Home > Recipes > Speculaas cookies

Speculaas cookies
( MAKES 40 )

Canvas

Photo by Annabel Langbein Media

No ratings yet

Super crispy and richly spiced, these traditional Dutch biscuits were originally made to celebrate Saint Nicholas' Day on December 5. When you buy these biscuits they are often moulded in the shape of windmills or other decorative stamps. I just roll them out thinly and use a cutter to make shapes. To ensure that they cook evenly, make them a similar size and thickness.

Ingredients

225 g	Butter
¾ cup	Soft brown sugar
2 Tbsp	Milk
1 cup	Plain flour
1 cup	Self raising flour
2 tsp	Ground cinnamon
1 tsp	Ground nutmeg
½ tsp	Ground cloves
¼ tsp	Ground ginger
1 pinch	Salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 170C fanbake and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in milk, then sift in dry ingredients and mix to form a crumbly dough. Form into a ball, flatten, wrap in baking paper and chill for 1 hour. Place dough on a floured bench, lay a sheet of baking paper on top and roll out thinly. Cut into desired shapes.
Transfer on to baking trays and bake until lightly golden (15-20 minutes). If your oven cooks unevenly you may need to turn the trays around halfway through the cooking time to ensure even cooking.
Allow biscuits to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Once fully cooled, store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

More traditional festive baking from Annabel

Panforte
Christmas snowballs

For more great Annabel Langbein recipes see her new winter annual Annabel Langbein A Free Range Life: Share the Love (Annabel Langbein Media, $24.95) or visit annabel-langbein.com