Search
Brazil
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
French Guiana
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
Spain
Finland
France
Greecethe Netherlands
Hungary
Ireland
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
Poland
Portugal
the United Kingdom
the Czech Republic
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Canada
the United States
Mexico
the Dominican RepublicTurkey
South Africa
Australia
Fiji
New Zealand
Papua New GuineaFlavors · Frísia
White yeast bread with large chunks of sugar mixed into the dough and cinnamon, which caramelize in the oven. It is the sweet bread most associated with Friesland, and local tradition links it to visits to the parents after a baby is born.
Traditional sweet from Frísia
Also known as: Fries suikerbrood, suikerbrood, sûkerbôlle
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Fryske sûkerbôle — Frísia, the Netherlands
The Fryske sûkerbôle, Friesland’s sugar bread (Fries suikerbrood in Dutch), is a deluxe version of white bread. Large pieces of sugar are mixed into the leavened dough; they partially melt in the oven and leave sweet, caramelized pockets inside the crumb. Cinnamon provides the aroma, and some bakeries add a little ginger syrup.
Sugar is the defining feature of the bread. A report by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS indicated the dough contains about 40 percent sugar. Typically sugar pieces (suikernibs) are used, sometimes broken cubes. The result is a soft, dense loaf with sticky edges.
Sugar bread is found throughout the Netherlands and Belgium, but it is especially associated with Friesland, where each bakery has its own recipe. In a 2017 series of postage stamps dedicated to regional flavors, the sûkerbôle represented Friesland. The Frisian name, the province’s language, appears in bakeries alongside the Dutch name.
A local custom links the bread to births: according to Frisian tradition reported in publications on the subject, the sûkerbôle was brought as a gift to the parents during the visit after the birth. The custom has changed over time, but the bread remains a common visit gift.
In Sneek and other Frisian towns, the bread is sold whole or sliced. It is eaten at breakfast or as an afternoon snack, spread with butter.
Wheat flour, milk, yeast, butter, eggs, sugar pieces (suikernibs) and cinnamon; sometimes ginger syrup.
Sliced with butter for breakfast or with coffee in the afternoon. It is also eaten lightly toasted.
All year round; traditionally associated with post‑birth visits.
Your questions
Friesland sugar bread: leavened white bread with large pieces of sugar and cinnamon that caramelize in the oven.
Sliced and buttered, in the morning or with coffee.
In Friesland, it was customary to offer it to the family who had just had a child.
Flavors of the Netherlands
Thick split pea soup with vegetables and smoked sausage that in winter can become so thick a spoon can stand upright. The preparation of erwtensoep, also called snert, was recognized as intangible heritage of the Netherlands in July 2018.
Young, fatty seasonal herring, cleaned, salted and matured by the traditional method and eaten raw with chopped onion. It is a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed of the European Union, and the arrival of the new season is celebrated throughout the country.
Fried yeasted dough balls, with or without raisins and apple, dusted with confectioners’ sugar. They are the New Year’s Eve treat in the Netherlands, sold at stalls that appear in towns at the end of the year.
Rustic mashed potatoes mixed with a vegetable, such as kale, sauerkraut or carrots with onion, served with a smoked sausage and gravy. It’s the winter home-cooking dish of the Netherlands, with variants that have their own names.
Small white bread filled with well-seasoned pork, the worstenbroodje is the savory of North Brabant and was recognized as Dutch intangible heritage in 2016.
Two thin crisp waffle wafers glued together with a caramel-cinnamon syrup filling. It originated in Gouda bakeries around 1800, and the method of making it by hand is on the national inventory of intangible heritage.
A boiled egg wrapped in a creamy, spiced ragù, breaded and fried: the eierbal is the snack bar treat of Groningen. It was added in 2017 to the national inventory of intangible heritage, following an initiative by a society created to protect it.
Round tart made from a thin fermented dough and generously filled with fruit, rice pudding or custard, sometimes topped with a lattice or streusel. Since 2024 it has a Protected Geographical Indication from the European Union, shared by Dutch and Belgian Limburg.
Tray of French fries topped with shoarma, melted cheese, salad, garlic sauce and sambal. Created in 2003 at a snack bar in Rotterdam for hairdresser Nataniël Gomes, it took the name of his salon and spread across the Netherlands.
Cereal distillate flavored with juniper, the predecessor of gin, which made Schiedam the city of jenever: at its peak, hundreds of distilleries operated along the canals, and giant windmills ground the grain. Jenever has a European geographical indication shared by the Netherlands, Belgium and neighbouring areas.
Large choux pastry ball filled with whipped cream and covered in dark chocolate, the sweet of 's-Hertogenbosch. A local pastry shop advertised chocolate balls as early as 1903 and began filling them with whipped cream in 1924.
A small leavened roll twisted into a spiral with light brown sugar and cinnamon that caramelizes in the oven, leaving it sticky inside and out. It is the best-known sweet of Zeeland and its origin is attributed to the Sephardic Jews who settled in Middelburg at the end of the 16th century.
