Speculoos Biscuits
I’ve always loved these biscuits be it when they are called speculoos, speculaas or spekulatius. They are dark, highly spiced biscuits with a caramalised sugar taste. Traditionally they are baked in some parts of the continent for St Nicholas Eve (5th December). St Nicholas Eve is the night where, as a child, you leave your shoes by the fireplace. If you’ve been good all year you’ll wake in the morning to find a shoefull sweet treats. If you’ve been less than angelic you’ll find some sticks.
They are not traditionally iced, but after seeing these gingerbread biscuits on Pinterest I wanted to give these Speculoos the same snowflake treatment plus I’m not passing any opportunity to practice piping with royal icing. I suppose you could say it’s my newest obsession. As I work with royal icing in small quantities I find it easier to use royal icing sugar rather than making my own from scratch with icing sugar.
Speculoos Biscuits
Ingredients
- 100 g plain flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground mace
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 50 g soft dark brown sugar
- 75 g butter
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions
- Mix together the flour, spices, salt and baking powder.
- Stir in the sugar then rub in the butter until it has the consistency of breadbrumbs. Add the milk a small amount at a time until the dough comes together. Add more milk if needed. Chill the dough for 30 min.
- Roll out the dough until around 5mm thick. Cut out shapes and place on a lined baking tray. Chill again for 30 min.
- Bake at 180°c for 15 min until biscuits are beginning to brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Jules
so pretty! You have a beautiful delicate touch there, maybe in my next life I too will be sble to ice biscuits that look as if they belomg in the Snow Queen’s palace :)
I had never heard of these before - you learn something new every day :) enjoy your baking with Holly it will be great I am sure. You still have better piping than me!
As much as I adore your biscuits, it is the beautiful specks of snow that I am admiring. Totally wonderful,, how clever you are!! xx
So, so sweet!
These are such festive little treats! I do love a spicy biccie dunked into a warm cuppa this time of year..
Oh, these sound so much nicer than the packet ones - sadly the only ones I’ve tried so far. And they are so prettily iced too.
Love your blogs & recipes! Can I leave the mace out or use something else instead?
Instead of mace you could use nutmeg, mixed spice or leave it out.
Thanks Jules! I will try mixed spice am going to make these tomorrow & hang a few on my Xmas tree!
These look fantastic. Think I will use nutmeg or mixed spice instead of mace too! Thank you for the recipe.. x
Just made a double batch of these. One was supposed to be for home and the other for the office… the office will just have to make do with something else! I must have eaten half the first batch within 5 minutes!
Glad you enjoyed making & eating them!