Speculaas and almonds are so delicious together. Making these speculaasjes will put you on a taste trip to the Netherlands. The Dutch eat a lot of speculaasjes and will often ask their guests when having a cup of coffee or tea; ‘Speculaasje erbij?’, which means; ‘Would you like a speculaas cookie with that?’ Before making these cookies, it is a good idea to check out my [Tips for Making Cookies] article. This will help you make the perfect cookies and could fix some problems you might have encountered, during your cookie-baking adventures!
If you have any dietary restrictions, always check the labels on the products you are using to make this recipe with. They will tell you if, for instance, your ingredient might contain traces of nuts, your products are made with dairy or if there is a chance the ingredients have come into contact with gluten-containing food or equipment.
Would you like to know more about what to look for when you are buying your products while you have dietary restrictions or preferences? Are you preparing food for someone who does? Check out my articles on [Food and Health] and learn more!
Do you like the Speculaasjes recipe? Please share it or leave a comment and follow Truthful Food on social media so that you won’t miss out on anything new and delicious!
Ingredients
Cookies
- 250 g All-Purpose Wheat Flour
- 8 Baking Powder
- 125 g Muscovado Sugar
- 125 g Unsalted Butter - [See good to know section]
- 15 g Speculaas Spices - [Check out my recipe!]
- 40 g Cow’s Butter Milk - [See good to know section]
- dash Ground Salt
Topping
- 1 Chicken Egg [Size L] - [See good to know section]
- 100 g Sliced Almonds - [See good to know section]
Other things you need
- Food Scale
- Mixer
- Bowl
- Parchment Paper
- Cookie Sheet - Ideally more than one.
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie Cutter - Ideally rectangular.
- Whisk
- Pastry Brush
- Oven
- Oven Mitts
- Cooling Rack - This is optional.
Instructions
Cookies
- Mix all the dry ingredients.
- Add the butter and the milk and keep mixing until it is a homogeneous mixture.
- Shape the dough into a ball.
- Wrap the dough in cling wrap and let it sit in your refrigerator for at least 3 hours but ideally overnight. The speculaasjes will taste even better when you give the speculaas spices time to be absorbed by the dough.
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius or 320 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Dust your working surface with a little bit of flour so your dough won’t stick to it.
- Use your rolling pin to flatten the dough till it is about 3-5 mm thick.
- Cover the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Use a rectangular cookie cutter to cut out the speculaasjes.
- Put the cut out cookies on your cookie sheet.
- Shape the left-over dough into a ball again and repeat the previous steps till you have used all your dough.
Topping
- Put the egg in a bowl and mix it using a whisk.
- Put a thin layer of the egg on top of your Speculaasjes using a pastry brush.
- Put the sliced almonds in the bowl with the egg and gently mix the two, till all sides of the almonds are covered with egg.
- Put a scoop of the almond and egg mixture on top of each cookie. It should be enough to cover the entire cookie but the almonds should not overlap too much.
- Bake your cookies for about 35 minutes.
- Let them cool off a little and enjoy!
Good to know
- Storing: Make sure to store your cookies in an airtight container if you are not eating all of them right away. For crunchy cookies; a cookie tin is the best way to store your cookies. For soft cookies; keep them in an airtight container to keep your cookies soft and moist.
- Shelf Life: The cookies will stay good for over two weeks if stored correctly. If you like, you can store them in the refrigerator but make sure to take them out in time so they can return to room temperature before serving.
- Freezing: You can freeze the raw cookie dough wrapped in food wrap and stored in a resealable freezer bag or airtight container for several weeks if you do not want to bake the cookies right away. Let the dough defrost before you bake your cookies.
- Adding dry ingredients: If you have the patience, it pays off to sieve the dry ingredients while you are adding them. It will ensure you do not end up with lumps in your dough.
- Using Eggs: Make sure your eggs are still good before you use them. How? [Check out my article!]
- Sugar: Depending on if you use dark or light muscovado sugar, the colour of the Speculaasjes will differ. I recommend you use the dark muscovado sugar.
- Tip: Because there are no eggs in the dough itself, it is perfectly safe to snack on it while you are baking!
- Organic: To make this recipe organic, only use organic ingredients.
- Lactose-Free: Replace milk with almond milk, and use lactose-free butter.
- Nut-Free: If you want to make this recipe nut-free? Just leave the almonds out, the Speculaasjes are also delicious without them!
Nutritional Information per Portion
Know What You Eat
Both when buying food or when making your own, it is important to inform yourself about the nutritional value. Have a look at the nutrition label, learn about your serving size and what nutrients this product will bring to the table.
If you want to compare different products and their values, it is easier to look at a label where the values are given per 100 grams. This way you get a better understanding of the categories certain products belong to when it comes to nutritional values. Is this a product with a high sugar content? Does it contain a lot of fibre? How does this product measure up if I am looking to stick to a low-sodium diet?
Keep in mind that if you are looking to eat healthily, you should not just avoid eating fat and/or sugar. We need both in our daily diet. Make sure however to be aware of where you get your lipids and sugars from. As a rule of thumb, you could say; variation is very important in your diet and in general, the closer your food is to come straight from the source, the better.
If you want to read more about healthy food choices, check out my article [Healthy Food Choices]. Truthful Food also has a continuously growing article category solely focusing on specific ingredients and nutrients for everyone who wants to take a closer look at what you can find in your food.
*All given nutritional information is an indication. Due to differences in how ingredients are produced, where they are purchased and how the recipe is prepared, nutritional values may vary.
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