Dutch addiction nr. 1 – DROP
What can we say? We all love drop. In Holland everyone loves licorice. At least, almost everyone. There are only a few Dutch people whose mouth does not start watering when they see such delicious licorice.
Drop, you’ll find it in a variety of flavors and shapes: beautiful black, black with color, black and white, sweet as honey, sweet or salt, double salt, extreme salt, hard or soft, double soft, round, square, diamond shape, animal shapes, honeycombs and buttons. My favorite is pulling drop, what’s yours?
Special Drop: Gluten free and vegan
Licorice is for everyone, including people who have an allergic reaction to gluten. This licorice is made with potato starch instead of wheat flour. Vegans also love licorice and for them, there is a vegetarian licorice variant without gelatin.
How to make drop
So if it’s not possible to buy some Drop make your own homemade Licorice. Look at the documentary below and see how drop is made in a Dutch factory. If the English subtitles don’t work you can put them on in the settings.
Drop Recipe
Ingredients:
250 ml (1/4 liter) water
150 grams of licorice (liquorice)
3 teaspoons syrup or brown sugar
bit of honey
some salt
2 sheets of gelatin
3 teaspoons flour
Cut the licorice into small pieces of 1 cm and boil it in the water. Be careful, don’t let it boil to hard. After boiling for 5 minutes, pour the licorice water through the sieve into another pan. Put the pan with the licorice water back on the fire. Let it boil down to 50 ml and then reduce the heat to low.
Dissolve 3 teaspoons of syrup or brown sugar, honey and some salt in the licorice water.
Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, on another saucer, make a paste of 3 teaspoons wheat flour and 3 tablespoons water.
Add the gelatin and flour paste to the boiling licorice water, while continuing to stir. There should be no lumps! Note the mixture burns quickly.
When the mixture is smooth and bound, pour it onto a piece of greased aluminum foil. Or in nice shapes. Let the licorice harden for a few days. Enjoy your homemade drop!
