Dutch fairy bread exists (and we can confirm it’s as incredible as ours)

Fairy bread… but make it Dutch.

Dutch-fairy-bread-hagelslag

We spotted a few comments on a fairy bread video online from people in Holland saying that they have their own version of sprinkles on buttered bread that they serve at parties, so we immediately got into research mode. Soon, we discovered: HAGELSLAG.

What is hagelslag?

It’s much the same as our own fairy bread. It also involves soft, sliced white bread spread thickly with butter. But instead of topping it with colourful hundreds and thousands like the Aussie version, you instead use chocolate strands (aka hagel). They’re super rich because of their high content of quality cocoa and literally melt in your mouth when you eat them. It’s kinda like sinking your teeth into the most indulgent kind of chocolate cake (without the baking!)

How to make hagelslag

We all know how to make fairy bread, and the rules are much the same. Spread butter (evenly and thickly) over soft white bread slices. Instead of colourful sprinkles, you decorate with chocolate sprinkles.

And it goes without saying that you cut diagonally before serving, right?

What does hagelslag taste like?

Our Food Director Amira Georgy was the lucky person tasked with taste-testing hagel and hagelslag for the first time and she gave both a big thumbs up.

“I generally don’t like when traditional sprinkles have a slightly gritty texture and get stuck in your teeth,” she said. “However, the Dutch sprinkles actually have a strong chocolatey flavour and softer texture, which means they don’t get stuck in your teeth and they soften and melt as you chew them.

“My 3-year-old daughter saw me trying them and asked me if she could have some ‘chocolate French fries’. She loved them, too!”

Where to buy Hagel to make hagelslag

Amira used The Dutch Co brand of ‘Hagel’ and found the packet in the international aisle at Coles supermarket. It looks like this:

hagel

Try and look for the real deal if you can – they are so much more chocolatey than the paler chocolate sprinkles you see in the baking aisle.

How to coat fairy bread

Do you always get 100s and 1000s all over your kitchen benchtop and floor when you make fairy bread? Our friends over at Australia’s Best Recipes have the best hack. Simply tip all your sprinkles into a rectangular container, spread your bread with butter and then press it, buttered side down, into the sprinkles. Just like (fairy) magic, there you have it – a thick, neat layer of 100s and 1000s without making a mess. 

The escaping sprinkles issue won’t be as bad when working with Dutch chocolate sprinkles, but this technique still works, so it’s worth a try!

The perfect fairy bread formula

We recently asked Amira if she could figure out the ideal bread-to-butter-to-sprinkles ratio when making fairy bread. She said: “Some people say that fairy bread should have the ratio of equal parts butter to sprinkles, but I think the perfect balance is 3 parts sprinkles to 2 parts butter.”

best-fairy-bread-recipe

This means that you should use 1 tablespoon of butter and 1.5 tablespoons of hundreds and thousands for every 2 slices of bread. 

Originally published as Dutch fairy bread exists (and we can confirm it’s as incredible as ours)