A sweet celebration at Belgian American Days
Belgian cookie demo part of festivities Friday
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GHENT -- Celebrating Belgian heritage is naturally a big part of Belgian American Days. You could see a lot of Belgian pride and tradition on display in Ghent on Friday evening, from Belgian flag colors to the games of rolle bolle going on in the middle of town. There were some traditional treats too, as the Tom Bot family cooked up a batch of Belgian cookies.
"I want to see how this is done," one community member said, as he came up to the table where the family was demonstrating.
Tom, his wife Vicki, their daughter Michelle Gerlach and her husband Steve Gerlach had an assembly line set up. Tom would slice rolls of cookie dough into small circles. Then, other family members would press the pieces of dough inside a hot iron, a little bit like a waffle iron. The Belgian cookies would come out as thin wafers, and get crunchy as they cooled.
This year was the Bot family's second time making Belgian cookies for Belgian American Days, Vicki Bot said. She said the idea came out of conversations she had with Ghent city administrator Dawn Vlaminck.
"Last year, by trial and error, we did it," she said. The big challenge was that the cookie dough would get sticky in the summer heat. This year, Vicki said they tried to get around the problem by making some of their cookies ahead of time.
There are lots of recipes for Belgian cookies, Vicki Bot said.
"Everybody makes it different," she said. Some cooks use cake flour, or different flavorings in their cookie dough, she said. "Of course, we use real brandy," she said of her family recipe.
Tom Bot said older generations of Belgian Americans used to use cookie irons that made just one wafer at a time. People said they would pray a Hail Mary to measure the time until the cookie was done, he said.
The cookie iron the Bots were using for their demonstration wasn't quite as exact as that.
"You almost listen to the sizzle," to tell when the cookies are done, Michelle Gerlach said.
Some festival-goers at Belgian American Days sampled the cookies. But they could also try using them to make s'mores, together with marshmallows and chocolate set up at nearby picnic tables.
Vicki Bot said doing the cookie-making demonstration was a way to get involved in the festival and help keep it going.
"We want to keep Belgian American Days alive," she said. "Everybody has to volunteer."