Speculaas has to be one of my all time favorite spices to bake with. It has just the right balance of spices to sweetness and the pastries such as cookies and gevulde speculaas are out of this world in my book. With a warm cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, speculaas is exactly what a chilly fall or winter day calls for.
Speculaas flavored desserts are always something we have filled our suitcases with or had family bring over when they visit and quickly became something I wanted to be able to replicate here, fresh, using ingredients I can find at any grocery store. Over the last three or four years, I have been working on my own speculaas spice blend to balance all the flavors, source the spices, and then taste test it with focus groups. Those poor people, they really suffered though it hahaha.
But what is speculaas? Speculaas is a blend of spices very similar to pumpkin spice here in America. Sweet but spicy cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger are the most dominant flavors in speculaas; some family recipies will include hints of orange or anise to theirs, others a little pepper. These spices were common in the 1600–1700s due to the Dutch East Indies spice trade. These days you can more easily buy it online or make your own using one of hundreds of recipes found on the internet.
With a spice blend I was happy with, my next focus became working on recipes that are our most sought after treats, the most popular with expats, and ones that are hard to find freshly made instead of imported and mass produced by big box stores. I now use my speculaas spice in things such as cookies, kruidenoten, cakes, and even decorative luminaries. It's fun to take typical American recipes and add the Sammsterdam touch by incorporating a little speculaas to them.
Give a Baker a Cookie (form)..
I had purchased wooden cookie forms from A Touch of Dutch one winter and that inspired me to start experimenting with speculaas cookie recipes. My mom had picked up one at an antique shop in Roermond one year as well that I wanted to try.
As always, I started by searching the internet for recipes that looked like ones I could find the ingredients for here easily as well as have the elements of the cookie I was looking to make; crisp, holds the shape from the mold, and tastes good. Surprisingly, it was harder than I expected. Some recipes were better for getting out of the mold but didn't bake nice, others didn't have enough flavor, and none had the texture I was looking for.
At this point, I turned to baking science and researched how each ingredient influences the process and final product and started changing elements of recipes one at a time. After two years, I finally had the cookie I was looking for; it rolls out for shapes, it bakes crisp, and it isn't overly sweet but not too spicy either. I had to concede using the wooden molds because they are very time consuming for a bakery product that I'd sell. I'll still use them for friends and family.
I sell these cookies in the fall and winter when they are most popular with a cup of coffee or tea. I started making gift package sizes when I saw that people were giving them to teachers, bus drivers, or neighbors for the holidays. I invested in custom cookie cutters and even made luminaries one year which smell wonderful on the mantle. Speculaas cookies are available almost every week in my online bake shop.
Gevulde Speculaas
Gevulde speculaas is a softer speculaas spiced pastry baked with a layer of homemade almond paste in the middle and topped with almond slices. It is rich and dense; you just need a small piece to get that warm and fuzzy feeling inside on a cold winter day.
Gevulde speculaas is hands down, my favorite winter baked good. The house smells amazing all day after baking them, they are soft on the inside and firm on the edges and the almond filling, yes please! It is quickly becoming a top seller in my web shop, especially around the time Sinterklaas is coming to town. Each one is handcrafted and baked from scratch so that means it's filled with extra love just for you.
I've been baking and selling gevulde speculaas for many years now, each season working on the pastry, the filling, uniformity, and the presentation. Last year it all came together and the positive feedback has been overwhelming ever since. Want to try it yourself? It's a seasonal item in the Sammsterdam bake shop or you can special order one any time.
More Speculaas Favorites
I love to incorporate speculaas wherever I can; it's my pumpkin spice if you will. I bake it into cakes, use speculaas cookies as embellishments, mixed the spices into fillings, made traditional pepernoten with my son for Sinterklaas, bake slabs of thicker cookies to break apart and nibble on, use it in taai taai cookies, and this year plan on introducing my very own rendition of a seasonal tompouce....using speculaas cookies instead of puffed pastry of course!
A Classic and Traditional Flavor
So there you have it, some of the many ways I love to incorporate my own speculaas spices into my handmade pastries. What is your favorite treat this time of year? Let me know in the comments below!