A small piece of borstplaat can carry the flavour of coffee, cocoa or orange peel. The sweet starts with sugar and sets in a mould. A pale heart and a brown round might look quite different, but the shape tells you more about the mould than about the flavour.
Borstplaat belongs to the Dutch Sinterklaas season. In a 2000 episode of the children’s programme Het Klokhuis, a tour of bakeries looked at how borstplaat, marzipan and chocolate letters were made. They can share a plate and give you three very different bites. Beeld & Geluid’s archive of Het Klokhuis
When the flavour comes from the peel
The 1984 printing of Het Nieuwe Haagse Kookboek includes citrus borstplaat among its sweet treats. In that version, the authors use sugar lumps to pick up the aroma from lemon or orange peel. It’s a detail you can keep in mind as you taste a citrus piece. See whether the fragrance of the peel comes through before the sweetness takes over.
The book also has versions flavoured with cocoa or coffee extract. If you’re choosing a few pieces, try a citrus one alongside coffee or cocoa. Take a bite on its own before you sip your drink. You may prefer the brightness of citrus with coffee, or find yourself reaching for the deeper flavour of a cocoa piece.
What to look for in roomborstplaat
The cookbook pays attention to how the sweet feels when you bite into it. The writers connect a fine grain with stirring as the syrup cools and note that a little butter can soften the result. Once set, the sweet keeps the shape of its mould. Ask about the batch if you’re looking for a particular texture.
The book gives roomborstplaat a separate entry, with milk or cream in its variation. Confectioner Robèrt van Beckhoven’s version for MAX uses cream, vanilla and fondant, with coffee and cocoa options. A cream version can still come in several flavours. Check the description or ask the person who made it what you’re about to taste. Robèrt van Beckhoven’s borstplaat for MAX
Give each sweet a place on the plate
On the same cookbook page as the cream version, marzipan gets its own entry. The ground almonds give it a different texture from the moulded sugar sweet. If you have both, serve small pieces side by side and see which bite you prefer. A square of chocolate offers another comparison with the cocoa in a piece of borstplaat.
For a small Sinterklaas table, put a few pieces on a saucer and serve tea or coffee. A single flavour is enough when there are other sweets to share. If borstplaat is the sweet you’re most curious about, set out two flavours or a plain and a cream version. Leave space between them so people can see which piece they’re reaching for.
From the Pantry Bookshelf. F. M. Stoll and W. H. de Groot, Het Nieuwe Haagse Kookboek, revised with J. C. Heidenreich, 71st printing, Elsevier Amsterdam/Brussel, 1984, pp. 406–407.