Christmas Speculaas biscuits

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The smell of speculaas spice always reminds me of Christmas. I love speculaas and will happily bake cakes etc flavoured with speculaas spice all year round. (See Speculaas Muffins, or Dutch Spiced Tiffin!) But the speculaas biscuits themselves I reserve for Christmas. There are many, many speculaas recipes available; this is one of my favourites. Speculaas spice is available commercially in Holland – and maybe elsewhere – but if you can’t find it, it is easily made at home (I have included the recipe in the Speculaas Muffins post).

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Ingredients (original recipe here, makes about 2 dozen – depending on cookie cutter size!)
1/2 cup soft butter (unsalted)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup caster sugar
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 and 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 and 1/4 tbsp speculaas spice
1/2 tsp salt

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Mix together the butter, vanilla and sugar (both types) until well combined. Add the egg and mix well.

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Mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, speculaas spice and salt. Then slowly add to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, mixing together to form a dough.

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Split the dough in half, wrap in plastic and leave in the fridge overnight. This allows the spices to really infiltrate the dough! When ready to cook, preheat oven to 175 C and roll out dough to 1/8 of an inch thickness. This is a really sticky dough and I normally roll it with a piece of plastic wrapping film over the top. This way, the dough doesn’t stick to the rolling pin and you can just peel the wrapping film off and cut out the shapes!

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Cut cookies out and place on a baking tray. Bake for about 10 minutes, until golden.

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Visit Simply Sweet Home for more festive recipes!

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Katie @ Frugal Femina
Twitter: FrugalFemina

December 17, 2009 at 17:04

These pictures are absolutely beautiful. Your site looks so classy. Thanks for commenting on my blog so I could find it.

BABYLONEZOO

December 17, 2009 at 19:20

Jolie hummmm
BABYLONEZOO´s last blog ..Calendrier de l’Avent J-8

Natasha

December 18, 2009 at 00:07

Wow, these look amazing! I have never had speculaas before but I think I should.

Many thanks for visiting my blog too-it is so nice to “meet” you!

Best Christmas wishes, Natasha.
Natasha´s last blog ..A non cookie recipe for a cookie exchange!

Helene

December 18, 2009 at 04:30

Yum, those look SO good!!! I’ve never heard of speculaas before!! Is it only at specialty stores?

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog…hope you’ll be back again soon!
Helene´s last blog ..Would you want THIS guy cooking your dinner?

Jen

December 18, 2009 at 15:46

I love your packaging on these! So festive. I’m glad you enjoyed my Swedish Cremes recipe, I’m officially a follower on your blog—and I’d love it if you did the same on mine! Happy Holidays!

Ms. Bibi

December 18, 2009 at 20:19

Speculaas are my mom’s favorite cookies. I never made them before. We always buy them. Where would I find speculaas spice? It would be nice to surprise her with a tin of fresh homemade Speculaas cookies.
Ms. Bibi´s last blog ..Helpful Tips To Enjoy Holidays Without Weight Gain