Maastricht, Gulpen

When you say Limburg, you say vlaai! Or vloaj, vla or flaai, but that depends on where from Limburg you come from. Yet the origin of the primal flaai is not in Limburg. It was the Germanic people of southern Germany who invented the flan, by baking leftover bread dough with old fruit or honey on a stone heated by fire. Later, in the Middle Ages, the flans were baked in German monasteries and used as sacrificial breads. The delicacy soon came to Limburg, which not only has many monasteries but also many farms and orchards. A new tradition was born.

Initially, the flans were mainly served on public holidays. After church, a procession and a sumptuous meal, coffee was drunk with flan. But flan was also eaten on birthdays, weddings and funerals. On the coffee table at a Limburg funeral, you still often find the black plum flan, which is associated with mourning and farewell. Meanwhile, Limburg flan is an officially recognised regional product. To be a true Limburg flan, the flan must meet a number of characteristics. For instance, the flan has a flat bottom of yeast dough, about one centimetre thick and a diameter of at least ten and no more than thirty centimetres with a low raised rim. The filling of gooseberries, apricots, cherries, plums, apples, rice pudding, pudding, compote or even cheese is always baked in. Sometimes with a lid or lattice of dough, or with dough crumbs on top. Respectively called a dense flan, a ruuts or ladder flan and a crumb flan. But the flan can also be open.

In Limburg style, you eat the flan by hand, so the bottom must be firm. Limburgers are hospitable and never frugal so the pieces are always generous. The ideal division ratio of a large flan is eight pieces, the absolute maximum is ten pieces. By the way, according to tradition, call it ‘pieces’ and not ‘points’. The p-word should be avoided altogether in Limburg. A vlaai is not a pie! Another Limburg custom, which you can probably get used to, is tasting as many varieties as possible. It is quite common to have three or four pieces on a birthday.

This cycle route through the beautiful and colourful Limburg Hill Country, will take you past locations where you can taste flans, follow the baking process, attend a flan-baking workshop and past suppliers of regional ingredients. Take a look at a Limburg corn mill or pick fruit in one of the municipal fruit orchards to bake one of those delicious flans yourself at home. Would you like to combine the route with a workshop or tour at one of the interesting locations? Then it is advisable to plan and book this well in advance. Have fun cycling and don't forget to enjoy one of the delicious pieces of vlaoj on one of the local terraces!


This Premium cycling route was compiled by our editor: Désirée van Uffelen.