Note the spelling; speculaas, not speculoos. I'm not sure, but the -aas version is Dutch, and -oos Belgian. I could look it up...
Anyway, my mother was Dutch, and speculaas biscuits, (along with Droste chocolate letters, and Haagsche Hopjes, and hagelslag, and gestampte muisjes, katjes, and zouthout) were a favourite feature of Christmas.
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| Hopjes |
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| Zouthout |
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| gestampe muisjes |
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| Hagelslag |
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| katjes |
I haven't been able to buy the right ones in England. We relied on packets brought over by relatives, along with little sachets of the spice mix.
Most of the biscuits in the supermarkets are too crisp and snappy. I remember it as being more buttery, with a tendency to create crumbs, like thin shortbread in texture, with flaked almonds pressed into the base.
Today I have attempted Nigella's speculaas recipe. I fell at step one; making the speculaas spice mixture. You have to make up what amounts to a spice jar full, in order to have the right combination. The rest can be stored forthe bext batch of biscuits. The first ingredient is 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. The cinnamon jar was empty. In my search I discovered 3 jars of nutmeg, 4 of ground ginger, 3 of garlic powder, and 4 of mixed spice. Perhaps I've been over buying!
There was also a sachet of premixed speculaas which I bought a couple of years ago. The mix is wrong, but I used it anyway.
Second hurdle... I was going to make half quantities. I don't know what I was thinking of, but somehow I decided that half of 100g was 150g. (Yes, really. And me with a maths degree 'all.) I had combined 150g of butter and light brown sugar before I had a rethink...
Complicated ponderings ensued and eventually I removed 200g of the creamed butter and sugar and things then went on more or less to plan. I've now got the dough chilling overnight 'to let the flavours develop'.
Now for the 200g butter and sugar... I had half an egg left over, which weighed 26g, so I added another egg, and 100g SR flour and cocoa powder, mixed that in and vaked it as a cake (fingers crossed.
So, I can tick off 'make biscuits' from the scavenger hunt, and add cinnamon to the shopping list.
You should have seen the state of the kitchen after all that! All washed up now though.
OO is the Belgian biscuit [MIL was Flemish] I love them!
ReplyDeleteI knew you'd know. I like speculoos, I LOVE speculaas.
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DeleteOoh, kitchen arithmetic! I have a graduate degree in a quantitative discipline, and somehow flubbed trying to scale up my brother-in-law's perfect porridge recipe this morning. (Fortunately I noticed it wasn't behaving as planned, and managed a sort-of correction.)
ReplyDeleteMy excuse is that there were almost no numbers, and hardly any arithmetic in the Maths degree. I also discovered I was rubbish at proper mathematics, which was a bit of a problem...
DeleteWe have a lovely little Dutch deli that carries all kinds of imported yummies. I've had the Speculaas and they were good.
ReplyDeleteI am so envious!
DeleteThe things we used to have always tasted better than the things we can get today, even supposing we can acquire them. Anyway, your kitchen ventures sound fun and I'm sure the results will be mouthwatering.
ReplyDeleteMemory, Memory... the good ones are hard to recreate. Time changes our view on things ( lovehearts, candyfloss pineapple chunks, ugh! I've grown out of those!)
DeleteThis reminds me of a friend who set out to make an Apple cake. The bag of sultanas turned out to be a bag of prunes, and the butter was a 'Light' variety. It didnt work too well!
ReplyDeleteOh dear... there comes a point when there are too many substitutions and incidents along the way and disaster looms...!
DeleteIn Norway we also have "Spekulasjer"! I have not tasted them, they are most common in Western Norway and Bergen. The recipe came to Bergen from the Netherlands during the sailing ship era.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you will be able to find some one day, they are so delicious 😋
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