Ready to make irresistible Speculoos cookies, a.k.a Speculaas? It's a deliciously spiced and buttery cookie that you totally should put on your baking list this Holiday season.
And today, I am sharing my homemade version to get these crunchy and thin warm cookies on your Holiday table as well.
It's a fairly easy recipe. You only have to factor in extra time for the dough to harden and rest to obtain that deep and lovely spiced flavor. So a bit of patience will pay off when it comes to baking Speculoos.
Plus, I share the process of how to make Holiday shaped cookies versus an easy cut-out version.
This recipe gets you about 50 spiced treats. Let's bake!
Speculoos cookies are always part of my annual Holiday baking ritual. As someone who grew up in Belgium, it's tradition around November and December months to enjoy these scrumptious baked goods, gift them or bake your own to present something sweet during Holiday visits.
In my old home town, they are sold every year in local stores and bakeries and can come in all kinds of wonderful shapes, ranging from thin and crispy to thick and soft, with nuts or without. And they smell heavenly.
It's not just a specialty cookie in Belgium; the Netherlands and Germany have their own variants that pop up in every food shop, especially around Christmas.
In the US, you might be less familiar with the name Speculoos or Speculaas but think of the famously branded Biscoff cookies. I bet you're smiling now.
This is a pass-along family recipe one of my aunts shared, and I hope you'll love these deliciously rich and deep-flavored biscuits as much as we do.
The spices in Speculoos cookies
Like most homemade baked Speculoos recipes, everyone has their own unique method and favorite spice mix.
So what is Speculoos or Speculaas spice? In my home, it's a lovely and almost equal blend of
- ground cinnamon
- ground nutmeg
- ground clove
- ground ginger
- ground cardamon
- ground white pepper
Some may include mace spice or coriander seeds, but it's not something I traditionally put into my homemade blend.
On the other hand, anise seeds are another spice I like to mix in from time to time. And I highly recommend it if you already have it in your kitchen cabinet—no need to grind these seeds. They add a subtle sweet aroma but won't overpower the rest of the spices.
Only have whole spices at home? Grind them yourself using either a coffee grinder or a food processor and a fine sieve. It will even result in a more intense flavor.
Mix those spices with dark brown sugar and butter, and you get a beautiful brown cookie with rich caramelized and sweet spiced flavors—a gourmet-like treat perfect for dipping in your favorite warm drink!
How to make homemade speculoos
Flour
The recipe calls for whole Spelt flour. I prefer it over regular flour because it has slightly more protein, a naturally sweet flavor, and although not gluten-free, it is more easily digested than all-purpose flour. It also contains a broad array of nutrients.
It's so easy now to buy this whole grain either in the organic section of your local store or online. I always store it in the refrigerator to prolong freshness.
When mixed in with the spices, this type of flour creates a more complex flavor and adds a lovely texture.
Sugar
An essential ingredient is a dark brown sugar with molasses flavor—I use dark organic sugar from Wholesome.
Traditionally, I made the cookies with brown Vergeoise, a baking sugar that comes from beet sugar with a particular caramel-like taste. But it is hard sometimes to get it here in the US.
Over the years, I have relied on moist organic dark brown sugar rich in natural molasses to get that "authentic" speculoos taste, and it works just as well.
Note: Ensure that the flour, spices, and brown sugar are well combined before adding any liquids.
Butter
Go for a real organic unsalted butter either at room temperature or melted. I even think that melting the butter lightly over low heat on the stove is better, making it easier to knead or mix it into the dough.
Don't skimp on this ingredient. A good-quality butter doesn't have to be expensive but tastes amazing, and those buttery flavors will come through once these speculoos cookies are baked.
The dough
Mixing the dough
You can use a stand mixer to do the work for you, but I prefer to knead all the ingredients into a rough ball by hand—it's quick, easy, and I love how you can feel the dough forming.
At first, you'll get a crumbly mixture—don't despair. As you keep mixing or kneading, it all quickly sticks together.
Don't overdo the kneading part. Work your dough just enough until it forms a rough ball. Otherwise, it will get too soft and crumbly.
Resting the dough
The dough should be wrapped in parchment paper and then refrigerated for at least 2 hours or preferably overnight. There are two reasons for that:
- The ball of dough is initially too soft to handle to create any sturdy cookie shapes;
- Plus, resting the dough for a certain time will create a deeper and richer spiced flavor that this cookie is so famous for.
Note: the original family recipe calls for the dough to be covered and stored overnight in a cool and dry place. But then again, our winters were cold in Belgium. If you don't have a cool place to rest the dough, store it in the fridge. Just know that the dough will be very hard when you take it out. So, if you plan to roll it out to create special shapes using cookie cutters, let the dough sit on the counter first for about 15 to 30 minutes. It will then be easy to roll out without it cracking.
Make them with cookie cutters
Now, let’s talk about the shape of the deliciously spiced cookies.
If you want to cut some beautiful or "in the spirit of Holiday" cookie shapes, then here is what you need to do:
- After the resting period, remove the dough from the fridge about 15 to 30 minutes before rolling.
- I like to cut the dough into three equal pieces for easy handling.
- Flatten the first piece with the palm of your hand until somewhat softened, and you feel you can start rolling it out.
- Then roll it out on a lightly floured work surface (I use a cutting board) into an about one-fourth inch thick sheet.
- Then use your cookie cutters, engraved rolling pins, or cookie stamps to cut and make the shapes you want.
- Gather the remaining scraps of dough, knead it again into a ball, roll it out again to create new shapes.
- Now let the baking begin.
- While the first batch is in the oven, you do it all over again with the second and eventually third batch of dough: rolling, shaping, baking.
Note: traditionally, Speculoos cookies were shaped using wooden cookie molds that leave an imprint on the surface of the biscuits. Famous shapes include Dutch windmills or the figure of Saint Nicholas, animals, or just everyday life scenes.
Make them uniform in shape for speed
For speed, don’t make special shapes. It shaves off about twenty to thirty minutes of the overall baking time or even more because:
- There is no need to wait for the dough to soften once taken out of the fridge
- There is no rolling and cutting it into individual shapes.
Here is what to do, to get the same uniform appearance as in the pictures below:
- Before the dough goes into the fridge to rest overnight, roll it into a 15-inch long cylinder-like shape (see picture below.)
- Store in the fridge covered to rest overnight. Here I recommend the overnight process versus only two hours to allow the dough to harden sufficiently.
- After the resting period, and when ready to bake the cookies, remove the dough, place it on a cutting board and cut into one-fourth inch thick slices with a bread knife.
- Let the baking begin. You might have to bake them in batches, even if you use a large baking sheet.
These buttery and spiced speculoos cookies pair lovely with a cup of coffee or tea, and they are nice to gift. Although we used to make them fairly thick, they have become thinner over the years—just a small crunchy indulgence full of warm flavors.
Storage
If stored sufficiently covered in a dry dark place they should last you a few weeks.
Usually I keep them in a large covered tin box, lined with parchment paper and leave it on the kitchen counter so anyone who passes through my kitchen can quickly grab one during Christmas and New Year. Enjoy!
You might also like
Looking for a spiced yet simpler cookie recipe that is also flourless and thus gluten-free? Try my super easy and healthy spiced cookies. They come together in no time and are also dairy-and refined sugar-free.
You might also like my warm spiced buttery Holiday cookies. They are soft with a light crumble and deliciously spiced—always a big hit amongst kids and adults alike.
Not a cookie, but another lovely treat is the pumpkin pie spiced energy balls. They are irresistible, and their caramel-like flavors also go well with either Speculoos or chai spices.
Speculoos Cookies
This traditional homemade and simple Belgian/Dutch Speculoos (Speculaas) cookie butter recipe will produce delicious spiced cookies that will brighten your Holiday table!
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground clove
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamon
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon anise seeds (optional)
- 4 ½ cups or 500 grams Spelt flour, plus more to flour the work surface
- 1 ¾ cups or 300 grams dark brown sugar
- 8 ounces or 227 grams (16 tbsp) butter (I use pure Irish unsalted butter from Kerrygold to make these cookies), melted or at room temperature
- ⅓ cup or 75 ml preferably organic milk
- 1 egg
Instructions
Make the dough
- Combine first the dry ingredients: spices, flour, and sugar.
- Make a dent in the middle with your fist and add butter, milk, and the egg.
- Combine with your hands, or use a stand mixer until the dough comes together.
- Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and gently knead together into a rough ball.
From here, you choose whether you want cookies with special cut-out shapes (method 1) or just a simple uniform look (method 2.) The first method will take longer to roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to form your shapes.
Method 1: make cookies with special shapes.
- Continue from step 4 of making the dough.
- Pat the dough further into a more oval-shaped ball.
- Wrap with parchment paper and refrigerate for 2 hours—you can still choose to let it rest overnight for a deeper flavor but not necessary.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F/180 °C with the rack adjusted to the middle position.
- Remove the dough out of the fridge about 15 to 30 minutes before rolling.
- Cut the dough into three equal pieces for easy handling.
- Flatten the first piece with the palm of your hand until somewhat softened.
- Then roll it out on a lightly floured work surface (I use a cutting board) into an about ¼-inch thick sheet.
- Use your preferred cookie cutters to cut out the shapes you want and immediately transfer them to a large parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Gather the remaining scraps of dough, knead it again into a ball, roll it out again to create new shapes.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Take out and let slightly cool before transferring them carefully to a cutting board or large clean kitchen towel to further cool (they will get harder). This will free up your baking sheet to bake the next batch.
- While you bake the first batch of cookies, repeat the whole process of flattening, rolling, and shaping the second batch of dough, and then ultimately, when the second batch is in the oven, you will do the same with the third batch of dough.
Method 2: Make uniform-looking cookies without special shapes—no rolling out the dough, but dough requires hardening overnight.
- Continue from step 4 of making the dough.
- Place the batter onto a lightly floured work surface and start rolling into a 15-inch long cylinder shape (see picture above.)
- Cover and wrap with parchment paper.
- Place it in the refrigerator overnight to sufficiently harden and for a deeper flavor.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F/180 °C with the rack adjusted to the middle position.
- Take the cookie batter out of the fridge—the texture should be solid—and place it on a cutting board.
- Immediately cut into thin slices (about ¼-inch thick) with a bread knife.
- Place the cookie slices on a large parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
- You might have to bake the cookies in multiple batches.
- Take out and let cool for at least 10 minutes (they will get harder).
- Store in a tin box or air-tight container.
Notes
When stored in a tin box or air-tight container at room temperature, they will last for at least 2 weeks and keep their delicious flavors.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 50 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 69Cholesterol: 4mgSodium: 5mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 1gSugar: 7gProtein: 2g
Disclaimer: This nutritional data is calculated using third party tools and is only intended as a reference.
This post was originally published in December 2016 and has since been updated with new pictures and new information.
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