Boterkoek – Dutch ‘Butter Cake’

* Ingredient note: ‘vanilla sugar’ is vanilla-infused sugar sold for baking in little packages in The Netherlands, and probably other places. If you can’t get this where you are, you can substitute 1 teaspoon vanilla essence per package specified in the recipe, or make your own by scraping the seeds from two vanilla pods and adding both seeds and pods to a pound of caster sugar and keeping it in a well sealed jar. After about a week, the sugar will be wonderfully vanilla scented, and remain so for years. You’d want about 8-10 grams of the homemade to substitute a commercially sold sachet.

Preheat your oven 200 degrees Celsius/ 390 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a shallow, round baking tin with 9-inch diameter.

Weigh the flour, caster sugar, vanilla sugar and pinch of salt and add them into a bowl. Mix to combine. Cut the butter into it with two knives until you have something that resembles the consistency of breadcrumbs, then knead by hand, preferably with cool hands, until you have a dough that holds together well and easily comes away from the bowl into a ball.

Press the ball of dough into the tin, smoothing out the top; there should be a little room between the top of the tin and the dough. Brush the milk over the top with a pastry brush, then use a fork to draw a pretty pattern in the top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown on top. While hot, the boterkoek will be soft, but once done it will no longer actually be liquid. Push down gently with the back of a spoon in the middle to test.

Leave to cool in its tin. If you are using a traditional boterkoek-tin, it will have a built in ‘knife’ to loosen the koek when it comes out of the oven.

Cool in the pan until the boterkoek is solid to the touch, then turn out onto a cooling rack and leave until fully cool. Cut into small pieces – it will be very rich – and serve with a good cup of coffee. Boterkoek keeps very well in an airtight container, and the flavour will actually be better if it is prepared a day in advance.