The end of the year is always the busiest time in Aad Brakenhoff’s bakery. At half past three in the morning Aad gets out of bed, rubs the sleep out of his eyes and dons his baker’s clothes. Then he climbs the shaky stairs, lights the oven and makes a strong mug of coffee. By the time the oven has made the bakery nice and warm the suppliers start knocking on the door one by one. As always Hendricus van Tilborgh, Molendam’s grocer delivers the currents and raisins. But today he’s also delivering smaller bags of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, white pepper and aniseed that arrived yesterday morning on a boat from India. Aad needs these spices for the “speculaas”, which he only bakes for his customers in December. And not only for his customers. Lovers of Aad’s December baking come from near and far, not only for the “speculaas” but also for traditional Yule logs of crisp biscuits and crème de beurre, which is made especially by Dora van den Oord, at the milk shop. Her husband, Christiaan brings it together with the fresh milk that is required for the dough. At five o’clock the three tradesmen are sitting together cosily with a mug of coffee when Franciscus Hermensz, the town’s miller, arrives with his flour and wheat bran (given by many parents to their children as a remedy for spots and sores) and of course the fine pollen flour which is slowly turning the whole bakery white.

At half past seven his wife Bertha comes down and helps the twins Henkie and Lieke get to the primary school. At this time Aad is already busy with his baking and when Bertha opens the shop at eight o’clock, the scent of freshly baked bread floats out over the canals. When the doorbell rings announcing the first customer, Aad already has piles of rough brown bread for the poor and white bread for the rich. He bakes rye and wheat bread and recently even started making  “beschuiten”, which are particularly cherished by seafarers. And once all that has sold he spends another few hours on his specialties: wedding cakes, waffles and patties. And at the end of the morning he gathers together the cuttings of dough, kneads them together and bakes treacle waffles for the town’s true poor. This is just as much a part of Christmas as the “speculaas”. And then…..he’s off to bed.