Speculaas (Dutch Spiced Sinterklaas Cookies)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Carved speculaasplank (wooden cookie mold)
• •Baking sheets
• •Parchment paper
• •Spice grinder or mortar
• •Thin knife or bench scraper

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the spices

   Stir the cinnamon, mace, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, white pepper, and cardamom together in a small bowl. This is speculaaskruiden, the Dutch spice blend, and the white pepper is not a prank; it gives the sweetness a quiet heat at the back of the mouth.

   Grind whole cloves, mace, and nutmeg if you can. The supermarket jar is serviceable, but fresh spice is the difference between a brown cookie and a December kitchen.
2. 2

   Make the dough

   Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spice blend in a large bowl and whisk until the sugar is evenly broken through the flour. Rub in the cold butter with your fingertips until the mixture looks like damp sand, then add 2 tablespoons of cold milk. Press the dough together with your hands. Add the last tablespoon of milk only if dry flour remains at the bottom of the bowl.

3. 3

   Rest it cold

   Flatten the dough into a thick disk, wrap it, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. This rest is doing real work: the sugar hydrates, the spices settle into the butter, and the dough firms enough to hold the carving from the mold.

4. 4

   Prepare the mold

   Heat the oven to 180C, or 170C fan, and line two baking sheets with parchment. Dust a speculaasplank lightly with flour, then knock out almost all of it; the flour should cling in the carving, not sit in white patches. Press chilled dough firmly into the mold, slice the back flush with a thin knife, and tap the cookie out onto the baking sheet.

   No mold is no scandal. Roll the dough 4mm thick, cut rectangles, and prick them once or twice with a fork. The story loses its picture, not its taste.
5. 5

   Bake the cookies

   Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the tray once, until the edges have darkened by one shade and the centers look set. They will still feel a little tender when hot. Leave them on the tray for 5 minutes, because butter and sugar need a moment to remember they are a cookie.

6. 6

   Cool and serve

   Move the speculaas to a rack and let them cool completely; they crisp as they cool. Serve with coffee, tea, or a glass of milk on Sinterklaas evening. Store them in a tin once fully cool, and the spice will deepen over the next day.

Chef Tips

• •Use dark basterdsuiker if you can find it. Its fine, moist crystals give speculaas the old Dutch bakery texture; dark muscovado is the honest substitute.
• •Do not skip the chill. A soft dough may taste right, but it will not keep the carved lines, and speculaas without its picture has lost half its argument.
• •If the mold sticks, clean it dry, dust again, and press in colder dough. Oil in the mold blurs the detail, and the whole point of a speculaasplank is the sharp little miracle of the print.
• •Bake one test cookie first if your mold is deep. Thin cookies may be done in 10 minutes; large figures can take 16. The edge colour tells you more than the clock.
• •Keep the finished cookies in a metal tin, not a plastic box. Plastic traps moisture and softens the snap under your teeth.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made 24 to 48 hours ahead and kept refrigerated; the spice flavour improves with the rest.
• •The dough freezes well for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before molding.
• •Baked speculaas keep for about 2 weeks in a tightly closed tin, and are often better on the second day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 small cookie (about 23g)