Speculoos Cookies

by Jessica

My taste tester agrees: These cookies are popular with people of all ages…

But seriously, everyone loved these cookies. They were actually mad that they were so teeny and  only gave them one each. Why take the time to bake all these cookies just to take them away from us and make a cookie spread, they asked? Well, the reason I even baked these cookies was so that I could make ice cream out of them. That’s right, it’s summer, and the ice cream maker is on duty!

What is speculoos? It’s a Belgian cookie. There is a waffle truck here in NYC called Wafels and Dinges; I think dinges roughly translates to toppings? But I’m too lazy to look it up. Anyway, they’re famous for their speculoos spread, and since it’s not kosher, I wanted to give it the Kosher Foodie treatment for the blog. To make speculoos spread, you need to first make speculoos cookies…

But seriously, you can make them to just eat plain. They’re tiny and delicious.

This post is one of a series. Stay tuned for the upcoming posts on speculoos spread and speculoos ice cream.


Speculoos/Spekulaas Cookies, adapted from Dorie Greenspan:

Ingredients:

  • 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 (packed) cup light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature

Directions:

1. Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices together in a bowl.

2. In your stand mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 5 minutes

3. Add the sugars and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes.

4. Add the egg and continue to beat until blended.

5. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until the flour is incorporated.

6. Using your hands or a spatula, reach into the bowl and knead or stir the dough 2 or 3 times, just enough to get rid of any dry spots, clumps, or flour at the bottom of the bowl.

7. Divide the dough in half. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, roll the dough between two sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap until you have a circle that’s about ¼ inch thick. As you’re rolling, turn the dough over a couple of times and pull away the paper or plastic, so you don’t have rolling creases in the dough.

8. Put the rolled-out rounds of dough on a cutting board (so they stay flat!) and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days)

9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

10. Remove one circle of dough from the fridge. Peel off the top piece of wax paper or plastic and cut out as many cookies as you can from the dough, carefully lifting the cutouts onto the lined baking sheet. I used a teeny “doughnut hole sized” cookie cutter. Use a 1/2-1 inch one. Collect the scraps and set them aside to combine with the scraps from the second piece of dough.

11. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until they are lightly golden and brown around the edges.  Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack until completely cool.

12. Repeat with the second round of dough, making certain the baking sheet is cool before you put the cutouts on it.

13. Repeat with the scraps from both circles, making sure to refrigerate them before cutting.