Round, flat, deep golden-brown honey biscuits flecked with bits of candied peel, stacked and scattered on a turned wooden platter. — Hylikmaker, round spiced honey biscuits with candied peel.

Hylikmaker, Spiced Honey Biscuits (1769)

Name: Hylikmaker Spiced Honey Biscuits
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h 25 min
Cuisine: Dutch
Ingredients: 120 g dark brown sugar; 60 g honey; 60 ml water; 240 g plain flour; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg; 1/4 tsp ground cloves; 30 g candied orange peel, finely chopped; 30 g candied citron peel, finely chopped; 1 tbsp water for the dough, if needed; 2 tbsp plain flour, for rolling

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Hylikmaker from a 1769 Amsterdam cookbook: flour, brown sugar and honey with candied orange and citron, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon, rolled out and baked.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 31, 2026

Recipe makes: About 30 biscuits, 5 cm across
Prep: 25 min
Cook: 35 min
Total: 1 hr 25 min

The honey syrup cools for 15 minutes before it goes into the flour, and the biscuits firm up on a rack for 10 minutes after baking. Bake one tray at a time.

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Hylikmaker, round spiced honey biscuits with candied peel.

The story behind the recipe

Flour, half as much brown sugar and a quarter as much honey: an Amsterdam cookbook of 1769 gives hylikmaker as a ratio and leaves the rest to the cook’s judgment. Orange peel, sucaden (candied citron), cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon go into the dough, which is rolled out, shaped as hylikmaker or Theerandjes and baked. Of the three dishes gathered here for the spice fires it carries the most kinds of spice, a way to taste the kind of cargo the Company shipped home to Dutch kitchens.

Was there more than one hylikmaker?

The book offers two. Volmaakte grond-beginzelen der keuken-kunde gives the rolled honey dough first, then the way “Andere,” others, make them: rolled into little balls, with somewhat more sugar and no honey, and butter worked in with a glass of wine, cinnamon and ginger. Then it takes sides. “Doch het eerste is beter, en meest in ‘t gebruik,” but the first is better, and most in use. This page follows the book’s favorite.

The recipe is number 23, on page 12, between hard little cakes spiced with cinnamon, mace and nutmeg and the cinnamon wafers that follow. It is Amsterdam baking. Metzlar names no food at all for the tent at Batavia where, a few years later, guests were given refreshments while surplus spices burned. That fire, and what its one witness made of it, is told in Did the Dutch East India Company Really Burn Its Spices?

Making it today

The book skims the honey “met de zuiker,” with the sugar, so the two are warmed together into a syrup. It names no liquid, and the dough needs some to hold together, so the water is ours, as are the amounts of spice and peel. We read “Oranje schillen” as candied orange peel, since the book names it beside candied citron; finely grated fresh zest is the other reading. There is no raising agent in the book, and none here, so the biscuits stay flat and firm. The Kaneel Wafeltjes, Cinnamon Wafers (1769) from the same page make a second, buttery sweet for the plate.

Hylikmaker, maakt men van bloem, half zo veel bruine zuiker en een vierde honing, die met de zuiker geschuimt is, daar men dan Oranje schillen, sucaden, kruidnagelen, notemuscaat en kaneel by doet: dit deeg word uitgerold, tot Hylikmaker of Theerandjes geformeerd en in den oven gebakken. Andere maken daar balletjes van; doch dan neemt men wat meerder zuiker zonder honing, en men doet ‘er boter in met een glas wyn, kaneel en gember: doch het eerste is beter, en meest in ‘t gebruik.
In our translation: “Hylikmaker is made from flour, half as much brown sugar and a quarter of honey, which is skimmed with the sugar, to which one then adds orange peels, succade, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon: this dough is rolled out, formed into hylikmaker or Theerandjes, and baked in the oven. Others make little balls of it; but then one takes somewhat more sugar without honey, and one puts butter in with a glass of wine, cinnamon and ginger: but the first is better, and most in use.”

AnonymousVolmaakte grond-beginzelen der keuken-kunde (Amsterdam: Steven van Esveldt, 1769), no. 23, Hylikmaker, p. 12

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Ingredients

For about 30 biscuits, 5 cm across. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for about 30 biscuits, 5 cm across.

Dark brown sugar120 g
Honey60 g
Water60 ml
Plain flour240 g
Ground cinnamon1 tsp
Freshly grated nutmeg1/2 tsp
Ground cloves1/4 tsp
Candied orange peel, finely chopped30 g
Candied citron peel, finely chopped30 g
Water for the dough, if needed1 tbsp
Plain flour, for rolling2 tbsp

Ingredients as written here

120 g dark brown sugar
60 g honey
60 ml water
240 g plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
30 g candied orange peel, finely chopped
30 g candied citron peel, finely chopped
1 tbsp water for the dough, if needed
2 tbsp plain flour, for rolling

Equipment

Small saucepan
Large mixing bowl
Rolling pin
5 cm round cutter
Two baking sheets and parchment paper
Wire rack

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line the baking sheets with parchment.
Put the brown sugar, honey and water in the saucepan and warm over low heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Let it come just to a simmer, skim off any foam, and take it off the heat. Leave it for 15 minutes, until warm but no longer hot.
In the mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Add the candied orange peel and candied citron peel and toss them through the flour so the pieces separate.
Pour in the warm syrup and stir, then knead with your hand in the bowl into a smooth, stiff dough. If it stays crumbly, work in the water for the dough a little at a time.
Dust the work surface with the flour for rolling and roll the dough out 5 mm thick. Cut out rounds with the cutter, gather and reroll the scraps, and lay the rounds on the baking sheets a little apart.
Bake one sheet at a time for 12 to 15 minutes, until the biscuits are firm at the edges, dry on top and a shade darker.
Slide them onto the rack and leave them for 10 minutes; they firm up further as they cool.

Nutrition

55calories per serving

Recipe makes: About 30 biscuits, 5 cm across
Servings: 30

Estimated per biscuit (about 30) from USDA FoodData Central values for flour, brown sugar, honey and candied peel.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

The book gives only proportions: flour, half as much brown sugar and a quarter as much honey. Keep the three in that ratio and scale the rest with them.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Our changes from the book: the water, all the amounts of spice and peel, candied orange peel for “Oranje schillen,” the oven temperature, thickness, cutter and baking time. The ratio of flour, sugar and honey is the book’s. For Theerandjes, cut the same dough into small shapes of your own; the book doesn’t describe them. Keep the biscuits in an airtight tin. Contains gluten.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.