Liers vlaaike

Appearance & taste

The tartlets are round, about 3 cm high, 5 to 6 cm in diameter and weigh about 45 g. The base of pale-baked shortcrust is 3 to 4 mm thin and relatively high, crisp, dry and unsweetened. It is filled to the rim with a dark paste that rises slightly during baking and is then very dark brown and creamy.

The flavour is dominated by the candy syrup and the spices cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and coriander: the filling is sweet and spicy, while the base is unsweetened.

Production

The base is made from wheat flour, water and butter. The filling consists of coarse breadcrumbs, light candy syrup, whole milk and wheat flour and is seasoned with a mixture of equal parts cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and coriander. The pastry contains no eggs, salt, preservatives or other additives. Most bakers make their own breadcrumbs from leftover, dried and grated rolls or baguettes.

Making the dough, shaping and baking take place in Lier. Before the Second World War the bases were shaped in small wooden moulds, some of which survive in Lier: they were lined with a dough made with warm water, left to dry for a few days, and only then were the bases baked with the filling. The label bears the name, the EU symbol for the PGI and the logo of the Liers vlaaike.

Origin & history

The area consists of the town of Lier, including the sub-municipality of Koningshooikt, in the province of Antwerp. According to the specification, the tartlets were never baked outside Lier, but the town’s bakers sold them at markets in Antwerp, for example. The proximity to Antwerp explains the ingredients: its port was one of the most important in Europe for oriental spices and sugar cane, which was processed locally into candy sugar.

Their origin is said to go back to 1722. At that time Lodewijk Jozef van Kessel, a canon of St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, noted down a recipe of sweet milk, rusks and crushed cloves, sweetened with syrup and baked in a pastry crust; today breadcrumbs are used instead of rusks and a spice mixture instead of cloves alone. In 1890 a baker from Lier offered the tartlets to King Leopold II and Queen Marie Henriette at an exhibition for the feast of St Gummarus and afterwards became purveyor to the court. Felix Timmermans included the Liers vlaaike in his hymn of praise “Schoon Lier” in 1925. In 1995 it was added to the Flemish Euroterroirs list, and in 2007 it was recognised as a traditional Flemish regional product. It is baked all year round.