A tompoes or tompouce is a

pastry Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ma ...

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. It is the local variety of the

mille-feuille A (, "thousand-sheets"),The name is also written as and . also known by the names Napoleon, vanilla slice, and custard slice, is a dessert made of puff pastry layered with pastry cream. Its modern form was influenced by improvements made by M ...

or Napoleon, introduced by an Amsterdam pastry baker and named after Admiraal Tom Pouce, the stage name of the Frisian

dwarf Dwarf or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a being from Germanic mythology and folklore * Dwarf, a person or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid ...

Jan Hannema.

Customs

In the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, the tompoes is iconic, and the market allows little variation in form, size and colour. It must be rectangular, with two layers of

puff pastry Puff pastry, also known as ', is a flaky light pastry made from a laminated dough composed of dough (') and butter or other solid fat ('). The butter is put inside the dough (or vice versa), making a ' that is repeatedly folded and rolled out befo ...

. The icing is smooth and pink, or occasionally white. For many years however, the top layer has been orange on

Koningsdag ''Koningsdag'' () or King's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 27 April (26 April if the 27th is a Sunday), the date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander. When the Dutch monarch is female, the holi ...

(King's Day), and a few days before. It may also be orange-coloured when the national football team plays in large international tournaments; this dates from about 1990. The filling is invariably sweet, yellow

pastry cream Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from ...

. Tompouces are sometimes topped with

whipped cream Whipped cream is liquid heavy cream that is whipped by a whisk or mixer until it is light and fluffy and holds its shape, or by the expansion of dissolved gas, forming a firm colloid. It is often sweetened, typically with white sugar, and ...

. Variations with different fillings or with jelly are comparatively rare and are not called tompoes. Several variations exist in Belgium. White glazing on top is the norm in Belgium, sometimes with a chocolate pattern similar to

. The ''boekske'' (''lit.'' 'booklet') may have a sugar finish and may be square. Belgians also use the spelling ''tompouce'' or call them ''glacé'' (referring to the glazing).

Eating the tompouce

The cakes are usually served with tea or coffee, and in formal settings are eaten with

pastry fork A pastry fork, pie fork or cake fork is a fork designed for eating pastries and other desserts from a plate. The fork has three or four tines. The three-tine fork has a larger, flattened and beveled tine on the side while the four-tine fork has t ...

s. But the hard biscuit-like layers, which squash the pastry cream when trying to cut a piece off, make this difficult and messy, inspiring the humorous article "Hoe eet je een tompoes?" ('How do you eat a tompouce?'). An easier, if slightly less dignified way of eating a tompouce is to take the frosted top layer off the pastry and hold it in one hand, with the bottom half in the other and then take sequential bites, one from the top and then one from the bottom. Even then, the pastry cream tends to ooze out onto the hand. The tompouce can also be eaten by flipping it on its side, and then slicing it in the other direction into bite-size pieces.

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{{pastries Dutch pastries

Customs

Eating the tompouce

See also

References

External links