These cookies are typical of Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, and they’re known for their intense aroma and flavor packed with spices. That smell tends to take over Christmas markets, since traditionally it was Saint Nicholas who handed them out to the kids over there. Nowadays in Spain you can find them under the name “galletas caramelizadas” by the Lotus brand, but in France and Belgium, at least, you can find them in all sorts of shapes and from a ton of different brands. For example, if you ever get the chance, don’t miss out on trying speculoos spread (pâte à tartiner) or speculoos ice cream.
What do we need?
250 g (2 cups) flour
170 g (3/4 cup) brown sugar
150 g (2/3 cup) butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of spice mix*
How do we make it?
In a bowl, add the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Stir a bit.
In another bowl, the room-temperature butter, the sugar, and the egg. Add all of this to the flour mix and combine well until you get a smooth, even dough. Pop it in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, for at least two hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F).
Once you take it out of the fridge, roll the dough between two plastic sheets so it doesn’t stick, to about half a centimeter (1/5 inch) thick. Cut it out with whatever cookie cutters you like, or if you don’t have any, just make rectangles with a knife.
Bake for about 15 minutes.
- The pre-made spice mix isn’t easy to find, so you can make your own with these proportions: 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, 5 grated cloves, 1 small tablespoon grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoon ground pepper, 1 small tablespoon ground ginger, and 3 grated cardamom seeds.
Tips:
Butter cookies are best baked when the dough is cold. Otherwise, they’ll spread too much in the oven and lose whatever shape you gave them. What you can do is put the rolled-out dough in the fridge, cut it without handling it too much, and straight into the oven.
If you go looking for speculoos cookie recipes, you’ll find tons, and they all vary in some way. In fact, Belgian and French recipes use kinds of sugar we don’t have here (vergeoise and cassonade), and we usually swap them out for brown sugar. My advice is to try out your recipe and tweak it to your taste.
Traditional cookies were made using wooden molds, which is why they have stamped designs on them. I used some cookie stamps I bought in France, but you have to be careful because the dough is a bit sticky.
Comments
La Enana (2012-12-19 11:20:58):
Wow!! So easy to make!!!! :) I love them!!!
Esther (2012-12-29 14:21:45):
The dough is already in the fridge! In a few hours we’ll be tasting your recipe… I can already tell you the dough is super yummy!!!!
Palstelera (2012-12-30 21:09:47):
How did they turn out?
Esther (2012-12-31 17:23:31):
Really good… they didn’t last long, honestly! The oven I put them in runs hot, and at 170 they got a bit scorched, so afterwards I dropped it down to 150. As for the spice mix, total success! HAPPY 2013, Picsandcakes!!!
Palstelera (2013-01-05 00:17:16):
So glad to hear it!