🇳🇱 How to Make Anijsmelk

Craving Anijsmelk? On FoodNeverComes the food never actually comes — so here's how to make real Anijsmelk at home, in about 15 min, with stuff you probably already have.

🛒 Ingredients

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• 500ml whole milk
• 3 star anise, or 2 tbsp anijsblokjes (Dutch aniseed cubes)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• a strip of lemon zest (optional)
• a pinch of salt

👩‍🍳 Method

1. Warm the milk with the star anise over a low heat for 8–10 min. Do not boil it; you are infusing, not cooking.
2. If using the traditional anijsblokjes, just drop one or two cubes into hot milk and stir until dissolved — that is the whole recipe and it is what most Dutch homes actually do.
3. Let the milk sit off the heat for 5 min more so the anise keeps releasing. The flavour deepens noticeably in that time.
4. Strain out the star anise and the zest.
5. Sweeten to taste and add the pinch of salt, which sharpens the aniseed rather than making it salty.
6. Serve hot in a mug. It is a bedtime drink given to Dutch children, and it was traditionally served to visitors after a birth, dyed pink or blue.