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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Limburgo
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.
Traditional sweet from Limburgo
Also known as: vlaai, vlaaien
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.
Limburgse vlaai — Limburgo, the Netherlands
The Limburgse vlaai is a round sweet tart made with a thin fermented dough and a generous filling, baked until golden. Fillings can be fruit, such as cherry, apricot, plum or apple, rice pudding (rijstevlaai), custard, semolina or fresh cheese, or a combination. Often it is finished with a dough lattice or a sugar-and-butter streusel on top.
The tradition is old in both Limburgs — the Dutch and the Belgian provinces that share the same name. Flemish public television traces its origins to at least the 12th century. For a long time it was a luxury reserved for feast days; today it’s the sweet served at birthdays, family celebrations and visits, and is sold in bakeries throughout the province.
In January 2024 the European Commission registered the Limburgse vlaai as a Protected Geographical Indication, after more than seven years of procedure led by the Netherlands and Flanders. Only vlaai baked in the Limburg provinces of the Netherlands and Belgium may use the name, according to the specification rules. Among those rules: dough no thicker than about one centimeter after baking, sale only until the day after production, no freezing and no whipped cream on top.
A Limburg saying sums up the ideal: dun van leer, dik van smeer — thin dough, thick filling. The fruit may come from outside the region; what the protection guarantees is the place and the way of making it.
The vlaai is sold whole or in slices, and the most common size serves a family. In Limburg it is common to bring a vlaai as a gift when visiting someone.
Fermented dough made with flour, milk, butter and sugar; filling of fruit (cherry, apricot, plum, apple, rhubarb), rice pudding, custard or fresh cheese; sometimes a dough lattice or streusel on top.
In slices, eaten by hand or with a fork, served with coffee. The protected Limburgse vlaai does not have whipped cream on top.
Birthdays, family celebrations and visits, year-round.
Your questions
A sweet tart with thin dough and very generous filling, typical of the Limburg provinces on both sides of the border.
Yes. Since 2024 it is a Protected Geographical Indication: only vlaai baked in Limburg may use the name, following rules on dough, filling and sale.
Under the geographical indication rules, the Limburgse vlaai is sold without whipped cream on top. Other tarts with whipped cream exist, but they do not use this name.
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.
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.
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.
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.
