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Speculaas cookies

Speculaas is an iconic Dutch holiday cookie; crispy, thin and spiced with speculaas spice, a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, anise, cloves and a tiny bit of white pepper.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
resting time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings: 12 cookies
Course: Cookies
Cuisine: Dutch
Calories: 65
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 200 gr spelt flour (or sub regular all purpose flour or even white whole wheat flour)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 110 gr coconut sugar (or use light brown sugar)
  • a pinch salt
  • 1½-2 tbsp speculaas spice* (speculaas spice= 1x ginger, 8x cinnamon, 2x nutmeg, 2x cloves, ⅓x anise, ⅓x cardamom, pinch of white pepper) (see link in Notes for detailed recipe)
  • 20 ml milk (I used unsweetened almond milk. Other (nut)milk varieties work as well)
  • 1 tbsp (apple cider) vinegar
  • 80 gr (vegan) butter
  • 1 handful sliced almonds (optional, for decoration)

Equipment

  • Rolling pin
  • Optional: cookie cutter

Method
 

  1. Mix all dry ingredients together.
  2. In a separate bowl mix all wet ingredients together.
  3. Now combine the 2 mixes and form into a somewhat sticky dough ball.
  4. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to harden a bit. This makes the dough easier to handle.
  5. In the meantime preheat oven to 170C/340F.
  6. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin. The thinner the crispier your cookies will become. I go for more or less 1/3 of an inch. If you want to add sliced almonds, the easiest way is to spread sliced almonds on parchment paper and place the rolled out dough on top of it and press slightly so the almonds stick to the bottom op the dough.
    If you are using a cookie cutter I would say don't go as thin as 1/3 inch, but keep it at 1/2 inch otherwise it might be hard to transfer your cookies to a baking tin.
    If not, roll out the dough on parchment paper or a (silicon) baking mat. This way you don't have to transfer it after you have rolled it out. 
  7. Bake for 12-14 minutes until crispy. Let them cool off completely, they will get even crispier when cooling off! Enjoy!
  8. Store them in a glass airtight container to keep them crispy. I guess you can keep them for a couple of days. Not sure though, never got the chance to...

Notes

* speculaas spice blend
 
Nutritional information:
the information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice.