The word ‘mop’ refers to the shape of the cookie. In the 17th century it meant ‘baked stone’. But these cookies taste way better!
Are you serious? You’d rather watch reality TV shows than bake your own cookies? Watching reality TV will make you fat, lazy and depressed! Baking cookies will make you radiantly happy and svelte and loved by your friends! So, what are you waiting for? No, it doesn’t matter that it’s 10 o’clock in the evening. Fresh cookies smell wonderful at night. Believe me, you’ll sleep better after this. Start baking Goudse Moppen!
Ingredients for the original Goudse Moppen
makes approximately 30 cookies
200 g dairy butter
125 g soft white sugar (basterdsuiker)
1 egg yolk
zest of half an unwaxed lemon
2 g salt
250 g pastry flour /French type 45
sugar for rolling the dough
This is how you make the Goudse Moppen
Make the dough by creaming the butter and soft white sugar with a wooden spoon or spatula. Then stir in the egg yolk and lemon zest. Add the flour with the salt and combine until you have a cookie dough consistency (do not overwork the dough!). Leave to rest in the fridge for an hour. Preheat your oven to 175ºC / 345ºF. Roll the dough into a sausage shape on a sugar coated worktop (divide in two if that’s easier) until it’s about 3,5 cm /1.5 inch in diameter. Cut the dough into slices about 1,5 cm/ half an inch thick. Bake them golden brown on a baking sheet in about 15 minutes (depending on your oven, so keep an eye on them) and leave to cool on a wired rack.
As with all cookies, best eaten the same day or the next. So share generously with friends and colleagues, allowing you to bake even more.
NB: Goudse Moppen are traditional, sugar coated cookies from the city of Gouda in the province of Zuid-Holland, also famous for its cheese (kaas). When in Holland, go to a cheese shop and buy a piece of fresh cheese and take a bite! This is, next to our liquorice (drop), the thing we miss the most when abroad.
Lesley Hofmann says
REALLY enjoyed these – Lovely texture and taste. We are so enjoying working our way through all your wonderful recipes.
I also enjoy Jan Hagel cookies – Do you have a recipe for these? (I was wondering if you could use the Goudse Moppen as the base, or is it a vastly different dough?)
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Lesley,
So great to read your comment. And thank you for letting us know you like our recipes. The moppen are very Dutch, as are the Jan Hagel, but unfortunately we do not have a recipe for them to offer on our website. But it is a lovely cookie to bake and eat. The ingredients are different from the moppen so we would suggest using a recipe that is truly ‘Jan Hagel’. Maybe this link is a good start as the recipe is based on one by famous Dutch baker Cees Holtkamp: boisdejasmin.com/2013/…ecipe.html
Wishing you many more hours of baking happiness.
Greetings from Holland,
Ed & Marieke
Lesley Hofmann says
Thank you SO much – I really appreciate it. Can’t say how much I look forward to your posts. You are an inspiration to me!
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you again Lesley, you make us happy 🙂
Chantal Duvall says
I took cooking classes in Liege (Belgium) in the early 1960 !!! and we made a cookie the teacher called “MOQUES de HOLLANDE”.
I have been trying for many years to find the recipe without any success but now I have it, thanks to you!
Then I moved to Texas in the 1979’s and a little tearoom served delicious KANOS. Those were made by a Dutch baker but I could not get the recipe… (he made them for an airline…).
BINGO again ! You had this recipe again.
Thanks for your delicious and well explained recipes.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Chantal,
How wonderful! We had never heard of the name ‘Moques de Hollande’ and when we google these words we get pictures of the French president 🙂
So great we can the source for you for these recipes. Hope they will give the results you expect and please just ask if anything is not clear.
Happy Holland baking treats!
Greetings from the low countries and ‘Gelukkig Kerstfeest’ !
Frances van Niekerk says
Moke de Hollande ou Petit sablés
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Frances, with this different spelling we do get the cookies when we do a search!
Mrs Jean Betts says
I am looking for the recipe for Botter Moppen. I had this years ago and lost it. It had lemon zest in it and was rolled in sugar and put in the refrigerator, then cut into slices and baked. They did not contain any eggs and were delicious. My daughter is an administrator for a poodle rescue team and they are meeting up for a walk and picnic on Sunday with all the rescue dogs and their owners. We would like to make lots of these biscuits and hand them out as a gift for everyone. I would be pleased if you could help.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Jean,
These Goudse moppen are really just a regional variation on the ‘botermoppen’ recipe. The basic recipe without the egg yolk you could try uses 150 g self raising flour (because there is no egg, you normally see the use of a raising agent in the basic recipe, otherwise the cookie will be very hard) 100 grams of butter and 75 grams of sugar. The rest of the recipe is pretty much the same. You can also make the sausage shape before refrigerating the dough and then slice it. You can also use vanilla sugar for the coating.
Hope it will be a great success!
Happy moppen baking and greetings from Holland,
Marieke
Mrs Jean Betts says
Thank you so much for taking the time to forward the recipe. I will be making these tomorrow and I am sure they will be delicious. I visited Holland a few years ago and was very impressed with the bakeries and the beautiful confectionery. xx
Pamela Michell says
I purchased some of these Cookies in ARUBA last week and could not stop eating them. They were delicious. The Arubian People speak Dutch. I will need to look up grams to cups.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Pamela, how great that you visited Aruba and they sold these cookies. To help you I did some calculating for you. But bear in mind that with the ingredients you use (type of sugar and flour) it could be you still have to adjust a little bit. You need 1 stick and 6 tablespoons of butter, 1 and 1/4 cup of soft white sugar. Little less than 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 cups of flour.
Hope it works out.
Happy Baking!
Greetings from Holland,
Marieke
Weekend Bakers says
Hola Irmina,
Muchas gracias for your kind words in Spanish. Our understanding of your language is very minimal, but we know you are agreeing with us ;))
Irmina Díaz-Frois Martín says
Sí, sí, yo también prefiero hornear galletas que ver la televisión. Da mucha satisfacción. Estas se ven geniales.
Un saludo.
Marieke says
Hi Antje,
You must be of Dutch origin with such a name! The word ‘mop’ refers to the shape of the cookie. In the 17th century it mend ‘baked stone’ and from that derived ‘hard baked cookie’. The shape of the cookie is probably the same as the shape of a certain stone in masonry. Different cities/towns have their own ‘mop’ cookie. You have the Goudse moppen from this recipe from the town of Gouda. You have Weesper moppen from Weesp and Dierense moppen from Dieren (less well known). A ‘mop’ or ‘mopje’ nowadays almost always refers to a joke. I know a good joke / Ik weet een leuk mopje / leuke mop. There is a connection with the meaning of the word ‘mop’ as it is used today and the old meaning of the word. It is used in a metaphorical way now but I can’t quite put the meaning of hard baked stone, cookie and joke together. Could be at one point people thought it was funny to trow a mop or stone at someones head and then told someone about it. Don’t know if that’s a good joke 😉 the person with the bump on his head is not laughing. Hope you like the information.
Wishing you lots of baking fun!
Marieke
Antje Scott says
Have not made these but discovered a different “moppen” recipe in my German cookbook. Why are they called “moppen”? Dying to find out what the word means. I thought of a mop – my cookies are called Dutch (Holländische) Moppen. So tasty and easy – my kids and my class loved making them. Great for allergy kids, no dairy and they can be made with gluten free flour. I will try these out next. Just discovered the website and I will check in frequently. I made cookies last nigth and went to bed happy. Great website!