When I said I was going to Brugge everyone suggested I try chocolate shops and their fries, but bizarrely nobody mentioned Dandoy. The vitrine caught my attention as well as the presence of two shops only a few meters from each other. Dandoy opened in 1829 selling only cookies and Speculoos biscuits; no chocolates are sold in the shop.
At Dandoy your senses will twinkle and dance. With oven-fresh biscuits rich in flavor, sweet in scent and capricious in figure. All those guilty pleasures are handmade with 100% natural ingredients by the decedents of the Dandoy founder, their great-great-great grandfather, who created the business 180 years ago.
For a closer look and understanding of the biscuits I bought the items they are famous for. Pain a la Grecque, bread that's named after the Greeks but has nothing Greek about it, the Speculoos Sujets, biscuits molded in a human shape, and the Massepain which is what made me enter the shop, those heart shaped, Marzipan-like biscuits.
Let's taste:
- Pain a la Grecque: Crunchy and tender biscuits with pearl sugar. Wheat flour, butter, sugar, milk, yeast, salt, spices. A piece of bread that looks and feels light, filled with air bubbles, wrapped with pearl sugar and ready to be enjoyed with a coffee or tea. A special taste of balanced flavors, where the milk and spice combination makes this cake a unique madness.
- Speculoos: Crunchy biscuits with brown sugar and spices. Wheat flour, butter, brown sugar, sodium bicarbonate, spices. You surely know Lotus biscuits, those famous Speculoos bites but no, Dundoy's are not even close. Those fabulous biscuits are so rich, so crunchy, so fresh, with a nice butter feel and interesting sweetness. Spices are felt in every millimeter, adding finesse and enjoyment. Now I understand why they're famous.
- Massepain: Succulent sugar and almond marzipan. Sugar, almonds, sodium bicarbonate, sorbitol, water. A marzipan cookie, shaped like a heart with consistent texture, crushed almonds mixed with sugar. You have to be a marzipan fan to appreciate it, even though I'm not, I liked this special cookie. Not an everyday treat, but something you have to try if visiting Brussels.
Now you know about Dandoy and what to expect. Put it on the list of places to visit on your next trip to Brussels.
- Rue au Beurre 31, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
- +32 2 540 27 02
