A true fusion of traditional British-Belgian baking. The speculaas spices, originating in the low countries are a hit time and time again. Speculaas is a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, ginger, coriander and cardamom. No wonder everyone loves it – a happy marriage of flavours and aromas.
A local shop was selling packets of the speculaas spice, alongside some cut-out wooden shapes typical of the Flemish-Dutch speculaas biscuits and a free recipe.
I gave it a bash and spent a lot of time dusting the wooden shapes, pressing the dough into the shape, scraping the excess dough of the wood and placing the final wind-mill shaped biscuit onto the baking tray. The recipe called for some baking powder (I used soda and buttermilk instead) which resulted in the wings of the wind-mill disappearing as the leavening agents allowed the dough to rise in the oven – a bit disappointing but the taste was still excellent. The children didn’t complain and demanded I make them again.
Then I lost the recipe – but not the spice, nor the children demanding more. So, here below is a digestive version of the speculaas biscuits, heart shaped rather than wind-mill shaped. Very nice with a warm cup of tea or coffee.
Ingredients
250 gr butter.
250 gr flour. *
100 gr rolled oats.
125 gr dark brown sugar.
2 tsp. speculaas spices.
A pinch of salt.
1 tsp. of baking powder.
A drizzle of buttermilk.
Directions
Mix the flour and butter together until they resemble fine bread crumbs. Add the remaining ingredients and knead into a dough. Roll out and cut into shapes.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees centigrade for 15-20 minutes.
Leave to cool on a wire rack until hard.
* You can use any flour – spelt, wheat, sprouted – whole grain or just ordinary strong or soft white flour. Sprouted flour, if you can get hold of it, works very well.
Sounds great !! Will have DH pick me up some Speculaas spice when in Brussels shortly…. Added to my “cookies to try” list 😉
Great – thet really are so easy to make and utterly scrumy!
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