Homemade speculaas cookies are always the first cookies we make at the start of the holiday season each year. Everyone adores them! They are thin, crispy, crunchy, and so fragrant that they go excellent with the morning coffee or tea. I often make extra tea just to have an excuse to eat them again.
HOW TO MAKE SPECULAAS
Speculaas cookies are relatively easy to make despite my quite long recipe. Once you read the recipe, you’ll see that there is not much to it. Mostly I write about some tips & tricks which might help you in the process. Just to reiterate, here are vital things to watch out for:
- All the ingredients should be at room temperature.
- Cream the butter and sugar at a very slow speed. This ensures that not much air is added to the mixture, as this air will expand the cookies when they bake. Since these are crispy cookies and should retain their shape, this is important.
- Properly chill the dough before rolling: this will help with the rolling process as the dough will not stick to your work surface much (with a little help of flour). Also, it will be much easier to cut the cookies in the desired shape. Finally, and most importantly, the butter will harden, which will ensure the cookies will turn out great.
- Properly chill the dough before baking: This is crucial! If the dough is soft, i.e., the butter has not hardened, the cookies will spread in the oven as they bake. This will also impair the taste of the baked cookie.
The traditional way of making speculaas cookies is using wooden molds or boards. Sadly, I don’t have any, so I usually opt for a classic round ribbed shape cookie cutter and then top them with some chopped nuts. Almonds and pistachios are my go-to nuts for the holiday season.
STORING THE HOMEMADE SPECULAAS COOKIES
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for several weeks.
Make sure you don’t mix speculaas with other holiday cookies as they might absorb some of the moisture and flavor from other cookies. This will impact the crunchiness and the taste of the speculaas.
SPECULAAS AS GIFTS
These cookies are great as gifts since they hold quite well. Place them in a cookie bag or a jar, wrap the bag/jar with twine or a holiday string, include a little note and you are all set.
Homemade speculaas cookies
Speculaas are the perfect holiday cookie with the crispy, crunchy, and fragrant structure that is perfect for afternoon nibble as well as quick "breakfast" with milk or coffee. Topping the cookies with almonds and pistachios elevates them to another level.
Calories: 68.2 kcal
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Equipment & Tools
- Stand mixer
- Kitchen scale
- Cookie baking trays 3x + parchment paper 3x
- Cookie-cutter 5cm (2in) in diameter
- Cooling rack 2x
- Stainless steel spatula, small
- Food processor (optional; for almond flour – see Note 1)
INGREDIENTS
Wet ingredients
- 135 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 75 g light brown sugar
- 65 g unrefined sugar (superfine)
- ¼ tsp orange zest (about ¼ of one large orange, organic)
- ¼ tsp lemon zest (about ½ lemon, organic)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract (Nielsen-Massey)
- 1 egg (free-range; room temperature)
Dry ingredients
- 250 g all-purpose flour (organic)
- 75 g almond flour (finely ground (Note 1))
- 1½ tsp cinnamon (ground, Ceylon)
- ½ tsp cardamom (freshly ground)
- ¼ tsp cloves (ground)
- ¼ tsp ginger (ground)
- ¼ tsp nutmeg (freshly ground)
- 1 tsp baking powder (aluminum-free)
- pinch kosher salt
Optional – toppings
- 1 tbsp egg whites (for brushing; room temperature)
- almond slices
- almonds chopped
- pistachio chopped (raw)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Gather all the ingredients.
Preparation
- In a mixing bowl add light brown sugar, unrefined sugar, and the zest of orange and lemon. Mix well with a whisk until evenly distributed, breaking any lumps in the brown sugar. Set aside
- Check how fine your almond flour is (see Note 1).In a separate bowl sift the all-purpose flour. Add the almond flour, baking powder, salt, and all the spices. Mix well with a whisk until all the ingredients are evenly distributed. Set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together the egg and vanilla extract. Set aside.
Mixing the cookie dough
- Cream the butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for a quarter of a minute on low speed (2 on KitchenAid). Scrape the sides and the paddle attachment as needed.
- Continuing to mix on low speed and add the sugar mixture in quarters. Mix until the butter and sugar are properly creamed, i.e. the structure is uniform.
- Continuing to mix on low speed and add the egg and vanilla mixture. (Note 2)
- Continuing to mix on low speed add the dry ingredients in increments; ¼ of the dry ingredients then mix for 5 revolutions and then add the second ¼, and so on. Mix on low speed until the bowl is clean and the dough comes together in one cohesive mass.
Chilling & Resting the dough
- Take the cookie dough from the mixing bowl and place it on a clean, lightly floured working surface. With your hands form a disc from the dough and wrap it in a plastic wrap or place in a ziplock bag.
- Place the wrapped dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Rolling the dough
- Slightly flour the working surface and the dough (Note 3).(optional) If the dough has been chilled overnight, leave it on the working surface for 15 minutes before starting to roll the dough.Gently roll the dough, from the center outwards, until it is around 3mm thick (Note 4).
- Using the cookie cutter, cut out the desired shapes (Note 5).
- Using the stainless steel spatula carefully lift the cutout cookie and place it on the baking sheet. The cookies on the baking sheet should be about 1.5cm apart (Note 6)Continue until all the cookie dough is rolled out and the cookies are cut. Re-shape and re-roll the cookie dough as needed (Note 7).
- Place the baking sheet in the fridge for at least 1 hour or 15 minutes in the freezer, to chill the cookies (Note 8)
- Preheat the oven to 175°C (347°F) while the cookies are chilling.
Baking
- Once chilled, lightly brush the cookies with the egg white and top them with your choice of nuts. (Note 9)
- Bake for 6 minutes, turn the baking sheet (front to back / back to front) and bake for another 9 minutes (Note 10).
- Carefully transfer the baked cookies from the baking sheet to the cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
NOTES
- Almond flour should be finely ground, having a texture similar to the almond flour used for french macarons. The best way to test is to rub some almond flour between your fingers. If you feel there are small bits of almond, you need to process the almond flour in the food processor to make it finer in texture. The best way to do this is to process all-purpose flour and the almond flour together until the mixture is fine enough so that there are no small bits of almond present. It is essential to process the almond flour with the all-purpose flour so that the all-purpose flour keeps the whole mixture dry enough and ensures nice distribution of almond flour while pulsing. If you would process just the almond flour by itself, it can happen, if overprocessed, that you end up with the almond butter. Once you are satisfied with the structure of your almond flour, you can add all the remaining dry ingredients to the food processor and pulse until all are nicely mixed and evenly distributed.
- When the eggs are added, the dough can separate. This is normal. Continue mixing on low speed until it comes back together. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Note that the mixture will be more liquid than previously, but it should not separate.
- After you flour the dough, run your hand over the dough to distribute the flour evenly over the surface removing and flour patches on the dough.
- When rolling the dough don’t put a lot of pressure on it as it will crack. Check that the dough is not sticking to the working surface. If it is, use the bench scraper to lift the dough up and flour the surface underneath the dough. Just make sure not to add too much flour as it will remain on the cookie once it is baked. Note that properly cooled dough will stick much less to the surface.
- To prevent the cookie-cutter from getting stuck to the dough dip it into the flour, shake it off, and then cut out the cookies. If there is residual flour on the cookies, use a clean brush to dust the flour off.
- These cookies don’t spread (if properly chilled) but they still need space between them when they bake so that the moisture from the cookies themselves are released faster, making them nice and crispy.
- If the dough gets too warm, place it in the fridge for 15-30 minutes to firm up. In total 3 baking sheets (medium size) are used.
- Note that the times provided depend on the temperature of your fridge. Once properly chilled the cookies are very firm. Since these are holiday cookies and are baked in December I usually place the baking sheet on the balcony and cover them with a clean kitchen towel. This works since it is 3°C (37°F) outside. It really doesn’t matter how you chill the cookies as long as they are chilled.
- Don’t beat the egg white since it will get all bubbly and we don’t want bubbles on the cookies. The egg white simply acts as glue for the toppings.
- Bake the cookies in one layer, i.e one baking sheet per bake.
Did you make this recipe? I would love to see!Tag @itacdonev and hashtag #aifoodieland on instagram!
Nutrition Facts
Homemade speculaas cookies
Serving Size
1 cookie
Amount per Serving
Calories
68.2
% Daily Value*
Fat
3.6
g
6
%
Saturated Fat
1.7
g
11
%
Trans Fat
0.1
g
Polyunsaturated Fat
0.1
g
Monounsaturated Fat
0.7
g
Cholesterol
10.6
mg
4
%
Sodium
12.9
mg
1
%
Potassium
12.1
mg
0
%
Carbohydrates
8.2
g
3
%
Fiber
0.4
g
2
%
Sugar
3.3
g
4
%
Protein
1.2
g
2
%
Vitamin A
84.3
IU
2
%
Vitamin C
0.1
mg
0
%
Calcium
13.7
mg
1
%
Iron
0.4
mg
2
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. Substituting any ingredients may change the shown nutrition information.
