Speculaas Cookies
- Comments()
Martha Stewart Living, December 2008
- Yield Makes about 32 cookies
Add to Shopping List
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground mace
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
- Pinch of ground cloves
- 6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- Confectioners' sugar, for surface
Directions
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, mace, white pepper, and cloves in a large bowl.
- Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in half the flour mixture. Beat in water, then remaining flour mixture. Shape into 3 disks. Pat each to a 1-inch thickness, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
-
Dust surface and springerle mold lightly with confectioners' sugar. Roll out dough to a 1/4- to 3/8-inch thickness (deeper molds will need thicker dough). Cut a piece of dough about the size of the mold. Press mold firmly into dough, flip over, and gently roll over dough with a rolling pin. Flip over, and press onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Using a knife, trim excess dough. Gently coax dough out of mold with fingertips and onto a baking sheet. Repeat, spacing cookies 1 inch apart, and placing same-size cookies on same sheet. Freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place 1 sheet of cookies in oven, and immediately reduce temperature to 250. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until cookies are set and just beginning to turn light gold around edges, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
I would love if JenRM would share her recipe. My husband is Dutch and I've been trying for 3 years to make a good speculaas!
Mayson, I think the "coriander" is a typo.
Speculaas is a favorite recipe in our house - especially around Christmas time. Being Dutch helps. :) I must say my mom's recipe is way better (and way easier) than this.
I have never made speculaas before and am unfamiliar with the ingredients. In the 2008 recipe (above) it calls from 3/4 t. of cardamom. Martha's 2001 speculaas version is mostly the same...except instead of the cardamom it calls for a t. of coriander. Can someone shed some light on this inconsistency? I'd love to try this spicy cookie, but I want to make sure I get it right. Thanks!
These cookies have an excellent taste. I too found the dough to be dry, so I added enough water to make the dough pliable. *NOTE* Next time I make these I would use less flour than the recipe calls for because I found them to have a slight 'floury' taste. Also, I noticed the colder the dough the better the impressions on the final cookies. I would suggest re-chilling the dough between re-rolling the scraps. These cookies are a lot of effort, but the taste is wonderful.
These cookies are a lot of effort for a very disappointing result. The dough is impossible to work with because it's so dry. Also, the cooking time recommended in the recipe is way too long. Mine were burned after 22 minutes. I would like advice on what to do with such dry dough and also how to get defined images in the pressed cookies.
Ours was dry too, so we added a little more water so it would form a ball. Sometimes the amount of liquid varies based on the moisture present in your flour. I thought the resulting color of cookies was a lot lighter than pictured.
There's so little liquid in this recipe, I found it very challenging to form a ball after mixing the dough. When I took it out of the refrigerator and tried to roll it, it just cracked and flaked apart and was unusable. I wish the instructions would give some tips for how to handle such a dry dough.
You could probably find the molds at a Dutch goods store. Just Google it with the name of your city and see if you can find one. My Mom has these molds hanging in her kitchen as a decoration, so I had her bring it with her for the holidays -- and we are making the cookies today.
I immediately ordered the wooden forms Martha used, all of them, from houseonthehill.net. To this day I've received them all, as of yesterday the 2nd part of my order, and 2 are still not here. I've been ordering from them for 2 yrs. now. I called them and she said they were overloaded with orders since Martha had them on the show....good luck trying to get before Christmas...
Martha's Org.,
I'm so glad you included this cookie in your list this year. It is a little more effort but are so beautiful finished. I've had this cookie recipie since the late 60's or 70's from a magazine that is no longer in publication. I think using a plain cookie cutter would work well, one would just not have the dimension that the regular way does. Happy Holidays
Where can I buy the molds for these cookies locally
try houseonthehil.net for cookie molds
Is it possible to make these, just as cookies to cut out with cutters? I'm going to try it, but it says nowhere on here or in the magazine if it's possible to treat this as a regular cookie dough.
These sound good. I inherited my Grandmother's springerle molds and have always made springerles but these sound good and I am glad that I could use them for this recipe. My Grandmother was from Germany and her brother hand carved the molds so they are very precious.
I would like to know where I could puchase these molds?
Yes these are cookies from Holland!, and I am so proud to find the recipe here on Martha Stewarts site!!!
I will make them and let you know if they taste like back home.
What'a wrong with the name?? It's Dutch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculaas
These are delicious - I bought speculaas spice mix in The Netherlands last year. I wish I had bought the molds, too.
These sound delicious, but I have to say that this is the worst name for a cookie. Ever. I bet Alexis and Jennifer would have a good time with this one. :)
You can also find springerle molds at Sur La Table.
Amazon has a lot. Just do a search there ;)
In the magazine (Martha Stewart Living) they show this as the source for springerle molds: http://www.houseonthehill.net/ (House on the Hill). They do have a wonderful selection. Rather spendy however! I found a little wooden plaque at a yard sale! And I have a wooden rolling pin with designs embossed in it as well from Cost Plus World Market a few years back. I will try both for 1st time this year.
Where can i find a springerle mold?
i have an embossed rolling pin and tried this one year; then cut them apart. i don't have springerle molds..turned out ok by dusting the pin a bit before rolling. i think next time id use xxx sugar to dust pin instead of flour.