It's almost December. In my household, this means the holiday baking commences and I've started to look for a few new favorites to add to the usual round-up of gingerbread men, jam thumbprints, and chocolate crinkles.
This year, the new cookies on the block are the speculaas. They're a rather flat, lightly spiced cookie (think cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and cardamom) with a traditional imprint marking one side. Usually a springerle mold is used and the soft, buttery dough is pressed into the mold and lightly lifted out to leave behind the often intricate detail. History has it that men would actually carve their own wooden molds using an image of their profession and then give the cookies to the father of the girl he was interested in marrying. There's nothing like a cookie with a nice historical tradition, and even better: a cookie that's easy to whip up that will make the house smell heavenly. I'm sold already.
Related: Molasses Spice Cookies with Orange Sugar
(Image: Martha Stewart and Flickr via zoyachubby)
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My favorite is "gevulde speculaas" this is a soft, sweet cake-like cookie flavored with the same speculaas spices and filled with a soft, sweet almond paste. This is also made in large sheets and then cut into squares like a brownie.
I grew up making speculaas with my Dutch mother. When I was a kid, I could never quite get the cookie name right and called them "speculitis"-- it is now a cute family joke that continues years later.
I love making holiday cookies, but my favorite are almond flavored sugar cookies!
I wanted to make speculaas last year but the wooden molds are so expensive! Any source for cheaper ones?
I make a lot of cookies year round - the ones from Martha's Food magazine cookie specials a couple of years back have been great.
I have this old wooden rolling pin that's carved with similar designs. Maybe this is what its for? Roll it over the dough and cut it out?
Oh and there is speculaas creme!! Which is of a peanut butter like consistency, and made from these cookies (and a great deal of fat i assume). Its sold mostly in Europe and is crazy addictive.
@ matt: your rolling pin is probably a version of a springerle mold, where you roll out the dough (with a regular pin), then roll the molded pin over it. You can trim the edges off, bake the cookies as a sheet, and then cut them up; or you can gently cut them apart first. I think the first way works better. I've also found that I have to be careful about the fat (butter, etc.) when using these molds because too much fat softens the details of the design during baking. (I think this is the reason... anyone else?)
I would have to say that being half German it would be the Springerle cookies and also the Spanish Wedding cookies. One of my favorite memories of this time of year would be my parents making the Springerle cookies using boards that came with my great-grandparents from Germany when then immigrated to the U.S.
I'll have to try the recipe for Speculaas now and see how they compare to the Springerles.
@ Rachiebob80: When we make Springerle cookies the recipe would call that the cookies wait at least overnight before being baked. Letting them set out dries out the cookies a little bit and helps firming up the details on the cookies.
Wonder why Martha is telling people to use springerle molds for speculaas? The mold on the right is actually a real speculaas mold; the two are quite different...
awww....over Thanksgiving my sister and I went through my grandmother's recipe box with her. My prized picks from the box are the copies of my great-grandfather's Speculaas recipe. He had a bakery in Belgium and then Illinois. I've never made them myself, but am so happy to have one of his recipes in my hands now. His recipe just says to slice and bake, so I'll try that before I buy wooden blocks.
If that's the cake, I'd really like my Dad to get some Jewish Doctor cookies sometime soon... ;)
My husband moved here from Holland about five years ago, and these are some of his favorite cookies. If I don't watch him, he'll eat an entire batch the same day I bake them!