MARKETS : Holiday Sweets : Where Santa Shops for <i> Speculaas</i>

Artesia Bakery, 18627 S. Pioneer Blvd., Artesia. (310) 865-1201. Open 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m every day until Dec. 25. Regular hours: 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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Sixth-generation Dutch baker Maurius Lakeman runs the Artesia Bakery pretty much as his immigrant father did. By 4 a.m., he and his sons Benny and Cornelius are already in the shop checking on the proofed bread dough and mixing up mountainous batches of Dutch-style cookies.

Their busy Christmas schedule is even more demanding than their ordinary routine. Lakeman gets out the wooden molds his father brought from Holland to make the hand-molded anise-cake Santas and extra batches of fanciful speculaas cookie figurines. Out in front, where his wife Iona and daughters Rene and Brenda-Sue do much of the selling, abundant cookie-filled cellophane bags glimmer from the counter tops and a lingering perfume of ginger and cardamom suffuses the air.

As they do each year, the Lakemans have set out their Christmas display on a table by the window. The festive setting includes almond-filled pastry wreaths gaily studded with red and green candied cherries and almond spice cake. Whimsical miniature animals and gleaming fruits molded in marzipan display a centuries-old art that captures the magic and pageantry of an old-fashioned European Christmas.

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So what is a traditional Dutch bakery doing here on Artesia Boulevard, amid the Indian restaurants and shops that make up the section of Southern California now known as Little India--not to mention the Mexican carnicerias , Korean restaurants and Asian supermarkets within shouting distance? And how does it survive? Herein lies a tale of the Southland’s history.

“For most people in Los Angeles--especially relative newcomers--it’s probably impossible to believe that dairy herds roamed right past Woodruff and South streets not more than 20 years ago,” says Lakeman, whose father bought the bakery in 1952.

Lakeman was 17 when his family came from Rotterdam to escape economically depressed times in post-World War II Europe. His family was among the second wave of Dutch immigrants to settle in Norwalk, Artesia, Bellflower and Lakewood; the first wave had come around the time of World War I. With a Dutch community that exceeded 100,000, the neighborhood had Dutch churches and schools, and until the ‘50s (thanks to dairy farmers with names like Vanderham and Van Leeuwen), it was the largest milk-producing region in the state.

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Vestiges of this rural past are still in evidence around here: Appel’s Tractor Service is still located near Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk, and the George Verhoven Feed company is in nearby Artesia. But most of the dairymen have either retired or moved to Chino and Riverside, where cows still graze.

Artesia Bakery maintains a small wholesale business, supplying its wares to mostly Dutch specialty shops around Southern California and even out of state. But inevitably, progress has changed its clientele.

Does Lakeman think a Dutch bakery in Artesia is an endangered species? “Well,” he says, after briefly pondering the question, “in ’73 we tripled the size of the bakery.” An increasingly dense population translated into more customers, who apparently approve of the bakery’s fresh breads and extremely popular ice cream cakes.

“But sometimes,” Lakeman says with a sigh, “it’s impossible to fill all of our new customers’ requests. They have so many religious and cultural needs--like wanting cake without eggs. All in all, though, we have more customers, even though some of them might not celebrate Christmas as we do.”

Shopping List

CHRISTMAS ITEMS

According to Dutch tradition, Santa Claus (Sinterklaas) makes his appearance on Saint Nicholas’ Eve, the fifth night of December. Unlike Christmas itself, the day is not a religious one; everyone celebrates it. Usually there is a special dinner and Sinterklaas arrives on horseback with his helper, Svart Piet, throwing handfuls of pepernoten (little cake-like spiced anise cookies) into the room for children to catch.

This ritual is still played out in Southern California, staged by the Holland Soccer Club of Paramount, which also doubles as a Dutch family social organization. The club has three men’s teams and women’s and children’s teams. Benny Lakeman says, “The club turns Saint Nicholas’ Eve into a very big deal.”

Parents submit their kids’ gift requests to the club’s shopping committee, which readies the presents. Club president Pete Hordyk assumes the role of Sinterklaas in all his traditional finery. He throws the pepernoten --baked by the Artesia Bakery, of course--for the children to catch. Then the good kids get presents and (theoretically, at least) the naughty ones get warnings.

Children whose parents shop at Artesia Bakery might find any of the following Christmas specialties at their next Saint Nicholas Eve celebration.

Pepernoten and Taai Taai Santas: Pepernoten may have been the very first Dutch cookie. Culinary historians say it was originally just a tiny blob of dough that a baker used to test the oven. Pepernoten’s unique cookie dough, called taai taai (“chewy-chewy”), is made by boiling a mixture of honey, molasses, ground anise seeds and cinnamon, then stirring in rye flour. This process, combined with the dough’s lack of eggs and minimum of butter or shortening, produces a cookie with a chewy texture.

Pepernoten are closely related to German pfeffernusse (both words mean “pepper nuts”), but you’ll find that Artesia’s pepernoten don’t have the relentlessly strong flavor of their German cousins. The same cookie dough also gets pressed into carved wooden molds to make Santa-shaped figures that are traditionally placed at the table setting of each guest on St. Nicholas Eve.

Dutch Chocolate Initials: Artesia Bakery has sold the Van Der Mere chocolate company that it once owned, but still carries the wonderful large chocolate block letters that were the small company’s specialty. The six-inch-high letters are extremely popular children’s stocking stuffers.

Kerst-Kransen: These pastries come in two shapes and several sizes: rings (one, two or three pounds) and logs (large or small). Inside a thin wrapping of flaky dough is a center of Artesia Bakery’s creamy almond paste.

This is one of the Christmas items the bakery offers all year--something unheard-of in Europe, where the eating of certain foods at a certain time of year is firmly fixed by custom. There’s one bow to tradition: At Christmas, kerst-kransen are sold under their Dutch name, decorated with red and green cherries. The rest of the year they’re labeled “almond delight” and sold either plain or garnished with red cherries.

Almond Paste: Freshly made in the bakery all year long, the almond paste that goes into many of Artesia Bakery’s pastries and cookies may be purchased for home use. Unlike most commercially prepared almond pastes, which are often very sweet and strong tasting, this one, a blend of cooked ground almonds, sugar and eggs, is creamy and delicate.

“Some commercial almond pastes contain too much sugar and will leak out of a pastry or cookie as it bakes,” observes Lakeman. Having subjected Artesia Bakery’s almond paste-filled raisin bread to mercilessly high heat, I can report that Artesia’s almond paste will not leak or melt.

Marzipan and Marzipan Candies: Marzipan fashioned into figurines has long been an essential part of Northern European Christmas. By the way, people often confuse almond paste with marzipan; at Artesia Bakery I learned they’re not the same. Marzipan is considerably sweeter and has the addition of the strong, alcohol-based flavoring called marisquin. Lakeman imports this very special flavoring from Holland. Artesia Bakery sells both the uncolored marzipan and the colored candy shapes.

Gevulde Speculaas: This dense, ginger-spiced cake has a thick layer of almond paste sandwiched between its two layers. When it’s sliced, the compact cake, topped lavishly with whole roasted almonds, is rather more like a bar cookie than a cake.

Almond-Filled Raisin Bread: Spijsbrood , the Dutch name for this confection, is not a very accurate description. This “spice bread” is simply a delicious (and not spiced) raisin- and currant-filled bread with a cylinder of almond paste at its center. The prescribed way to enjoy spijsbrood is to toast it and spread the almond paste over the surface of the toast. The bakery’s Dutch-style Stollen is virtually the same dough and filling, but formed into the familiar flat, folded stollen loaf.

Speculaas: Recipes for speculaas cookies, with their intricate embossed designs, have been closely guarded secrets handed down through generations. Along the way, speculaas has evolved from a softer-shaped ginger bread into the crisp, spiced cookie it is now. The original cookies were embellished by hand-stamping a design onto the dough. Eventually machines were invented with bronze wheels that could roll, cut and stamp the cookies all at once. The bakery’s cookie-stamping machine, imported from Holland, looks quaint but cranks out up to 400 cookies a minute, depending on the weight of the dough and the size of the cookie.

At Christmas, people snap up the bakery’s large decorative speculaas figurines shaped like a Dutch boy and Dutch girl. Small speculaas Santas come with peanuts mixed into their dough. Medium-sized Dutch boy figurines and assorted small shapes are other speculaas favorites.

Butter Speculaas: For another version of speculaas , made with additional butter, the bakers omit the usual spices. The cookies are more fragile and, of course, have a pronounced butter flavor.

BREADS

Artesia’s white and wheat breads are fine loaves with a sturdy crumb. On weekends the bakery turns out a round French-style loaf and hard-crusted rolls. But it’s the more unusual rogge rye and raisin bread that make the bakery worth a special trip.

Rogge Rye: This marvelous and unusual dense bread is reminiscent of the thinly sliced whole pumpernickel breads of Germany. Lakeman says this version is a specialty of Friesland, the north Netherlands province from which his wife’s family hails.

The bread is made from a mixture of soaked chopped whole rye and rye bread trimmings, baked in wood-lined pans for five hours. I imagine the long, slow cooking is responsible for the bread’s sweet, nutty flavor and deep color. It is a substantial bread that really stays with you, yet has absolutely no oil or other fat.

Raisin Bread: Like those cereals that advertise more raisins per spoonful, Artesia’s raisin bread has more raisins per slice. Some of the fruity brown flecks are actually tinier currants. “They disperse more evenly throughout the dough,” says Lakeman.

CAKES AND PASTRIES

Honey Cake: This loaf-shaped cake, called honingkoek in Dutch, is clearly related to the French pain d’epices . It’s made from rye flour, honey and a traditional spice mixture that the bakery imports in 57-pound bags. The simple formula contains no oil, an attribute that has won many fans.

Honingkoek: It’s often served for breakfast, as we might serve a doughnut with coffee. Well, not quite like a doughnut--it’s more like gingerbread. The slightly chewy texture softens when slices are wrapped in foil and gently warmed in the oven.

Artesia Bakery makes honingkoek in four styles: plain, honey sucade (flecked with candied citron), ginger-honey and double-ginger, studded with an extra portion of candied ginger. Look for these in the cooler.

Appelbollen: Crisp puff pastry surrounds a whole apple for these substantial little “pies.” The apple is stuffed with cinnamon sugar and the pastry washed with egg for a golden finish. Appelbollen are another Dutch seasonal treat (traditional for New Year’s Day) that the bakery sells all year.

Floppen: Squares of flaky pastry with a fruit or cheese filling, the Dutch answer to the Danish pastry. The bakery usually has on hand about half a dozen flavors including lemon, raspberry and a cream cheese-laced custard.

Benny’s Butter Fruit Cake: This cake is closer to a pound cake than to English fruit cakes--the ones that are mostly dried fruit held together with a smidgen of cake batter. Benny’s simple all-butter cake is baked in a kugelhopf pan, strewn with a smattering of candied fruits and dusted with powdered sugar.

Oliebollen: The ancestor of American doughnuts, oliebollen --literally, “oil buns”--look like extra-large doughnut holes. “It’s hard to get the inside perfectly cooked, so that’s probably why someone started cutting out the centers,” Lakeman speculates.

They’re yeast-leavened, with a few bits of candied cherries and raisins in the dough. Watch out, though--sprinkled lightly with granulated sugar, they may look like your average American doughnut, but they’re considerably more substantial. Oliebollen are traditionally served on New Year’s Eve and Day, but are also eaten all year round.

Carees: Somewhat confusingly, these are labeled “almond delights,” just like the kerst-kransen. They’re sophisticated little flaky pastry tarts filled with the bakery’s own almond paste and topped with apricot preserves and sugar glaze.

Cakes: The bakery does make American-type cakes decorated with aqua-blue roses and pink elephants (sometimes). But even these are fashioned from pure butter frosting. Cakes here are layered with homemade custard filling, and whipped cream cakes get a topping of pure dairy whipped cream.

COOKIES

Artesia Bakery makes about 40 varieties of cookies. In this small sampling are a few of my favorites.

Hern Hutters: It’s rare to find a commercially made cookie prepared exclusively with butter. The shelf life would be short because pure butter cookies turn rancid quickly, especially if no preservatives are used. So, butter-lover that I am, I was thrilled to find hern hutters . With their fluted shape, these Northern Dutch-style cookies are simply butter-laden, tart-shaped shortbreads. They are at their peak for a week or two and they freeze beautifully, if sealed in their bag and tightly wrapped in foil. Disregard the ingredient information on the cellophane bag. These cookies contain no vegetable shortening.

Butternut Cookies: This is another pure butter cookie, slightly larger than an unshelled walnut. Butternuts are sturdy cookies that resemble sweet shortbread with finely chopped walnuts throughout. They also freeze well.

Nougat Cookies: These thin, crisp cookies, with little nuggets of deeply caramelized sugar flecked throughout, melt in your mouth.

Kletskoppen: The lacy almond cookies, so thin they’re almost sheer, are made from a simple blend of chopped almonds, shortening, flour and cinnamon. They can bring ordinary ice cream to the level of a fancy restaurant dessert.

Olympiades: Shaped like a plain biscuit, olympiades are very adult cookies, composed of two sweet short cookie layers baked around an almond paste center.

Gevulde-Koek: Artesia Bakery calls this cookie “almond delight,” the same name it has already used for kerst-kransen and carees . It consists of four-inch disks of soft cookie dough with a slight accent of lemon, filled with almond paste. They resemble the small pancakes that the Dutch are said to have brought to America.

Half and Half: Not-too-sweet crisp cookies are dipped halfway in dark Guittard chocolate. These delights are kept in the cooler with the whipped cream cakes.

Krakelingen: Cut from two puff pastry sheets rolled with sugar between them, krakelingen also go by the name “figure-eight cookies” because they are twisted into a pretzel-like shape.

Stengles: Puff pastry is also the base for these long pastry sticks sprinkled with sugar and peanuts.

Vanilla Rosettes: For most of the year, the centers of these flower-shaped spritz cookies are garnished with a dab of fruit pastry filling. At Christmas they sport red or green fondant or a bright candied cherry half.

John Hail: Several children of my acquaintance dubbed these cookies peanut barges because the thin rectangles of crisp cookie look like boards with a cargo of chopped peanuts.