
This Arnhemse Meisjes recipe is everything you can wish for. These traditional Dutch cookies come from the city of Arnhem and are incredible. They are so tasty and crispy. You can find the recipe for these Arnhem biscuits below. I hope you enjoy bringing a regional, Dutch treat into your home.
History Arnhemse Meisjes
These Arnhem cookies are a real treat. If you’ve visited the city of Arnhem, then you will probably know what I’m talking about. But, if you haven’t seen this beautiful Dutch city in the province of Gelderland just yet, then you will also be thrilled with this Dutch biscuit recipe.
The first time Arnhemse Meisjes was created was, almost 200 years ago, in 1829. That’s when baker Hagdorn was experimenting with shapes and cookies. He searched for something that would be great at parties and festivities, and that still looked good. So, he created a cookie of risen yeast-dough in the shape of a shoe sole. These ended up being delicious and crispy Dutch cookies. When the Hagdorn family stopped, it was continued by the Jurjus family. And, they searched for a bakery to continue the creation of the fantastic Arnhem biscuits. Nowadays, you can get the traditional Arnhemse Meisjes at Bakker Hilvers in Arnhem. The recipe of Arnhem biscuits is very secret, but these unquestionably come very, very close.
Arnhemse Meisjes (Arnhem Biscuits) Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g flour
- 20 g lemon zest
- 25 g granulated sugar
- 7 g fresh yeast
- 11⁄4 dl milk
- 5g salt
- 150 g butter at room temperature, in cubes
- 250 g cane sugar
serves 8 – 30 minutes preparation – 25 minutes oven – 20 minutes to cook
Instructions
1. Mix 20 g lemon zest and 25 g granulated sugar together. This is lemon sugar.
2. On your worktop, put down the flour in a circular shape and make a well in the centre.
3. Add the lemon sugar, yeast, milk and salt to the well. Carefully mix this with your fingers until you have a consistent dough.
4. Now add the butter and keep kneading the dough until the butter is mixed in well.
5. Shape the dough into a rectangle of roughly 1 cm thick, cover this and let the dough harden in the fridge for 15 minutes.
6. Cut the dough in squares of roughly 1,5 x 1,5 cm; roll these into small balls and put them back into the fridge for about 10 minutes to harden (watch out that the dough doesn’t get too hard).
7. Dust the worktop with cane sugar and put the dough balls on top.
8. Roll the balls in the sugar and press them flat until 3 mm thick.
9. Put the cookies on a baking sheet covered with baking paper and bake them in a preheated oven (155 °C / 311 °F) for 25 minutes.
10. Take the cookies off the baking sheet and let them cool down on a cooling rack.
Delicious with a cup of tea or coffee!

Handy tools to use for this recipe
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This recipe comes out of the Dutch cookbook: The Dutch Kitchen, a fantastic book that exists out of twelve Dutch food menus: for every Dutch province one. It is filled with traditional, regional Dutch foods and written by Claartje Lindhout. It was published by Brecht and costs around 13,99 euros.
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