyed all over Belgium, she says, but the pastries take different forms. In the north, in Ysewijn’s native Flanders (Belgium’s Dutch-speaking region), bakers primarily make appelflappen (apple turnovers) with puff pastry. In the south, in Wallonia, bakers make gozettes à la crème with enriched bread dough.

“So, essentially, it’s the same thing but different pastry, which I think is quite fun. You cross the language border and the pastry changes.”

LUIKSE WAFEL

Liège Waffle

4 cups (500 g) bread flour
2 tbsp (25 g) coarse raw or superfine sugar
4 3/4 tsp (15 g) instant dry yeast
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup water
3 1/2 tbsp whole milk
1 tbsp runny honey
1 medium egg
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 cup (250 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (200 g) pearl sugar, lightly coated with vegetable oil to prevent the sugar from taking moisture from the batter
Butter or lard, for greasing (if you don’t have a nonstick waffle iron)

Article content

Step 1

Use a deep or plain waffle iron plate.

Step 2

Combine the flour, sugar, yeast and cinnamon in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Pour in the water, milk, honey and the egg and knead for 5 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Step 3

Add the salt and baking soda on one side and the softened butter in chunks on the other side and knead for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, gently knead in the pearl sugar so that it is well distributed throughout the dough, then let rest for 5 minutes. After resting, the dough will no longer appear wet and will have started to embrace the pearl sugar so the nibs no longer drop out.

Step 4

Line a tray or large airtight container with parchment paper. Divide the dough into 8 pieces (about 5 1/2 oz/150 g each) and place on the tray or in the container. Transfer to the fridge to proof slowly — overnight for the best flavour.

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Step 5

Take the dough out of the fridge 30 minutes before baking. Heat the waffle iron. Grease the waffle iron with butter or lard if it is not nonstick and bake the waffles until they are golden brown (how long that takes depends on your iron — mine takes 5 minutes).

Step 6

The first waffle will come out fairly clean, but the second will have some caramelization from the melting pearl sugar nibs, which is what you want. Greasing with butter or lard for every bake will create a nice layer of caramel on the outside of the waffle. There is nothing more disappointing than a Liège waffle without any caramel because the waffle baker is trying to keep the iron from getting sticky.

Step 7

Transfer the baked waffles to a wire rack to cool. When ready to serve, reheat waffles as needed: this second time in the waffle iron will add some more caramel to the waffle. When cold, these waffles seem dense as bricks! Baked waffles that you don’t eat straight away can be frozen, thawed overnight in the fridge and heated up in a hot iron for that perfect fresh-baked experience.

Article content

Makes: 8 waffles

TARTE AL DJOTE

For the pastry:
4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (125 g) salted butter, softened
3 1/2 tsp (11 g) instant dry yeast
2 tsp salt
2 medium eggs
1/2 cup whole milk

For the filling:
14 oz (400 g) cheese (see note)
5 tbsp (75 g) salted butter, plus extra butter, for serving
1 medium egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 oz (35 g) Swiss chard, leaves only, finely chopped
2 medium shallots, finely chopped
1/3 cup (20 g) finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

Step 1

Use 4 pie tins, 8-inch top diameter x 7-inch base diameter x 1-inch depth, greased and floured.

Step 2

To make the pastry, combine the flour, butter, yeast and salt in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and knead until you get a coarse mixture. Add the eggs and milk and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth. Cover the bowl and set aside to rest for 30 minutes or overnight in the fridge.

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Step 3

For the filling, crumble or shred the cheese and leave it out to get “sweaty.”

Step 4

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat and brown it (beurre noisette). Set aside to cool so that the butter doesn’t cook the eggs.

Step 5

Mix the cheese with the cooled melted butter, the egg, egg yolk, pepper and salt. Fold the chard, shallots and parsley through and set aside.

Step 6

Preheat the oven to 400F. Do not use the fan setting.

Step 7

When the dough has risen, knock out the air, divide in 4 and roll out all 4 pieces of dough as thin as you can. Lay the dough rounds over the greased and floured tins, press into the base and cut away the excess pastry. Pierce the bases all over with a fork.

Step 8

Spoon in filling to just under 1/2 inch deep in each pastry-lined tin.

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Step 9

Place the tarts on a baking sheet, place on the lowest rack of the oven and bake for 20 minutes until the crust has a blush. Transfer to a wire rack and set aside to rest for 5 minutes for the cheese to coagulate so you can safely remove the tart from the tin.

Step 10

Serve warm, with a knob of extra butter on top to melt. Pair with a full-bodied red wine (Burgundy is traditional) or a dark monastery beer.

Step 11

The next day you can reheat the tarts in a 400F oven for 10 minutes. The baked tarts freeze incredibly well: just thaw in the fridge and reheat.

Makes: 4 individual tarts

Note: After talking to cheese experts, I have to conclude that the Walloon cheese used in the original recipe is unique and doesn’t really have a counterpart anywhere else in the world. For the sake of completeness, I’m listing the traditional cheeses, but as an alternative, shredded mature Gouda or cheddar is a very good choice.

Article content

The traditional cheeses include: bètchéye, boulette, boulette de Falaën, boulette de Namur, boulette de Nivelles, boulette de Romedenne, boulette de Surice and cassette de Beaumont.

GOZETTE À LA CRÈME AND APPELFLAP

For the custard filling:
9 medium egg yolks
6 tbsp (75 g) superfine sugar
3 tbsp (40 g) custard powder, or 5 tbsp (40 g) cornstarch
3 cups whole milk
1/3 cup heavy cream (36-40 per cent fat)
1 vanilla bean, split, or 1 bay leaf

For the pastry:
4 cups (500 g) bread flour
2 tbsp (25 g) superfine sugar
5 tbsp (70 g) unsalted butter, softened
4 3/4 tsp (15 g) instant dry yeast
1 medium egg
1 1/4 cups whole milk, at room temperature
1 tsp fine sea salt
Milk, for brushing
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

For appelflappen:
1 jar apple compote

Article content

Step 1

For the custard filling, have a large shallow ovenproof dish ready.

Step 2

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and custard powder until creamy, then set aside. In French culinary terms, you’ve now made a ruban (ribbon).

Step 3

In a large saucepan, warm the milk and cream with the seeds of the vanilla bean. Strain the milk if you want to get rid of the black vanilla seeds or leave them in and show the world you used the real stuff. Add a tablespoon of the warm milk to the ruban and whisk well, then add the ruban to the warm milk while constantly whisking. Return the pan to low heat and whisk until the custard thickens, turning off the heat as soon as the mixture appears to give more resistance to whisking it.

Step 4

Immediately pour the hot custard into the cold ovenproof dish and cover the top of the custard (not the dish) with a sheet of plastic wrap. The plastic wrap prevents the custard from forming a skin. Sadly I have not found an alternative that is not plastic: a lid doesn’t work because the condensation between the lid and custard will make it wet. Let the custard cool and then transfer to a piping bag.

Article content

Step 5

For the pastry, combine the flour, sugar, soft butter and yeast in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add the egg and half of the milk and start kneading. When the liquid is completely absorbed, pour in the rest of the milk and knead for 5 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Step 6

Add the salt and knead for a further 10 minutes until it has come together in a smooth and elastic dough that is neither too dry nor terribly wet. Cover the dough and set aside for 1 hour until it has doubled in size. Toward the end of the resting time, preheat the oven to 425F. Do not use the fan setting. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 7

When the dough has risen, knock out the air and divide it into 12 balls. Roll out the balls into 1/4-inch-thick ovals and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet.

Article content

Step 8

Now fold all the ovals in half, without pressing the pastry (when making appelflappen, add 2 tablespoons of apple compote to each one before you fold and omit the custard). Brush all over the top with the milk, then transfer the sheet to the middle of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes until the pastry is just golden brown and let cool on a wire rack.

Step 9

When cool, cut open the buns that you’re filling with cream for gozettes à la crème on the seam created by folding the dough, making sure the halves remain attached along the straight side, then pipe the custard into the buns. Appelflappen need nothing more than to cool. Dust both the appelflappen and the gozettes generously with confectioners’ sugar to serve.

Makes: 12 gozettes or appelflappen

Recipes and images excerpted from Dark Rye and Honey Cake by Regula Ysewijn. First published in England by Murdoch Books. Copyright ©2022 by Murdoch Books, an imprint of Allen & Unwin. Text, design, styling and photography copyright ©2022 by Regula Ysewijn. Reproduced by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.