Spekulaas Biscuits

Wotchers!

A little over a year ago, I started this blog. July 1st to be exact.

In the last year, there’s been a lot of stories and baking adventures, experiments and giveaways. And over 270,000 peeks!

So in this anniversary post we have both a recipe and a giveaway to say thanks for all the visits.

The recipe I’ve chosen for this week is for some traditional Dutch biscuits flavoured with speculaas – a spice mix popular in December, but delicious enough to enjoy all the year. If you can’t get your hands on the ready-mixed spices, I’ve included a DIY recipe. I was lucky enough to find some old wooden biscuit forms in a thrift shop in Zwolle, but you can just roll and cut the dough to whatever shape you like.

The last time we were in The Netherlands, I picked up these little bits and bobs (metal cake tester, wooden Speculaas moulds, teaspoon cookie cutter, hang-on-a-cup heart cookie cutter and biscuit slice – invaluable for lifting warm biscuits from the baking sheet, because it’s WAFER thin!) at my favourite shop in Zwolle, Dille & Kamille. I’ve been saving them since December for this giveaway and I’ve also got (but not pictured) some genuine speculaas.

So that there’s as many winners as possible, each winner will get just one of the items on offer.  I’m not going to make any demands on you to jump through hoops to be in the running, no need to follow on Twitter or Like on Facebook (although it’d be great if you did!), just leave a comment detailing your order of preference for the above items, not forgetting the spice mix, by 9.00am on Wednesday 11th July, 2012.

Winners will be selected at random, and awarded a prize according to preference. If the first preference is not available, then I’ll look to the second, and so on.

This is just my way of saying thank you to everyone who took the time to pop by over the past year.

Speculaas Mix

You can choose how much or how little you wish to make, and use grams, teaspoons or tablespoons – or cups if you’re really keen! Freshly ground spices are more aromatic than store-bought, but go with what you’ve got.

4 parts cinnamon
1 part coriander
1 part nutmeg
1 part cloves
1 part allspice
1/2 part cardamom

Speculaas Biscuits (Speculaasjes)

200g self-raising flour
125g dark muscovado sugar
2 tbs speculaas spice mix
1 pinch salt
150g cold unsalted butter
1tbs milk

• Put all the ingredients into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade and blitz until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
• Add the milk and blitz again, until mixture comes together in a ball. Add a few drops more milk if this doesn’t happen.
• Wrap in cling film and chill for at least an hour.
• Heat oven to 175°C, 150°C Fan.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Roll out dough to about 5mm and cut into whatever shapes you please. If you’re using moulds, dust them each time with a mixture of 4 parts cornflour to 1 part cinnamon to prevent the dough from sticking to the mould. NB The dough gets warm quite quickly, so if it’s getting too soft to work with, pop it back in the fridge to chill.
• Chill the cut biscuits for 15 minutes before baking, to help them keep their shape.
• Bake in the middle/bottom of the oven for 20-30 minutes until firm. NB They will still be soft whilst warm, so be careful when removing them from the baking sheet.
• Cool on a wire rack.