Taai-taai is a dense, chewy Dutch biscuit made from rye flour, honey (or syrup) and anise, and pressed into figures — most commonly Sinterklaas himself or one of his Pieten. The name is simple: taai means "tough" or "chewy", and doubling it stresses the point. Fresh taai-taai really does take some effort to bite through. It tastes a little like speculaas, but the anise is stronger and the texture is the opposite: chewy rather than crisp.
It belongs to the same old family of honey-and-spice doughs as the traditional pepernoot, and it has been part of the Sinterklaas season for a long time. In the past it was considered a modest gift: in older courting custom a taai-taai figure was a less flattering present than a marzipan heart.
Composition
The classic dough combines rye flour, honey or dark syrup, and anise, with a raising agent; recipes may add other spices. The stiff dough is often rested before shaping. Traditional bakers used potash or similar chemical leaveners; modern recipes generally use baking soda or ammonium bicarbonate. The finished biscuit is flat, matt-brown and pliable rather than brittle.
The figures
Taai-taai is almost never sold as a plain biscuit. The dough is pressed into carved moulds or cut out, and the relief — the saint's mitre and beard, a Piet's cap, the folds of a cloak — stands out on the surface after baking. Besides the saint and the Pieten, older shapes include the horse, and simple figures of men and women — in Friesland the taaimannen and taaiwiven baked for the Sint Piter feast in Grou. Carved wooden biscuit moulds of the kind once used for taai-taai and speculaas are collected as folk art.
Where to buy it
Taai-taai figures are sold in Dutch supermarkets and by bakers from autumn until early December. Bakery taai-taai tends to be denser and more strongly flavoured with anise than the packaged versions. The figures keep well for a biscuit — taai-taai dries and hardens slowly — but are best eaten within a couple of weeks.
Regional relatives
Taai-taai is mainly a Dutch tradition. In Flanders the Sint-Niklaas season leans more towards speculoos figures and chocolate, and the honey-spice cake there is the loaf-shaped peperkoek, a different product.
As a Sinterklaas object
Within the season, the taai-taai figure is the sweet that represents the characters of the story: where the chocolate letter stands for the person receiving it, and the kruidnoten for the scattering of treats, a taai-taai Sinterklaas is an edible picture of the saint himself. Children often nibble them from the feet up over several days.