Tag Archives: Dutch spice biscuits

Spekulaas – Dutch Spice Biscuits

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The fifth of December is Saint Nicholas Day which is the day that Dutch people traditionally celebrate their Christmas, so in honour of it I decided to bake some Dutch spice biscuits, or Spekulaas as they are called in the Netherlands. I have a few different wooden biscuit moulds, but decided just to use the Saint Nicholas one and his helper Zwarte Piet (Black Piet). Then that was all taking far too long so I gave up and just used cookie cutters after doing a few. I did find it very easy to get the dough out of the moulds though, the trick is to use a pastry brush to dust down the inside of the mould and tap off the excess, then there’s no problem with the dough getting stuck in there. Yes some of mine have been left in a wee bit too long, but I really like slightly burnty around the edges biscuits – honest!

Spekulaas Biscuits

Ingredients:

6 oz plain flour
3 oz butter
1/2 a teaspoon of cinammon
1/2 a teaspoon of ground cloves
a pinch of nutmeg
3 oz dark brown sugar
1 small beaten egg or milk

Rub the flour, spices and butter together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and mix together, then make a well and add in the beaten egg. Mix together into a dough and knead into a ball. Flour your worktop/pastryboard and roll out the dough to about a quarter of an inch if using cookie cutters. Bake in the oven at 180 Celsius for 12 to 15 minutes. Gas mark 4. 360 Fahrenheit. Keep an eye on them as they may bake faster than that.

You can play around with the spices, maybe adding ginger too or adding more of the spices than the recipe calls for, depending on your own taste. These spices always shout Christmas to me.

Dutch Spice Biscuits

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6 oz plain flour
3 oz dark brown sugar
3 oz margarine
1 tbsp. chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 tsp. cinammon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
a pinch of nutmeg
a pinch of baking powder
a spoonful of milk or 2

The easiest way to mix these ingredients is to put everything into a food processor and whizz it until the mixture is of a doughy consistency. You might have to add a bit more milk. It only takes seconds in my machine.

Roll out the dough and cut out with a cookie cutter. Place on a greased baking tray.

Put the baking tray in the middle section of the oven gas mark 5 / 375 F / 190 C for about 15 minutes. Check the biscuits after about 10 minutes as all ovens vary. You should be able to make about 16 biscuits.

If you don’t have a food processor – rub the flour and margarine together then stir in all the dry ingredients and mix well. Add two tablespoons of milk and mix to a doughy consistency.

I’ve shown two different biscuits here. With one you can see that I have used a biscuit cutter. The other one was simply rolled into a ball shape in my hand and then flattened out before being placed on the baking tray.

I think I actually prefer the look of the hand rolled biscuit and it’s easier and quicker to do that kind, no messing about with a rolling pin.

This is a recipe which I was given by my Dutch sister-in-law years ago, apparently they are traditional biscuits in Holland.