Speculaas - Dutch cookies

PanNan's Note:

These are very popular spice cookies in Holland, especially for Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Day, December 5). The sweet spice flavor is wonderful. The prep time includes refrigerating the dough overnight.

• Total Time: 8 hrs 12 mins
• Prep Time: 8 hrs
• Cook Time: 12 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 48 cookies

• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ¼ cups butter
• 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ cup slivered almond
• ¾ teaspoon ginger
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 cups sifted flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves
• ¾ teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

1. Combine sugar and milk in a bowl.
2. Stir until smooth.
3. In another bowl, sift the dry ingredients and blend in the butter until the mixture is like cornmeal.
4. Add the sugar and milk mixture and the almonds.
5. Mix well.
6. Wrap in foil, or wax paper and refrigerate overnight.
7. Roll out the dough pretty thin.
8. Use Christmas cookie cutters (or a windmill or other shaped cookie cutter if it isn't Christmas).
9. Dust the cutter well with flour to be sure it doesn't stick.
10. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 10- 12 minutes.
11. Remove and cool.

Reviews

[Taylor in Belgium]

This recipe was great for me, not having to figure out the grams etc! Very simple to make compared to some of the Belgian recipes I have run across..passed it on to a few other interested parties!

[Kitchen Witch Steph]

The dough for these cookies went together quickly. I couldn't help but eat some as I was scraping it from the spatula, very buttery. I didn't have any problem working with it after it had chilled. I used some larger flower cutters and they turned out quite pretty. I think I could have rolled out my dough thinner. I guess pretty thin is pretty thin. I had to cook mine longer. They aren't the best spice cookie I have had but they were still very good. I don't know that the almonds added much for me and I am big into nuts. The kids did enjoy them. Made for my Babes for ZWT4.

[~Nimz~]

These are very nice cookies. The dough, for me, was extremely hard to work with, but I've had trouble with this type of recipe before, so not the recipe fault. All in all the flavor was very appealing. Thanks