My daughter is obsessed with the spiced shortbread cookie known as speculoos. She specifically likes the packages of two my husband gets when he is on an airplane. I always slip them in her lunchbox for school and she tells me she eats them first!
There are so many ways to make speculoos and I've adapted several recipes to come up with one we love. They contain a heavy dose of spice and are just the right amount of sweet. I roll out the dough and cut them with round cookie cutters; but you could use any shape cookie cutter you prefer. If you have an oblong cutter, use it. Then they will look like they came straight from the package.
The combination of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves makes them especially perfect for the holidays. Dip them in chocolate and serve them at parties. Or, package them up in tins to give as gifts.
When it isn't the holidays we skip all the fancy packaging and eat them with a tall glass of milk on the side for dipping. In the summer we make them into ice cream sandwiches by rolling them in sprinkles to look like the store-bought variety. Kids love them!
The one trick to note about baking these is that the dough is crumbly and soft. The guidelines below contain specific directions for chilling the dough before cutting it for a reason. If you don't chill it long enough it will end up crumbling in your hands and not coming together.
If you get as addicted to these as we are, make it easy on yourself and double the recipe. You can very easily freeze these cookies and defrost when you need them!
Lastly, if you are really motivated, these cookies can be used to make homemade speculoos butter that is delicious spread on crackers or used as a dip. But that is a recipe I'll have to write about next month!
Speculoos Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature (8 tablespoons)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
Directions
- In a small bowl mix the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Then, beat in the eggs until as smooth as possible. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the flour mixture until the flour is no longer visible. Scrape down the sides as needed to make sure all of the flour is incorporated.
- Divide the dough into 2 pieces and wrap each piece in plastic. Refrigerate both pieces for 6 hours, or up to 1 day.
When Ready to Make the Cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Remove one piece of dough and allow it to sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Then roll it out on a liberally floured surface until it is 1/4" inch thick.
- Use a cutter to cut out the cookies and place them the lined baking sheet.
- Bake them for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly golden.
- Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
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