Tompouce

Thin, light-brown pastry holds a thick layer of pale yellow cream, and the top is decorated with pink icing. The tompouce of the Netherlands and Belgium is a pastry in which a single thick layer of cream is sandwiched between two sheets of pastry. It differs in the number of layers and in volume from the French mille-feuille, which stacks three sheets of pastry and two layers of cream. The icing that colours the long, narrow rectangle changes to orange on King’s Day in the Netherlands. It is spelled both tompouce and tompoes.

A Tiny Folk-Tale Figure and Two Performers

The name traces back through the French Tom Pouce to Tom Thumb, a figure from English folk tales. In French, small carriages, umbrellas and other items were also called Tom Pouce, and Onze Taal’s etymology note suggests the name may have been given to the pastry by likening it to a small tart.

There are also stories connecting it to a person’s name. The American performer Charles Sherwood Stratton toured Europe as “General Tom Thumb”. Following his popularity, Jan Hannema (1839–1878), from Friesland, performed as “Admiral Tom Pouce”. By the mid-19th century, stage names borrowing the tiny folk-tale figure were known to the public.

The story that an Amsterdam confectioner named it after being inspired by Stratton’s 1858 performance is also told by the retailer HEMA. However, the local history magazine “Ons Amsterdam” points out that “Tom-Pouce-gebakjes” already appears in an 1854 account from Rotterdam. Even so, it is not known whether that pastry had today’s form of cream sandwiched between two sheets of pastry. The word, used for the folk-tale figure, for stage names and for likening small things, was applied to pastries before the 1858 naming story.

A guide from the Dutch intangible cultural heritage organisation describes the custom of dressing in orange on King’s Day and eating tompouces of the same colour. The colour of the pastry matches the colour of the streets celebrating the day.

Baking Two Flat Sheets of Pastry

Pastry made by folding butter into dough opens up into layers when baked. But to serve as boards for holding the cream, the sheets also need flat surfaces. In the recipe (ingredient proportions and method) for a large-format version by pastry book author Rutger van den Broek, the pastry is pricked with a fork, and a metal rack is placed on it partway through baking to restrain the rise. In the method from Belgium’s Cook & Bake, a baking tray is placed close above the pastry during baking. Both methods keep the crispness of the layers while making the top and bottom surfaces even.

A Filling Made with Custard and Cream

The filling is a custard-type cream made by heating milk, sugar, eggs, starch and other ingredients. Pastry chef Robèrt van Beckhoven makes “Swiss cream” by mixing gelatine and whipped cream into custard, then pipes it alternately with separate fresh cream. Because whipped cream is mixed into custard that has been cooked until thickened, the filling differs in lightness from one made of yellow custard alone.

Cutting the Top Pastry Before Assembling

The pastry and cream are assembled after being thoroughly cooled. Pressing hard from above would push the filling out to the sides. In the method of food culture researcher Christianne Muusers, the iced top pastry is first cut into rectangles and laid in place. Cutting the cream and the bottom pastry along those divisions makes the thick layer less likely to be crushed.

Differences in Icing Made with Jam or Raspberries

The icing also varies. Van Beckhoven spreads apricot jam on the pastry and layers on fondant tinted pale pink with raspberries. Rutger’s large-format version combines raspberry purée directly with icing sugar. In the method from Belgium’s Cook & Bake, the icing is made with icing sugar, lemon juice and water, and colouring is not essential. Jam may be spread first with fondant layered on top, or fruit juice or water may be added to icing sugar; the ingredients and methods for the icing vary.

An Old Recipe with Orange Blossom Water, the Colour of a Holiday and Ways of Eating It

Muusers has recreated a tompouce flavoured with orange blossom water from the 1889 edition of the confectionery book “De banketbakkerij” in her own collection. Besides the vanilla commonly seen today, an older flavour with a floral fragrance has also been passed down.

HEMA, which states that it has sold tompouces since 1932, layers cream and icing on a large sheet of pastry and then cuts it into many rectangles. A pastry that can be bought one at a time, even in passing while shopping, appears both at everyday coffee times and at celebrations. On King’s Day, an orange top in the colour that symbolises the nation turns the usual tompouce into a holiday treat.

Whether to remove the top or tip it on its side when eating becomes a topic of discussion because of the difficulty of eating, in a single bite, crumbly pastry together with thick cream that shifts when pressed. Both the confectioners who assemble it and the people who eat it find ways to reconcile these two properties.

Glossary