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Authentic Speculaas Recipe Netherlands, Europe

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Introduction & history

Fragrant, spicy, and delicate, speculaas cookies are a specialty most commonly associated with winter, most notably St. Nicholas Day and Christmas. These shortcrust biscuits come from the Netherlands but are also popular in Belgium, Germany, and France. Some see them as a relative of gingerbread, although the speculaas cookies are lighter and use a broader array of spices. The preparation of speculaas is quite simple; however, it does call for time and patience. In the first step, the dry ingredients — flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and spices (which include cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, white pepper, ginger, cardamom, and anise), are mixed with butter, egg, and water or milk to get a firm dough. The dough is then left to rest in a refrigerator overnight, after which it is rolled to be approximately 3 mm (1/8-inch) thick. Individual cookies are then formed with the help of a wooden tool which is halfway between a mold and an intricately carved stamp. Traditional speculaas molds ... Read more